What are Citation Managers?
A Citation Management Tool is software that helps store, organize, and format citation information. It can generate reference lists, bibliographies, and in-text citations in various styles (e.g., APA, AMA) while you write within your word processing program (i.e. Word, Google Docs, etc ). Most tools also allow you to take notes / tag references, highlight and annotate saved PDFs, assist with annotated bibliographies, research organization, and more.
As with any tool, there are benefits and drawbacks to using citation management tools that you should consider:
Benefits:
- Allows users to store and organize citation information, bibliographies, etc.
- Allows for quick processing of bibliographies, in-text citations, etc.
Drawbacks:
- May contain errors--users still need to proofread and correct citation information, bibliographies, etc.
Watch this video to learn more about Citation Management Tools:
Commonly Used Citation Managers
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Zotero
Download both the standalone software and a browser plugin for free. Use your Chicago School email to get free unlimited storage.
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EndNote (basic version is free, from Clarivate)
EndNote comes in different versions: EndNote (desktop application, requires a one-time license purchase), EndNote Basic, and EndNote Online. Click
here to learn more.
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Mendeley (free, from Elsevier)
Download the free software to organize, annotate citations and PDFs. NOTE: if you downloaded Office 365 from The Chicago School, you will not be able to download the Word plug-in
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Paperpile (paid, subscription)
Use the browser extension and web app to gather citations from any webpage, organize them, automatically download PDFs, and annotate attached PDFs.
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Papers (paid, subscription)
Use the browser extension and web app to gather citations from any webpage, organize them, and annotate attached PDFs.