Citation Management Tools: Citation Managers

Image credit: Michelle Li

Citation management tools—sometimes called citation managers, reference management tools, or reference managers—enable you to store, organize, annotate, share your references for research, and create bibliographies or reference lists. They can also be used with a word processor to automatically insert in-text citations and format bibliographies according to your desired citation style. While citation management tools may take some time and patience to learn, once you’re able to grasp the mechanics behind the tools, they will be your greatest assistant in organizing and generating citations. 

Choosing a Citation Manager

UW Libraries provides support for three citation managers: EndNote Basic, Mendeley, and Zotero. Choosing a citation manager depends on your own preferences and work style. You can also check with other researchers in your department, discipline, or research team to see if a particular citation management tool is already popular in your field of research.

This comparison chart Links to an external site. and the Citation Styles & Tools Research Guide can help you decide which one is best for you.

Zotero

Zotero is a desktop-based citation management tool that provides a "save to" widget, works with Microsoft Word and Google Docs, allows for group collaboration for shared sources, and gives users unlimited free citations and storage up to 300MB.

Mendeley

Mendeley is a desktop-based citation management tool that also provides a "save to" widget, works with Microsoft Word, allows you to annotate PDFs, lets you create 5 groups with up to 25 members each, and gives users unlimited free citations and storage up to 2GB.

EndNote Basic

EndNote Basic is a web-based citation management tool that has a "save to" widget, provides a direct export option from the UW catalog and some databases, works with Microsoft Word, lets you share folders, and is free of cost.