As you proceed through your doctoral program, you will have class assignments and your dissertation work. Successfully completing these assignments and doctoral work requires locating and using a wide variety of information sources (periodical articles, books, book chapters, technical reports, web pages, web sites, etc. The challenge becomes what to do with all these sources so that you can keep straight what source goes with what project. Perhaps by now you have your own method of keeping your materials sorted and stored, but if not, a reference/citation management program will come in handy. There is a wide variety of these types of programs as accessing the Wikipedia Comparison of Reference Management Software will show. These programs search, sort, and store sources as well as create in text citations and references lists.
Two articles below provide information pertaining to reference/citation management software. There is also comparison information about these products as featured on comparison charts on other Library's library guides. Some commonly used programs include: Mendeley, Zotero, and EndNote Web. All of these programs are free to the user. There are many other programs available, and some may charge a fee. Here are some examples: Citavi, PERRLA. Take a tour of each site to see the features of which program meet your style and needs. The key is to select a program or method that you feel comfortable using.
Mendeley Desktop downloads will discontinue, Mendeley Reference Manager to replace long-term |
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From September 1, 2022, users will no longer be able to download and install Mendeley Desktop software. Existing users, who have already installed Mendeley Desktop, will continue to be able to sign into, use and sync their Mendeley Desktop.
Eventually, Mendeley Reference Manager will replace Mendeley Desktop. When we are confident that the new Mendeley Reference Manager sufficiently meets users' reference management needs, we will begin the process of stopping all sign-ins to Mendeley Desktop. Please note: we will provide you with plenty of notice before this happens.
To support user transition to Mendeley Reference Manager, please visit the Mendeley LibGuide and our support pages. |
Citation managers or reference managers provide an electronic platform (an electronic file cabinet) where the bibliographic information of sources such as books, book chapters, journal/magazine/newspaper articles, or websites can be stored. Once stored these sources can be manipulated in various ways to organize, add notes, share, and create in text citations and bibliographies. There are a multitude of these platforms available. For example, there is a Wikipedia Comparison of Reference Management Software - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software
What's the difference between a citation manager and a citation generator?
Citation generators are online tools that can generate a one-time use, single bibliography, works cited entry, or references list entry for you. There are two kinds of citation generators, those provided through library resources (like the catalog or the databases) and those provided through an outside website such as Citation Machine, KnightCite or EasyBib. Library tools will generate a citation for whichever item you are viewing, outside websites will require you to manually input the citation information yourself (author, title, publisher, etc.).
Citation managers, like Mendeley and Zotero, are software programs that help you keep track of your sources and create bibliographies or works cited lists in various citation styles. Many citation managers allow you to create folders to organize citations and keep your sources for different classes/projects separate. They are very helpful for staying organized, especially while doing multiple research papers for multiple classes. It is also often possible to share folders between users, which can assist with keeping everyone on the same page for group research projects.
Regardless of whether you're using a citation generator or a citation manager, automatically generated citations need to be double-checked for accuracy and completeness. Pay special attention to capitalization, punctuation, and author(s) names.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Many thanks to the Elihu Brritt Library (Central Connecticut State University Library) for allowing me to use this information.
Each Library Guide below has a comparison chart presenting features of each of the three programs - Mendeley, Zotero, EndNote web.
