Reference management tools

Zotero is a free reference management tool which collects, manages, and cites your research sources. This is the tool supported by DCU Library. Check out our Zotero guide for further information including how to download the software to your own device.

Our Getting Started Video below is also a good place to start. Zotero is currently the only tool for which support is provided by DCU Library however there are others you may wish to use.

Popular choices include:. Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research. EndNote Basic this is the free, limited, online version of EndNote a subscription based product. It has limited amount of storage and reference styles.

It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results. Reference Management Tools: Overview. Citation Styles Reference management tools will output references in a variety of different styles. Zotero comes with a browser extension that automatically senses content in your web browser, allowing you to add it to your personal library with a single click.

It automatically picks up the nature of the text displayed in the page and displays a relevant icon in the address bar that represents the content book, article, etc. The user can click this icon to add the reference to the library.

Zotero automatically parses metadata of PDF files and extracts citation information and adds it to the library. You can include the references in your text by simply dragging and dropping citation files from the Zotero library into the document. Zotero supports all the major citation formats. Mendeley is a free referencing manager and social network that helps you organize research, collaborate online and discover new research.

You can sign up for a Mendeley account online and install the Mendeley Desktop Tool in your computer. You can import papers into Mendeley library from your hard drive by simply dragging and dropping files. You can also import reference list from other reference managers or by searching various web databases for papers through Mendeley Literature Search. You can also use Mendeley Web Importer, a browser plugin that allows you to import documents from anywhere on the web quickly.

Mendeley desktop will display a PDF icon next to the paper if the full text is available. You can search annotate and add notes to PDF documents. You can sync your libraries to the cloud to access them anywhere. Mendeley Writing Addins are available for MS Word and LibreOffice which enables you to insert references into your article and generate a bibliography list. EndNote EndNote is a reference management tool that allows you to import references directly from online sources such as PubMed, Web of Science, Library of Congress, etc.

You can also import references by uploading a list of references in Citation Manager format. Alternatively, you can manually input the references if it is an unpublished source. You can insert references in the document as you write using EndNote Word Addin. EndNote supports numerous citation formats. The tool automatically generates the bibliography for the references contained in the text. RefWorks is a reference management software quite similar to EndNote. RefWorks is web-based as in the reference database is stored online.

The references can be accessed and updated from any computer with an internet connection. Institutions subscribe to RefWorks on behalf of all their students, faculty and staff. This plugin allows users to insert references in the text and generate a bibliography in a wide variety of formats. Citavi Citavi is a reference management tool that combines referencing with task management. Citavi allows users to search for sources, analyze content, structure ideas and write a paper.

When you find information on the web, you can use Citavi browser plugin to import quotations, pictures, and web pages to Citavi library. You can annotate PDFs and save pictures to Citavi library. You can also make a note of your thoughts while reading a research paper using Citavi Thoughts Option.

You can add tasks to the tasks manager window to manage project deadlines. You can structure your paper by creating an outline in Citavi. Then you can drag and drop references, image, and quotations to relevant sections of the paper. Finally, you can download the paper outline as a Word document and start filling in the missing bits of the paper. PaperPile is a GoogleDocs Addon for managing your references and bibliography.

PaperPile is attached to your Google account. You can download this app from the Google store. There is a basic version available for free, and you can upgrade for a few dollars to a premium version.

One of the big advantages of PaperPile is that it works very well with other citation managers such as Zotero and EndNote. You can insert citations, format citations and generate a bibliography in a wide variety of formats. You can easily import papers from Google Scholar into PaperPile.