Citation Management and Generation

In the world of citations, people are assisted by two separate but equally important types of software: citation generators, or programs that take the information from your source and generate a citation, and citation managers which will collect and manage all of your references and resources. This guide provides an overview of different citation managers and generators.

This guide is divided into a number of sections:

• Understanding Citations provides you with a basic overview of citations and the differences between Citation Managers and Generators. This will give you the basics on what citations are, why we have them, what components they contain, and what you will need to know to ensure your citations are correct.
• Dedicated pages for each of the three main alternatives, including links and helpful videos for getting started with them. There are also dedicated pages for options for Health Sciences and Nursing students.
• Finally, a page for Citation Generators. Many students do not need a full Citation Manager, they simply need a way to accurately format a citation from provided information. This is the page for you!

New to citations, or want to learn more? Proceed to Understanding Citations. Also, make sure to view our comprehensive overview of citations: 

Both citation managers and citation generators come with one GIANT caveat: NEVER TRUST AN AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED CITATION. Citations created by either Managers or Generators are only as good as the data fed into them; for that, you will always need to double check both the information in the entry to the Manager or Generator (meaning the known the parts of book, article, website, etc.), AND the parts of a citation.

It is for this reason that this guide exists: to educate you on the tools available AND how to use them expertly!

When deciding between a Citation Manager or a Citation Generator, it is good to think about what you will actually need the tool for.

• MANAGERS can be very helpful when dealing with both collecting citations and generating bibliographies. They aren't perfect, but they make those more complicated papers with lots of sources much more manageable -- if you know how to use them well. They can also be good when dealing with a large amount of datasets in research or trying to share resources across a lab or team of writers. This is very prevalent in the sciences. Managers are also useful for automatically inserting in-text citations into your document. However, it cannot auto-detect where to put them, you will still need to know when to cite your sources.
• GENERATORS are useful if you just need to convert your actual resources into a bibliography. These are useful when you just need a simple and easy solution to formatting your bibliography or works cited page.

Both of these tools come with one GIANT caveat, though: NEVER TRUST AN AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED CITATION. The citations created by either Managers or Generators are only as good as the data fed into them. And for that, you will always need to double check both the information in the entry in the Manager or Generator, which means known the parts of book, article, website, etc., AND the parts of a citation.

The three main and free citation mangers we recommend are EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley. Each have their pros and cons. The chart below, adapted from one from Michigan State University, provides the main breakdown for the big points most will consider when deciding. If you want more information, check out this guide from the University of Wisconsin libraries.