Fourth Thing: Reference Management

Managing your references for a research project or thesis can be time-consuming and confusing. Reference management software can make things much quicker and simpler. 

Using reference management software can help 

• Organise your research into topic areas, chapter groups, or by paper theme to make it easier to keep track of what you are working on
• Store and annotate PDFs
• Keep notes with the bibliographic details of each item, meaning information is all kept together. 
• Create your own personal searchable database 
• Enable collaboration through sharing of groups 

When it comes to writing, reference management software enables you to easily access your notes, cite consistently and automatically generate reference lists.  

There are many different reference management software programs available. At the University of Melbourne, EndNote and Zotero are actively supported with library guides and webinars. EndNote is provided free of charge to staff and students, and Zotero is freely available. We also have guidance for using BibTeX and LaTeX.  

How do you choose? 

The reference management software you choose will depend on your discipline and requirements. We will compare EndNote and Zotero below. 

EndNote

Ease of use: Requires initial effort.

Support: Library webinars and online guide, Endnote website, and @EndNoteTraining YouTube channel.

Cost: Available on most University of Melbourne computers in libraries and labs, and can be downloaded from the University library (students and staff) and from the service centre (staff only).

Open source: No.

Operating system: Windows 10, 11; macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12, 13. 

Devices and online versions: Desktop, Endnote Online, iPad app. It syncs between online or devices and desktop.

Storage: Unlimited local storage, 2GB online storage. 

Works with word processor: Word (desktop only), LibreOffice 

Adding references: Direct export references from databases; drag and drop PDFs to EndNote with reference data; add references manually; capture online resources to EndNote Online; “find reference updates” function

Collaboration: Via Endnote Online. 

Changing citation styles: Easy if switching between in text styles. Can’t change between in-text and footnoting styles. 

Can you keep using after leaving the University of Melbourne? Licence agreement requires that EndNote is removed once users are no longer at the University of Melbourne.

Zotero

Ease of use: Easy to use

Support: Online guide and webinars, Zotero online forum.

Cost: Free from Zotero.org, can pay for extra cloud storage. 

Open source: Yes.

Operating system: macOS 10.11 or later, including Ventura; Windows 7 or later; Linux.

Devices and online versions: Desktop, online. It syncs between computers and online.

Storage: Unlimited local storage, 300MB free online storage. 

Works with word processor: Word, Office 365, Google Docs, LibreOffice. 

Adding references: Export references from databases; use Zotero connector to get data from websites and databases; PDFs are downloaded along with reference data in many cases; add references manually; snapshots of webpages are also saved with references.

Collaboration: Via shared groups. 

Changing citation styles: Can change citation styles easily. 

Can you keep using after leaving the University of Melbourne? Yes, Zotero is free and has an active user forum. 

Can I change the reference manager I am using? 

Yes, but if you are thinking about changing, think about the timing. It’s much easier to change when your research is not too advanced – especially before you have started writing. Some of the reasons for thinking about a change might include: 

• working collaboratively 
• functionality 
• supervisor requirements 
• frustration 
• leaving the University 

You can find instructions for moving to and from Endnote, Zotero, and Mendeley on Re:cite. 

Learn more 

Why use Zotero (from the Zotero website) 

Endnote features comparison sheet 

The key to referencing in LaTeX (YouTube video) 

About the authors

This post was written by members of the University of Melbourne Library’s Reference Management Group: Sarah Charing, Ben Gilmour, and Gemma Walsh.

Cite this Thing

You are free to use and reuse the content on this post with attribution to the authors. The citation for this Thing is:

CHARING, SARAH; GILMOUR, BENJAMIN; WALSH, GEMMA (2024). Fourth Thing: Reference Management. The University of Melbourne. Online resource. https://doi.org/10.26188/25287430

 

Featured image credit: Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi on Unsplash