Citing Sources: Citation Management Tools

Zotero (pronounced "zoh-TAIR-oh") is an open-access, easy-to-use reference management tool that serves as your personal research assistant and helps you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. Zotero runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and iOS.

Zotero allows you to:

• Save references from library catalogs, research databases, and the Web.  
• Add PDFs, images, audio and video files, snapshots of web pages, and more.
• Write annotations and attach them to citations.
• Create bibliographies using most major citation styles.

​You will need to open the Zotero download page and install the browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.  You may also need to restart your browser before start working with Zotero. Create your Zotero account before starting your work so that nothing is lost. See the Zotero Start Guide for detailed information and instruction.

For more help with Zotero, see the tutorials below or go to Zotero Documentation for additional guides.

A few reasons to use Zotero

• Zotero is open source and cannot be acquired by a company.
• Zotero is the easiest method to gather citation records for non-PDF content.  
• Zotero's single-click capture works with more databases, catalogs, and websites than Mendeley's
• Enabling the retrieval of PDF metadata will allow generation of citation records just from dragging a PDF into Zotero.
• Up to 300 MB storage for the free version with additional storage available for a fee.

Zotero is a project of the Corporation for Digital Scholarship. It was created at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and was generously funded by the United States Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 

Beginner's Guide To Zotero

How to use Zotero's full potential and The AI revolution in Zotero

Mendeley Reference Manager is a free web and desktop reference management application from Elsevier. It helps you simplify your reference management workflow so you can focus on achieving your goals.

With Mendeley Reference Manager you can:

• Store, organize and search all your references from just one library.
• Seamlessly insert references and bibliographies into your Microsoft® Word documents using Mendeley Cite.
• Read, highlight and annotate PDFs, and keep all your thoughts across multiple documents in one place.
• Collaborate with others by sharing references and ideas.

Getting Started with Mendeley

Download Mendeley Reference Manager for Windows, Mac, and Linux

For additional help with Mendeley, visit their extensive Help Guides.

A few reasons to use Mendeley Reference Manager

• Mendeley has an integrated PDF viewer and can generate citation records just from importing a PDF file.
• Up to 2 GB storage for the free version with additional storage available for a fee, more space than Zotero.

Tutorial for Mendeley Reference Manager

Bibliographic/Citation Generators

Use these tools, but do so wisely! Many library databases will do at least some of the work of formatting citations for you. PLEASE BE AWARE that at times the citations are NOT presented in the correct format. There are often errors in capitalization and in the elements included. If you copy and paste this citation information into your paper, you MUST double-check the formatting with the appropriate citation style guide or the appropriate citation manual. The same goes for tools like EasyBib. The resulting product is only as good as the information that is provided AND there can still be errors.

Example from EasyBib in MLA:

Dieden, Sten, and Björn Gustafsson. “Child poverty in South Africa: An assessment based on Microdata for

1995.” International Journal of Social Welfare, vol. 12, no. 4, Oct. 2003, pp. 326–338, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-

9671.00287. 

The article title capitalization is incorrect and the "container" (database name) is missing! 

It should look like this:

Dieden, Sten, and Björn Gustafsson. “Child Poverty in South Africa: An Assessment Based on Microdata for

1995.” International Journal of Social Welfare, vol. 12, no. 4, Oct. 2003, pp. 326–38.

EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9671.00287.

Free Citation/Bibliographic Generators:

Citation Builder from North Carolina State University Libraries

KnightCite from the Hekman Library at Calvin College

ZoteroBib

Remember: ALWAYS double-check your references for proper formatting and information before submitting your work. The citation generators are not perfect!

EndNote is a popular and heavily used tool for academic research and writing. Unfortunately, it also comes with significant price tag. Supposedly there is a free version (EndNote Basic), but, of course, its features are limited. With two other excellent free options--Mendeley and Zotero--it is hardly worth pursuing the free version of EndNote. If you happen to have discounted access to EndNote, however, it may be worth it!