I’m putting finishing touches on Son of Citation Machine (SOCM) today. I’ve enjoyed using an eight year old computer, running Linux, to finish up the coding over the past few days, and reloading the citations, adding a few additional ones that have been requested over the months.
What’s new is the engine that drives SOCM. The citation descriptions are coming out of a database. This will make it much easier for me to make adjustments and to add additional sources that are consistently requested. There is a new suggestion link for this purpose. I have also included slightly more instructions for formatting than was in the original Citation Machine. This too, will likely require some tweaking.
My business manager and I (that is, my wife and I) have been struggling with ways to start seeing some return on the time and server costs that we are investing in SOCM, and two ideas have surfaced (sorry, no open source, Tom). One is Google Ads. I’ve been surprised at the income that the Education Podcast Network has generated through Google Ads. It’s only one night out for Brenda and I, each month, but EPN isn’t getting hit that much. So we’re going to give the service a try on SOCM as well as some other advertising options, understanding that a lot users are professionals and college students.
That said, the use of SOCM in K-12 schools is an entirely different matter. For this reason, there is a School Login link on the page. K-12 schools can click this link, register, and login. SOCM plants a cookie on the machine that immunes it to ads. I hope that this works out.
Finally, and we are still thinking over the logistics, is a subscription version of SOCM that would give a local administrator the ability to edit their citations. A school could add source types that are regularly used by it’s students, but not included in the tool. They would also be able to add entire formatting schemes, such as Harvard, or another one that I just heard of today in an e-mail suggestion.
This plan remains on the table for now. Commerce is a whole ‘nother bucket of worms.
So that’s it, and expect Son of Citation Machine to appear by Saturday, perhaps as early as sometime today.
Update at 9:57 AM, as a result of BrandSearch’s comment question
What is Citation Machine?
I am sorry. I assumed that all of my readers (all 17 of them) already knew what Citation Machine is. Dumb of me. I built the first version of Citation Machine in 2000 as a way to help teachers generate valid citations for their teaching materials, modeling the proper use of intellectual property. It has become quite popular among students and professionals as well, over the years, and Son of Citation Machine is the third major re-build. I’ve always strived to make it simple and quick, and not a tutorial.
You go to the site (http://citationmachine.net/), and click the citation format you want (MLA or APA), and then the source type you wish to cite (22 in MLA and 19 in APA, Print & Non-print). CM presents a web form that asks for the information that will be needed for the citation: author, title, publishing date, city, and company, date accessed, etc. Click the submit button, and the tool generates the appropriate bibliographic and in-text citations, that can be copied and pasted into the user’s word processor (or whatever).
Thanks for asking,
Can you elaborate on how this machine will be used?! Will it help students to cite the sources according to various citation formats?! I know that sometimes students are experiencing problems in citing the sources according to the appropriate standards. However, I guess that in most of the cases one has only tutors to blame. After all the content of the paper is much more important than citation of the sources according to the set formats; I have never been able to understand those tutors who attach too much importance to it.
Citation machine is incredible! My students used it heavily for their term papers that they turned in the end of March. I’ve been noticing that you’ve added other methods of citing.
It would be incredible if you could save your citations and have it generate the works cited, but I think I’m living in the clouds!
I don’t think folks mind Google Ads to recompense you for your hard work and great contribution!
I was just looking at SoCM and really like the new version!
I think the explanation for Subscription Database ‘in a library’ might make more sense ‘through a library website’.
Thanks for the School Login with no ads and the two servers
And the new sources! My kids (about 1,100 of them) saw CM every time I introduced bibliography over the last few years; I’m looking forward to continuing with SoCM.
Thank you so much for this valuable tool. I have used it myself in my continuing classwork as well as my use with students. It just feels like magic to press submit and tada…there is my source cited! T-riffic!