Skip to Main Content

Guide to Citation Management at Adelphi: Home

Information about tools and techniques to collect and manage citation information while doing research at Adelphi University.

Introduction

Many researchers make use of citation or reference management software to save and organize citation information for use in research. There are many such tools available, some free and some requiring a license or subscription. Examples are Zotero, Mendeley, Endnote, and PaperPile. 

Citation managers allow one to capture certain details (metadata) about articles, books, and other works, including title, author(s), date of publication, etc. This metadata can then be used to generate in-line citations, footnote/endnotes, or "works cited" bibliographies in several citation styles such as MLA, APA, CSE, and other styles. Researchers can also organize and enrich the citations captured by filing them into groups or folders and adding their own keywords and annotations. This will make it easier to organize one's research and find relevant materials on given topics later. Citation managers also have their own search features to further empower the researcher to efficiently recall relevant works as the need arises.

Zotero

Adelphi Libraries’ recommendation is Zotero, a tool widely used by students and researchers across academia. Zotero is open-source and free for the typical user (with a pricing model for larger cloud storage capacity); it is cross-platform compatible, allows syncing across devices, and offers many other advantages. The instructions in this guide mostly presume you are using Zotero, but similar features exist in other systems and the basic information should be largely transferrable from one system to another.