1. Bern University of Applied Sciences
  2. About BFH
  3. Locations + Facilities
  4. BFH Library
  5. Working with academic literature
See table of contents See table of contents

Working with academic literature

Both everyday studying and academic writing involve working with scientific literature.

Citation management with Zotero

Reference management programs can be used to record and organise bibliographic references, as well as to import them from library catalogues and specialist bibliographic databases.

Zotero is a reference management programme for collecting, managing and citing a wide variety of sources. With Zotero, you can import citations from swisscovery and subject databases, create and manage citation lists, and export them into text documents, for example in Word.

Discover in 90 minutes how to make optimum use of Zotero. The training course is provided online via MS Teams. Registration is via Moodle. Shortly before the course you will receive an e-mail with instructions and the MS Teams link for participation.

Dates

  • Monday, 24 August 2026. 4.30pm - 6pm (German)

  • Monday, 28 September 2026. 4.30pm - 6pm  (German)
  • Mittwoch, 21. Oktober 2026. 8.30am - 10am (German)
  • Friday, 13 November 2026. 1.00pm - 2.30pm (German) 
  • Wednesday, 16 December 2026. 8.30am - 10am (German)
  • Wednesday, 20 January 2027. 8.30am - 10am (German) 
  • Monday, 22 February 2027. 4.30pm - 6pm (German) 
  • Friday, 19 March 2027. 1.00pm - 2.30pm (German) 
  • Monday, 19 April 2027. 4.30pm - 6pm (German)
  • Wednesday, 26 May 2027. 8.30am - 10am (German) 
  • Friday 11 June 2027. 1pm - 2.30pm (German)

Moodle course on Zotero

None of our training dates fit your schedule? Or would you like to get started with literature management without a training course? In our Moodle course, you will find instructions (videos, etc.) and help, e.g. for migrating your literature collections from Citavi to Zotero.

eine Eule und das Zotero-Logo

Discipline-specific Citation + Documentation

Every discipline, and sometimes even an individual course of studies, has its own citation and documentation rules for scientific literature.

The Business School uses the Harvard citation style. Further information on this can be found in the Moodle course Hinweise schriftliche Arbeiten und Vorlage.

The HAFL has its own citation style, which is described in detail in the Practical Guide.

Instructions on how to set up the HAFL citation style in Zotero can be found in the Moodle course HAFL Library under the Reference Management section.

The School of Health Professions follows the citation guidelines set out in the American Psychological Association (APA) style, 7th edition. Guidance is available on the official website and in the printed reference work.

The IEEE citation style is primarily used in the School of Engineering and Computer Science Biel/Bienne. Relevant documents can be found in the Moodle-Kurs Biblio AHB-TI.

Information and guidance for students and continuing education participants at the School of Social Work on the guidelines for referencing and citing according to APA (7th edition): Moodle course

Academic writing

Writing is not a question of talent. Writing is a question of practice. Especially when it comes to writing scientific texts.

In the Moodle course Schreiben – écrire – writing you can find instruction in the art of academic writing and helpful suggestions for getting started with the writing process.