Citation Managers

Citation Managers are applications or websites that store and organize citation information. This means that a researcher using a citation manager can quickly find the sources that they are using, and can easily create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles and even create accurate internal citations while writing research papers. 

Citation Managers can help you: 

• Cite in all major citation styles, with some specialized or custom styles
• Directly import from databases and the web
• Build bibliographies with a single click
• Cite using “cite while you write” Word integration
• May allow PDF attaching and annotating
• Allow you to share libraries or folders of citations with their researchers

Zotero: Easy to use, free, open-source program available for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers. Works well with websites and databases. You can download a plugin to use your library in Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Cloud version syncs to desktop version. Additional file storage available for purchase (300 MG for free). Has basic annotation tools and library-sharing with collaborators. Quick Start Guide is available. 

Mendeley: Social networking options combined with a citation manager. Share papers with other researchers and organizes your citations in a desktop or web-based program. Can import citations from library databases, and import papers to your library that were placed in Mendeley by other researchers. Provides tools to mark-up PDF files.

Program demo videos:

• Zotero Tutorial (from Cal Poly Pomona)
• Getting Started with Mendeley (from Mendeley)

Comparison charts:

• Zotero vs. Mendeley (University of Idaho)
• Comparison including RefWords, JabRef, Paperpile, Citavi, and Colwiz (Munich Entrepreneurial University)
• Comparison including other programs (Wikipedia)