What is Reference Management Software?
Tools and software products that help you manage your research are known as reference management software (RMS). RMS, also known as citation management software (CMS), is used by professional researchers, scholars, and authors for recording and manage citations (references) as well as generate bibliographies.
How can RMS help you?
RMS helps you be more efficient in your research and help you effectively recycle past reseach. Once a citation has been recorded, it can be used time and again in generating bibliographies, such as lists of references in scholarly books, articles and essays.
An RMS can also help you manage your your entire research process, from collecting and filing items and objects (such as graphics and articles), to making notes and comments directly associated with a specific record of an item.
Make a strategic choice.
There are a variety of commercial and open source products that are comparable to more well known products such as Endnote and ProCite.
When making your decision you should consider the following:
- Which tool is most widely used in the discipline or subject area in which you wish to specialize?
- Does it support the citation style that you are required to use?
- \Which word processor do you use? Does the RMS smoothly integrate with it?
- Will you ever need to import or export part or all of your reference list to another installation of the same brand, or to an entirely different RMS tool? Then find out what Export/Import file formats it supports
Consult product reviews .
To choose the tool or software product that best fits your needs consult this Comparison of Reference Management Software.
Before you can use Zotero . . . .
The STMU Library highly recommends Zotero as an alternative citation management tool. HOWEVER, Zotero requires the latest version of Firefox in order to install and operate properly. Zotero WILL NOT work with Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, or Opera!
- If you are not sure whether you have the right version of Firefox, open your browser, click on the "Help" menu and drop down to "About Mozilla Firefox". You can download the latest version of Firefox from the Mozilla site.
STMU Library recommends . . . .
The STMU Library highly recommends Zotero as an alternative citation management tool. Produced by the Center for History & New Media at George Mason University, it is a free and open source application that enables users to collect and manage research resources accessed via a web-browser: library catalogues, electronic databases, and even newspapers.
Zotero has some great benefits. It . . . .
- can be used to manage your bibliographies and citations when writing essays and articles;
- can be used in with Microsoft Office and/or LibreOffice;
- supports the following citation styles:
- allows you to attach digital copies of an article, or a digital picture or video or sound sample (mp3) to a specific record;
- allows you to make not that are particular to a specific record of an item. That is, you can use it to create and manage your research notes!
IMPORTANT: As a reference manager, Zotero is an open source software extension / plugin for the open source Firefox browser. Zotero WILL NOT work with Internet Explorer! To use Zotero you will have to download and install the free web-browser Firefox.
Extra functionality is available!
Zotero makes available additional plugins to help you integrate Zotero with other software, such as Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org. Plugins make it possible for you to integrate citations and manage bibliographies in your articles, reports, and other publications.
Word Processor Integration
Word processor support is available for Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, as well as other more specialized document processing applications.
Other Useful Zotero Extensions
Zotero.org maintains a directory of plugins (created by Zotero and/or third-party developers) which extend Zotero's functionality.
Two 3rd party extensions that can be usefule for research and concept mapping are:
Movie Time!
The Center for History & New Media at George Mason University provides online screencasts that demonstrate many of its basic features. These are more thorough and of a higher quality than anything that we here in our library could produce.
Additional information, guides and screencasts can be found on the Zotero Support page.
