Citation Management

What is citation management software?

• Citation management software can simplify preparing your paper, article, report, or grant.
• It stores citations in a database.
• It may be able to pull citations from a website or get them from a database.
• It can work with word processing software (Word, Pages, etc.) to help creat in-text citations and build the bibliography based on a citation style (APA, Chicago, JAMA, etc.).

What is available?

Faculty, staff, and students have several citation management software options. A few of the more common ones are listed below.

• EndNote - the University pays for a campus wide subscriptions to the desktop version for Mac and PC.  The online version (EndNote Basic) is available through the University Libraries subscription to Web of Science. An iOS app is available, but there currently is no app for Android devices.
• RefWorks - the University Libraries maintains a subscription to RefWorks.  RefWorks is an online only application that is mobile optimized.
• Zotero - is a free software that is available as a Firefox plugin or as a download to PC, Mac or Linux. First 300 MB of cloud storage is free. Additional storage for a fee.
• Mendeley - is owned by Elsevier, but is currently freely available with storage limits.  It has a client as well as iOS and Android apps.

The Medical Sciences Library offers in-person and online classes several times a year on using EndNote and RefWorks, see our MSL Workshop Calendar. You may also request one-on-one or small group instruction by emailing AskMSL. Most of our experience has been with EndNote and RefWorks, but we would be happy to help you with the other applications or point you to someone who can assist you.