Citation Management Software: Overview
Free Citation Management Tools: Which is best for me?
Citation management software is a great tool for research and writing:
| • Collect citations and save them in a personal account. | • Annotate citations and link them to full-text documents. | |
| • Automatically format citations to create a bibliography. | • Export citations from within databases without retyping. |
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Which Software is Best for My Needs? |
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How It Works |
BibMe is a free online tool that formats citations and allows users to save them in a free account.
Using Auto-fill, BibMe searches WorldCat for your source and populates the citation fields automatically for you.
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Mendeley software is available for free download to Windows, Mac, and iOS devices.
Mendeley is also available via a web-based interface that includes academic social networking and sharing of resources.
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Zotero's free citation software can be downloaded or used online with browser plugins.
Citations can be saved to your computer or synced online among multiple computers.
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How to Get It |
BibMe is available online at http://www.bibme.org/.
Getting started is a snap, with or without signing up for an account.
Enter a title in the search box and select a source from the results to add to your bibliography.
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Go to www.mendeley.com and click on Sign Up & Download. Web Importer draws documents and citations from 30+ databases. Or drag PDFs from your desktop to Mendeley to add to your library.
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Go to: www.zotero.org/download/. Download to Firefox or choose the stand-alone Word product with browser plug-ins.
Zotero's Quick Start Guide and Video are available here.
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Strengths |
BibMe is great for generating a quick bibliography and/or citation. Since it is web-based, you don't have to worry about downloading software on your computer and you can easily log in to your optional account in order to save your work.
Using the Auto-fill input mode, BibMe searches WorldCat and automatically populates necessary citation metadata for you.
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Manages not only citations, but also creates a well-managed library of your imported papers. Regularly syncs content between machines and with the web version, keeping you always up to date. You can form groups to share resources and citations within your lab/study group/cohort. Integrates with MS Word for easy inserting of citations/bibliographies. Keep your account and data after you leave IWU.
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Easy to access and use from within Firefox, Chrome and Safari; importing citations can be accomplished with one click. You can share citations with other users and the public using the Groups feature. Excellent for capturing information about web resources. Allows you to save and annotate websites. You can save attachments on Zotero's server or your personal machine. |
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Getting Help |
Visit the Library's BibMe Guide or see frequently asked questions on BibMe's Support Page. |
Visit the Mendeley website for further information. |
The Zotero website has extensive information. |
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