Citation Management

Citation Management
 

What is a citation manager?

A citation manager is a tool or program that helps you collect, organize, and create citations for your research in whatever format you prefer.  Unlike a copy/paste citation tool, a manager builds and saves a library of citations that you can organize for each course or assignment.

See our comparison of citation managers to help you decide which one to use for your needs.

The University licenses RefWorks, and makes it available to everyone in the UT community. Learn more about it here.

Why would I want to use one?

If you are doing an extensive research project and want to keep track of your citations, it is a good idea to use a citation manager because all your citations are in once place where you can:  

• organize citations by topic or paper
• import citations from library databases or websites
• create a properly formatted bibliography or references page from a number of citation formats (e.g. MLA, APA)
• link to word processing programs to easily reference citations and insert footnotes or endnotes
• add notes for citations you have used or plan to use

Popular citation management tools available for free:

• RefWorks (free for UT community)
• Zotero
• EasyBib
• BibMe
• Mendeley
• EndNote Basic

For help deciding which one to use, see our comparison.

Double check your citations that RefWorks (or any of the other managers) provides using these style guides:

• Using American Psychological Association (APA) format (OWL Purdue)
• Using Modern Language Association (MLA) format (OWL Purdue)
• Other Research and Citation Resources (OWL Purdue)