Citation managers are software that helps you track, organize, and properly cite your sources as you do research. They can help you:
♦ Collect citation information from library catalogs, article databases, and other collections of sources that you may wish to cite.
♦ Organize your sources by topic or project, add keywords to help you find them, and add notes.
♦ Store copies of article PDFs and other full-text content.
♦ Create in-line citations and bibliographies, in many different reference styles, by working with your word processor.
You still need to know your Style Guide!
Zotero is a free, open source citation manager that can help you organize your research sources, and format in-text citations and the reference list in your paper.
It can produce citations in thousands of styles, and works with Google Docs and MS Word, as well as Libre Office,
The Library provides workshops, instruction, and support for Zotero.
Please see our Zotero guide for more information, and contact the librarians on our Zotero Help page for additional assistance.
In your Zotero Library:
1. Select the folder or items you want to share
2. Right click, and in the popup menu, select Export Collection
3a. Format = Zotero RDF (select another format if not sending the file to another Zotero user)
3b. Optionally, click boxes to select Export Notes and/or Files (attached pdfs);
4. Click OK
5. Enter a file name and export location, and Save
6. You can attach and send the downloaded folder via email. The recipient can click on the .rdf file in it to open it in Zotero.
(If you didn't include Files in your export, there will only be an .rdf file, not a folder)