No matter the subject or discipline, your senior thesis is likely to require a literature review. This section can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be! Here are some resources to make the literature review less overwhelming.
Senior theses often have dozens of sources. Keeping track of them and their citations along the way will make the drafting and formatting stage less burdensome.
This Google Sheets Template for Source Tracking by Claremont College (save a copy before editing) is a free, simple tool. However, it is limited so it may not be suitable for everyone. Fortunately, there are several online citation managers.
Mendeley Reference: This software requires a free download. There are premium packages available in addition to the free version. There is also a free product available called Mendeley Cite that is an add-in for Microsoft Word.
Zotero: This is another free download. Zotero can work directly inside Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs.
The research phase of the senior project is immensely important. The resources that follow will point students to the library's offerings as well as provide direction to citation management tools and strategies for visualizing connections between the research. This page will also offer insight into how to properly write a literature review.