Citation Managers, sometimes called reference or bibliographic management software, are used by authors to record and utilize bibliographic citations or references during research and writing projects.
Wikipedia has an extensive set of charts comparing different Citation Manager Programs.
Belmont Library is agnostic about which citation manager students use. Look at the columns below for more information about the three programs we encounter most often and guides on to how to use them.
All three programs can:
EndNote is reference management software, with features to:
Mendeley is a reference manager, academic collaboration network and crowdsourced database with a unique layer of social information research. Mendeley Desktop is available on Mac, Windows and Linux. Mendeley Web functions on all major browsers. Mobile versions of Mendeley are available for Ipad, Iphone and Android devices.
Zotero (pronounced "zoh-TAIR-oh") is an application that collects, manages, and cites research sources. It's easy to use, connects with your web browser to download sources, and best of all it's free.
Zotero allows you to attach PDFs, notes and images to your citations, organize them into collections for different projects, and create bibliographies.