Managing your research: Citation Management Systems Scott Johnston University of Victoria

What is a citation? describes a book, journal article, website, or other published item gives credit to the originator of an idea, thus preventing plagiarism enables the reader to retrieve the item you refer to includes the author, title, source (publisher and place of publication or URL), and date

A citation manager is a tool which helps you to store, organize and output your citations in the format you prefer. Citation software (also called "bibliographic software," "citation managers," or "reference managers") helps you to:

import citations from your favorite databases and websites. build and organize bibliographies. format citations for papers. take notes on articles and save them in your collection of citations. save and organize pdfs, screenshots, graphs, images, and other files for your research.

What programs are your colleagues using? For example, if fellow researchers are all using RefWorks to share citations, you might consider RefWorks so that you can share your research, too. Use what you like! There is no one perfect program, so use what you're comfortable with. You can use more than one software. Records can be transferred from one program to another, so don't feel limited to choosing only one.