Reference management programs: Zotero, EndNote and Mendeley

When you are writing a longer paper you often collect a large number of references to books, scientific articles and other types of publications. Reference management programs make it easier for you to collect and organize your different resource. These programs also allow you to create automated reference lists and insert citations directly into your Word document (or document form another word processor).

 EndNote

SLU has a campus license for EndNote and SLU’s IT support can assist you with the installation of the program on your computer. There is also a web-based version of EndNote called Endnote Web. EndNote Web is an integrated part of database portal Web of Knowledge, which makes it very simple for WOK users to save references in their EndNote library. 

SLU library has developed guides for EndNote:

Getting started with EndNote at SLU (pdf)

Basic EndNote Guide (pdf)

 Zotero

Zotero is a free, open source reference management program, which means that as a student you can continue to use it after you leave SLU. Zotero recognizes when users view a bibliographic reference in their web browser and can automatically save the bibliographic information in the program’s library. Zotero works as a plug-in in Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. If you are writing a paper with another author, Zotero makes it easy to share references with one another by creating a group. Zotero can also synchronize your library of references on your computer with a web version so that you always have access to your references as long as you have an Internet-connection and a computer.

Mendeley

Mendeley is a free reference management program combined with a research-network social media component. You synchronize your references between your instance of Mendeley and the website. Mendeley also makes it easy to collaborate with others, you can share references and notes in groups. You can also create your own profile page on Mendeley Web and make contacts with other researchers interested similar subjects. Mendeley even has its own database were you can search for references to millions of scientific articles. For those interested in learning more, the University Library at Karolinska institutet has produced a short guide for Mendeley.

Style files for Zotero and EndNote

SLU’s output style files for Zotero and EndNote make it easier for you to format your reference list according to SLU’s standard for dissertations. For more information on how to download these files see reference management for dissertations.

The textual content of SLU Library’s Search- and writer´s guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license