Citation tools help students and scholars to collect, manage and add references to their essays and articles. Juris-M is based on Zotero but it has been modified to specifically support legal writing and multilingual research. If you follow the steps in this blog you will learn how to use the reference management tool Juris-M.
Installing Juris-M
First, go to Zotero, register for an account. Then, go to the Juris-M Downloads Page and download the Juris-M Client Installler and the browser connector for your preferred browser.
UvA-employees with a laptop first, go to Zotero to register for an account. Then, go to Software center Start > Software maintenance > Software center. Search for Juris-M and install and install the browser connector.
Exercise 1 Adding items manually
- Click on the M logo in the taskbar to open Juris-M.
- In the left column, click on the New Collection icon and give this collection a name.
- Note that the new collection has been opened.
- Click on the new item icon in the middle column.
- Note the extensive list of types of items that can be added.
- Select Book.
- Enter the title, author, publisher and publication date:
Raymond Wacks, Understanding jurisprudence, Oxford University Press, 2021.
Exercise 2 Citing Web pages
- Go to the Blog of the Oxford Business Law Blog and look up the article "Sustainable Corporate Governance: The Role of the Law".
- Make sure Juris-M is open before attempting to save.
- When you are in the website, click on the Folder icon in the address bar.
- Click on Save to Juris-M as Web Page.
- Look at your Collection to confirm that the website url has been added.
Exercise 3 Search publications and case law in Google Scholar
On many sites, Juris-M will save a list of search results, e.g. Google Scholar. Suppose you are interested in abortion cases and you are looking at for the citation to Roe v. Wade. How do you handle that?
- Log in to Juris-M. Click on the folder icon next to the “My Library” icon in the top left column to create a new collection and name it Abortion Cases.
- Go to Google Scholar and search for Roe v. Wade. Click the “Save to Juris-M” folder icon at the right-end of the address bar and select the source references you want to save.
Exercise 4 Insert citations and create a bibliography
One of the most valuable uses of Juris-M is adding source references. For example, you can add source references to a text using the OSCOLA citation style.
- Click on the M logo in the taskbar or on the desktop to open Juris-M.
- You can choose the Citation Style you would like to use or add additional styles via Juris-M> Edit> Preferences> Cite> Get additional styles.
- Open a new Word document. Create a fake text, type =rand() press Enter and save the Word document.
- In Word, click on ZOTERO in the toolbar. Click on Document Preferences and select Citation Style: JM OSCOLA.
- Click on the Zotero add Citation icon. In the Z box, click the Classic View option. In the Add/Edit Citation window, highlight a citation to add as a reference; add the page number behind Page and click OK. Add two or three more source references in the same way.
- Place the cursor at the end of the text.
- Click on the Zotero Add / Edit Bibliography icon to add the bibliography.
More information
The use of Juris-M is supported by the Law Library. On this website of Harvard University you will find more information about how to use Juris-M.