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About citation management tools
Citation management tools help you collect and store articles, books, and web pages to use in your research. You can format, create, and export bibliographies using a particular citation style, including APA, MLA, Chicago, and more.
You can also:
- Link to and store source materials
- Insert in-text citations and bibliographies while writing in a word processor
- Create formatted works cited, reference lists, or bibliographies
- Collaborate with others
- Annotate within PDFs
Also see tips for how to cite sources and tools you can use to automatically generate citations.
Zotero
Zotero is a free tool that's easy-to-use. It can help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.
We also recommend you set up your Zotero account to find and attach PDFs of sources from the library directly to your citations. See instructions:
- Go to Zotero > Preferences
- Select “Advanced”
- Add the following URL to the OpenURL “Resolver” field: https://arizona-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/openurl/01UA/01UA?
Learn more about how to use Zotero. We also offer workshops each semester.
Contact Anthony Sanchez for help with Zotero.
EndNote
EndNote is free for University of Arizona students, faculty, and staff. Use it to collect citations from databases, create personal reference libraries, and insert citations into Word documents to create in-text citations and reference lists. You can synchronize all the references from one desktop library to your EndNote Online library, and share the entire library with other EndNote users. There is a learning curve to use EndNote.
- Desktop: Download EndNote software
- Online: Sign up for EndNote online with your University of Arizona email address
We also recommend you set up your EndNote account to find and attach PDFs of sources from the library directly to your citations. See instructions:
- Go to “Find Full” text
- On a Mac, go to the toolbar under: EndNote/Preferences > Find Full Text
- On a PC, go to the toolbar under: Edit/Preferences > Find Full Text
- Make sure the DOI and OpenURL checkboxes are checked
- Copy and paste this URL to the "OpenURL Path" text box: https://arizona-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/openurl/01UA/01UA?
- Copy and paste this URL to the "Authenticate with" text box:
https://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login - Select “OK”
Learn more about how to use EndNote.
Contact Elizabeth Kline (Main campus) or Maribeth Slebodnik (Health Sciences) for help with EndNote.
Mendeley
Mendeley is a free tool. It can help you build and organize your reference library, make notes and annotations across papers, collaborate with others and insert citations and bibliographies into the papers you’re writing.
- Desktop: Download Mendeley Reference Manager software
- Online: Sign up for Mendeley Reference Manager online
Learn more about how to use Mendeley.
Contact Jim Martin for help with Mendeley.
Compare citation management tools
| Cost | Ease of use | Download, sync, and share | Storage space | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zotero | Free | Easy | The Zotero connector requires using a personal browser to sync with your citation library. You can pay a fee for more cloud storage or back up your data locally on your computer or an external hard drive. | Zotero desktop: Your computer's storage capacity Zotero online: 300 MB free, additional space for a fee |
| EndNote | Free for students, faculty, and staff with your University of Arizona email | Training recommended | Sync the Online version of EndNote with your desktop software and share your citations. Both desktop and online versions work best with the Firefox and Chrome browsers. Neither work well with Safari browser. Always save libraries on your hard drive, not in the cloud, to avoid corrupting your data. | EndNote desktop: Your computer's storage capacity EndNote online: 2 GB free, unlimited with the campus EndNote Desktop subscription |
| Mendeley | Free | Easy | Mendeley has some difficulty downloading citations and PDF files from library databases. Older PDF files that do not have proper metadata will not provide accurate citation information to Mendeley. | Mendeley desktop: Your computer's storage capacity Mendeley online: 2 GB free |