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Citation managers

Citation managers, also known as Reference management softwares, are tools that allow you to keep track of your references, to easily create references lists and to format them in your favourite citation style.

With the help of a citation manager you can:

  • keep track of all the sources you are using in your work;
  • automatically insert references in your paper;
  • format your references list in the citation style you want;
  • share your bibliography with colleagues

There are many citation managers you can choose. 

Here the most known Citation managers in academic writing.

Important note

The University of Bergamo has no institutional licence to premium reference managers. You can use the free options, but it is recommended to do a regular backup of your data.

EndNote

EndNote is a citation manager developed by Web of Science group and provided by Clarivate Analytics.

The web version is free, while the desktop one, with more features, is under licence.

If you want to use the free version, you can access it here and create your own account.

You can also find a guide to the online version.

EndNote allows you to:

  • easily import references from a variety of sources (also from our library databases);
  • collect and organize up to 50.000 references ;
  • share your references with colleagues who also use EndNote;
  • Insert in-text citations while simultaneously creating a bibliography with the Cite While You Write feature in Microsoft
Mendeley

Mendeley is a citation manager developed and provided by Elsevier.

You can create your own account here.

Both the online and desktop version are free and can be sinchronized. 

With Mendeley you can:

  • import and manage references from web pages (with an added plugin) or from pdf files
  • archive up to 2 GB of attached files (paying a fee, you can extend to more disk space);
  • share your references and bibliographies with other Mendeley users;
  • in the desktop version, insert your references in a Microsoft Word or Libreoffice document with a plugin;
  • choose amongst more than 600 citation styles.

Mendeley works also as a scientific social network, allowing you to build a net of colleagues with similar interests and share your research with them.

Zotero

Zotero is a free reference manager software owned and distributed by the Corporation for Digital Scholarship. 

Here you can find the online guide.

Both the online and desktop version are free and can be sinchronized. 

Zotero allows you to:

  • Import and organize references from data bases and pfd files (through a plugin );
  • share your references and bibliographies with other Zotero users;
  • archive up to 300 MB of attached files (paying a fee, you can extend to more disk space);
  • automatically create your final bibliography;
  • choose amongst 12 citation styles (but more are available from a menu);
  • automatically import your references in a Microsoft word text through a plugin; 
  • manage your PDF files through the Zotfile application.

Zotero gives you access to a social community with various thematic groups.