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Citation Resources

How to Choose a Citation Manager

What does a citation manager do?

- Allows you to import citations from databases, catalogs, PDFs and other sources. 

- Stores and organizes your references in a desktop or online account

- Helps you avoid duplicate citations

- Allows you to add notes or annotations to your citations

- Helps you stay organized when creating your bibliography or in-text citation

- Lets you share your collection of sources and collaborate with colleagues.

Citation Manager Options

Getting EasyBib

Cost: Free to $19.95/month for different plans

Platform: Web-based

Pros: Free, plagiarism checks, grammar error checks

Cons: The free plan only uses MLA and does not check for plagiarism. 

From the Website: "EasyBib is an intuitive information literacy platform that provides citation, note taking, and research tools that are easy-to-use and educational."

Getting Zotero

Cost: Free

Platform: Web and desktop for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Pros: Free, open source, automatically recognizes sources, great customer service

Cons: Can be a little overwhelming at first, no mobile app, not completely web-based, no built-in PDF annotation

From the website: "Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research."

Getting EndNote 20 from the UT Dallas Tech Store

Cost: Depending on discount and version purchased.

Platform: Web

Pros: Read, review, annotate, and search PDFs, create rules to automatically organize references as you work, share part or all of your library as read only or write, access research from your desktop, online, or your iPad

Cons: No tablet support other than iPad, expensive, learning curve

From the website: "EndNote 20 is the reference management software that not only frees you from the tedious work of manually collecting and curating your research materials and formatting bibliographies, but also gives you greater ease and control in coordinating with your colleagues."

Getting Mendeley

Cost: Free

Platform: Web and Desktop for Windows, Mac, or Linux

Pros: Free, Web importer to add articles from any supported website, Browser plugin, Mobile apps for Apple and Android, Citation plugin for Word and LibreOffice, PDF annotator

Cons: No easy way to share with colleagues, organizing is more difficult than in the other options.

From the website: "With the Medeley Reference Manager, you can easily organize and search your personal library, annotate documents and cite as you write."

Getting Sciwheel

Cost: Basic is free, Premium is $9.95/month (student pricing available).

Platform: Web

Pros:

Basic - Free, unlimited references, instantly save and annotate articles online, Find and cite references in Microsoft Word and Google Docs, Access your references and PDFs from any device, easy collaboration

Premium - All the items in the Basic package plus unlimited projects, article suggestions, unlimited storage, smart citation suggestions in Microsoft Office and Google Docs, access to article recommendations in Sciwheel Prime

Cons: Basic only allows three projects at a time, so organizing is difficult. Not web based.

From the Website: "An easy and intuitive way to discover, read, annotate, write and share scientific research."​

Dr. Paper for Mac - $24.95

Dr. Paper for Windows - $24.95

ProCite 5.0 5-User Lab Pack - $874.95

Noodle Tools - $15.00/year for an Individual License

Power Notes - $4.99/month or $49.99/year

Paperpile - $2.99/month 

What's My Citation Style? Quick Look

APA

  • Business
  • Criminology
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • Psychology
  • Social Sciences
  • Sociology

MLA

  • Humanities
  • Liberal Arts
  • Literature

Chicago/Turabian

  • Humanities
  • History
  • Natural Sciences
  • Religion
  • Social Sciences