Citation Management Software
When crafting arguments in legal writing, the strength of the argument is directly related to the strength of the referenced legal authority. Oftentimes the references are primary sources, the law itself. For example, a statute may clearly require an action; and to argue this action is necessary, referencing the statute itself would most strengthen the argument. To state an imperative without any legal authority is meritless.
One could also reference many other sources to support the necessary argument, however the unambiguous law is the main source of authority for legal arguments. Another type of primary legal authority is blackletter law, or well-established legal rules that are certain and no longer disputable. Although still a primary source, this legal authority is different in that it was revised over many years and established from many legal situations. Sometimes, when reasonable minds differ on the application or conclusion of a legal argument, a primary legal source may not have the strongest authority. In such situations, secondary sources could strengthen the argument. Secondary sources often summarize, interpret, analyze, or comment on the law, but they are not the law itself.
A skilled legal writer knows how and when to employ specific arguments to support their assertions. A skilled legal researcher knows how to find the best authorities, or which authorities best support those assertions. Necessary to both pursuits is the skill of crafting citations. When done correctly, the assertion plus the citation is one complete thought.
The purpose of a legal citation is threefold:
- To indicate that you are relying upon authority and its weight or persuasiveness;
- To identify the specific authority and sub-parts, using clear and space-saving language;
- To provide a way for the reader to locate a copy of the authority.
Unluckily for the legal profession, we have yet to come up with a simple, unified citation method that is intuitive and easy to learn. In my work of teaching legal research to 1Ls and supporting the student editors of the Wyoming Law Review, I’ve come to believe above is the definitive purpose of a legal citation. Writers use footnotes for A LOT more. In footnotes, writers editorialize, speculate, joke, provide further resources and elucidation, to name a few footnote activities. However, these are stylistic choices and not the purpose of a citation. Please let me know if you agree or not!
Learning how to read and interpret legal citations is hugely challenging for a lay-person. And training law students to correctly craft a citation is tedious and laborious. I’ve had mixed results with Procertas and Lexis citation training modules. I’d love to hear about people’s experiences with such platforms. Additionally, each jurisdiction has their own rules for writing style and citation method – which are often updated! To make matters worse, the legal profession is miles behind others by not having access to or not using citation management software. For example, my husband, an atmospheric scientist, for years has been seamlessly using software like LaTeX and Zotero for scholarly and technical writing, never having to craft his own citations. I want robots to accurately write (at least the majority) of my citations! It would be a relief to have more time to focus on other aspects of writing and teaching if I didn’t have to spend so much time reminding myself of arbitrary citation rules like within how many footnotes can I use a supra cite or when a case name italicized or not. Citations managers keep research organized and cut down on writing time. It was in this pursuit that I began using citation management software. Below I will discuss the two management software I use and teach: Zotero and PowerNotes.
Zotero
Zotero is free and open-source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials. It is available for Mac, Windows, Linus, and iOS. It has a huge community of support and many great features, including collaboration options, MS Word plugin, browser extension, and app (for Android now available for beta testing!). However, I don’t recommend this option for the non-tech savvy law person. If you’re unfamiliar with citation management and don’t consider yourself tech savvy, Zotero may be a bit too much for you. If you conduct most of your research in print materials, Zotero may not be for you. You’ll have to revise how you conduct research, incorporating Zotero at multiple steps, and spend time learning how to use the software, too.
Even saying all that, I still highly recommend Zotero to my academic colleagues. I use it for large-scale writing and research projects that I may pick up and put down over multiple months. It really keeps me organized so that I can seamlessly pick back up where I left off. As a librarian, I really like the “tags” field for each resource as it allows me to index resources with my own keywords, making my little repository of resources easier to sort later down the road. When writing, I use the Word plugin and keyboard shortcuts to insert citations directly into my document as I’m writing. The citations are close to accurate Bluebook, depending on how much metadata wrangling you’ve done in the Zotero app and which type of resource it is. If I’ve convinced you, here a good libguide to help with the set up: https://law-hawaii.libguides.com/TLC_Research_Writing/Zotero
PowerNotes
PowerNotes also captures and manages your resources while researching and writing, however the premium version is not free. PowerNotes is a bit easier to use though and doesn’t have a standalone program. Instead, most of your interaction with the program is through a browser extension. It is very intuitive when incorporating it into your research habits. Regardless of your experience with technology, you can use PowerNotes. It is not as robust as Zotero, but if you’re not writing anything more complex than an advanced writing requirement for law school, PowerNotes is more than sufficient. Prior to a research consult, a student can digitally share their annotated bibliographies with me and I can easily see exactly what they’ve researched and how they’re organizing their thoughts. With no metadata wrangling, PowerNotes bluebooks better than any other robot I know. Additionally, I’ve been super impressed while working with PowerNotes as a vendor.
Conclusion
I recommend incorporating a citation manager into your writing and research. Citation managers help you stay organized while researching, save time while writing, and aid in collaboration. Both Zotero and PowerNotes are excellent options, depending upon your needs and preferences. Comment below if you use a citation manager or have thoughts. Thanks!
