Communication

Citation Management

What is a citation manager?

A citation manager is a tool or program that helps you collect, organize, and create citations for your research in whatever format you prefer.  See the comparison of citation managers below to help you decide which one to use for your needs.

Why would I want to use one?

If you are doing an extensive research project and want to keep track of your citations, it is a good idea to use a citation manager because all your citations are in one place where you can:  

• organize citations by topic or assignment
• import citations from library databases or websites
• create a properly formatted bibliography or references page from a number of citation formats (e.g. MLA, APA, etc.)
• link to word processing programs to easily reference citations and insert footnotes or endnotes
• add notes for citations you have used or plan to use

They are particularly useful when you are researching an area where you know you will do further research down the road. If you plan to write many papers on a particular subject, a citation manager will keep all the information together for you.

Remind me, what are citations again?

When you write a research paper, you generally need to refer to any resources you used for information, whether these are published papers in peer-reviewed journals, websites, or interviews you conducted in person.  Citations describe what those resources are, including titles, authors, publication dates, journal titles, and other identifying information.  Citations often need to be in a particular format, such as MLA or APA.  This is dependent on the subject area or particular course that you are writing a paper for.

OneSearch is Eckerd Library's primary search tool that searches across many of our databases in a single interface.  It includes a simple citation management tool that easily saves and organizes citations you discover through OneSearch. 

Features:

• Generate citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, and many other formats
• Create folders to organize citations
• Download bibliographies for citations all at once

Resources:

• OneSearch FAQs
• How to create an account in OneSearch
• Logging into your OneSearch account

EndNote Web is a web-based citation management tool for organizing citations. 

Features:

• Keep track of your sources
• Keep your research together
• Manually enter citations
• Create an automatic reference list based on the citations you enter
• Cite While You Write plug-in for MS Word

Resources

• EndNote Basic Registration & Installation
• Importing Citations from OneSearch to EndNote

Zotero is a FREE citation tool that you add to your web browser, or use as a standalone application.

Key features:

• Add-on for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.
• Mac and PC compatible.
• Add items from websites, library catalog and databases, PDFs, audio, video, and image files.
• Export citations to MS Word, LibreOffice.
• Citation styles include MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, and many others.

Resources from Zotero's Documentation page

• Quick Start Guide
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Screencast Tutorials
• Forums

Mendeley is another free citation management tool.  It includes an online version, desktop version, and MS Word plugin for direct citations.

Features:

• User-friendly, standalone desktop version
• Ability to highlight and annotate stored PDFs  

Resources:

• Mendeley Support
• Videos, tips, and tricks

Need help deciding which citation tool to use?  The following table compares a number of excellent citation tools free to Eckerd students, faculty, and staff.  Choose the one that best fits your needs.

This is just a small subset of citation managers.  If you want to see the many, many other citation managers available out there, see this Wikipedia article.

NOTE: Automatic citation generators are a good place to get your citations properly formatted, but they are not always perfect.  Always review your citations to make sure they are consistent with recommended formats for your style.