Research Guides: Citing Sources: Citation management tools

What can citation management tools do?

Citation management tools help you keep track of your research in the following ways:

keep all of your citations in one place
easily import citations from library catalogues, databases, and websites
format citations and easily create bibliographies and works cited lists
organize your citations into different projects or categories
save and organize images, audio files, videos, PDFs, and other file types
take and save notes on items in your collection of citations
share your citations easily with others

Citation management tools are also called bibliography management or reference management tools or software.

How would I use citation management tools?

A few examples of how you might use these tools:

In the initial stages of research for a project, use citation management software to import the citation information of books and journal articles that look relevant to your topic. After this initial scan, look through your citations to decide which you would like to look at more closely. Because you saved the citation information as you found it, you can easily go back to all the sources that looked interesting without redoing your searches.
When you have finished writing an essay, use citation management software to easily create bibliographies and works cited lists. If you have been using the software throughout your research, your citations are all in one place and you will not need to go back to the library or databases to locate citations.
If your research involves images, use citation management software to save and organize images and their citation information as you find them. This can eliminate the need to download images and create file folders on your computer or cloud-based storage. Organize these image files alongside other citations for the same project, so that all of your research, both textual and image-based, is in one place.

Which citation management tool should I use?

There are several popular citation management tools. They share the same basic functions, as outlined in the box to the left. This chart explains some of the key differences:

Name	Cost	Strengths and special features	Access and devices	Supports images?
Zotero	Free, with 300MB of storage. Option to pay for extra storage space.	Intuitive and very easy to use. Integrates directly into browser so that you can add a citation with one click. Manages a variety of formats and file types (web pages, PDFs, audio, video, images, etc.) Can sync with multiple computers.	Browser extension: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge OS: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS Word processing extension: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice.	Yes. Import and organize image files and URLs.
Mendeley	Free, with 2GB of storage. Option to pay for extra storage space.	Excellent for use with PDFs, but also handles a variety of file formats. Annotate PDFs. Extract metadata from PDFs. Provides more free storage than Zotero. Fairly easy to use. Can sync with multiple computers.	Desktop application: Mac, Windows or Linux Browser extension: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge Word processing extension: Microsoft Word or LibreOffice.	Yes
Papers	Essentials: $65/year Pro: $130/year 40% off for students and academics Free 30-day trial. Free iOS app.	Specializes in managing PDFs, particularly scientific articles. Annotate PDFs Search some databases directly within the program (JSTOR, Google Scholar, PubMed, etc.). Includes AI Chat with PDFs	Mac, Windows, Web, Android, and iOS programs Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge	No
EndNote	Sells different versions of EndNote from $175-$385. Free 30-day trial	Highly customizable, but steeper learning curve. High storage capacity and therefore excellent for large projects like theses or book-length works. Annotate PDFs. Search many databases directly. AI features	Desktop application: Mac, Windows Mobile: iOS app	Yes

Keep in mind: these tools generally make it easy to import citations from one citation management tool to another. If you try one and find that you do not like it, just import your citations to another tool.

For a comprehensive comparison of citation management tools, consult this chart on Wikipedia.

Image Management

Citation management tools are particularly useful for art and design research because most allow you to organize and link images with your research. The following links outline how to organize images with Mendeley and Zotero.

How to enter Art and Images into Mendeley
Video demonstrates how to use Mendeley with art and images.
Zotero for Personal Image Management
Written for art librarians, but provides clear, detailed information for scholars and students looking for a new way to organize personal image collections.
DIY Image Management with Zotero
Written for historians working with photographs of archival material. However, you can apply much of this information to working with your own photographs of exhibitions, artwork, etc.