Citation management software

Citation management software (also referred to as reference management software) enables you to:

• collect citation information for articles, books, websites, etc. that you find
• store those citations and back them up in the cloud (so you won't lose them);
• organize the references into folders and/or categories;
• share the references and collaborate with colleagues;
• using the software plug in for Word, semi automatically insert citations to your papers as you write
• using the software plug in for Word, create your bibliographies

Citation managers are computer programs which work well as long as the citations you collect are complete and correct.

The biggest challenge with any citation manager is adding complete and correct citations to your collection. This can be easy and straight forward, for example when you are saving a citation for a scholarly article or book from one of the Camosun Libraries' digital tools. But sometimes it takes more work, for example when you are saving a webpage or PDF you found on the open web. Regardless of the process, you will probably have to manually add or edit some citations.

When saving a citation, elements such as page numbers or journal volumes may get missed. If the citation information you have saved is incomplete, the citation management software cannot generate a complete citation. 

Because adding citations to your citation manager is the first thing you do (you must build your collection before you can use it) and because adding some types of material is more challenging, some people develop the impression these tools are too awkward to use. But once you learn the best ways to collect complete and correct citations, the tools work well.