Citation Management Tools: Organization

As you continue taking classes at UW, you may be required to use different citation styles for different classes or research projects. Switching between citation styles and remembering which format to use for which class or discipline can be confusing and time consuming. You can organize and store your sources in online citation management tools made for productivity and efficiency. 

Some benefits of organizing your sources include: 

• Promoting ease of access and sharing when working in a collaborative research team 
• Saving sources for later when you are unable to read sources right away
• Visualizing your collected sources and seeing connections between sources
• Keeping track of what you’ve saved, read, marked to read, etc.
• Staying organized for the writing process. 

There are many strategies to organize your sources. Some students prefer to use tools like Microsoft Word or Google Docs to create lists of references. Others save PDFs in folders and create citations as they write. This module focuses on technology tools that help you keep track of sources and offer flexible options to create citations without regard to a specific citation style.