Bibliographic software

Using bibliographic software can help you keep track of your references as well as assist you in formatting your research papers. By keeping track of your references you can remember which literature you have used in your research and cite it easily.

Listen to how bibliographic software changed the life for student Alice Janvrin:

Listen to what the information specialist says about bibliografical software:

 

Although your word processing software such as Word may provide a feature for citing references in your term paper, you will need to type in this information manually. When you use bibliographic software you can download information about the literature you are using directly from the databases and search engines where you have found it. By doing so you can gather all of your references in one place and remove any duplicates found from searching in multiple databases before you determine which articles and books are relevant for your thesis, so you don’t have to evaluate the same articles multiple times.

Which software should I use?
There are numerous programs that you can choose. Some of them are freely accessible for download (Zotero, Mendeley) and others are available only through a paid license (EndNote, Reference Manager, Refworks). Your university may provide you with a free license to use the software while you are a student.

The basic functions are very similar in all of the products, so making the decision to use bibliographic software will be more important than which program you choose.

Consider the following before choosing which program to use:

1) Is the software compatible with my operating system (Windows, Mac) and my word processing software (Word, Open Office)?

For example Reference Manager can only be used with Word on Windows, and Zotero is the only software which currently supports use with Open Office.

2) Do I know people who can help me to use this software? See if your library holds classes about the software you are thinking of using. Do your classmates and/or advisor use the same software?

3) Will I want to continue using the software when I am no longer a student?

If you plan on having a research career, you will continue to need bibliographic software, and you might want to choose a free product such as Zotero so that you can continue to use it when you have completed your studies.

Learn how to make references correctly in the following.