Citation managers are software that helps you track, organize, and properly cite your sources as you do research. They can help you:
Zotero is a free, open source, fully featured citation manager. It is easy to learn, provides the easiest way to import sources, can produce citations in thousands of styles, and works with Google Docs as well as with MS Word and Libre Office.
The library provides workshops, instruction, and support for Zotero. Please see our Zotero guide for more information.
EndNote is a commercial citation manager from Clarivate. It is not free, but student pricing is available. EndNote is slightly harder to learn than Zotero, but it can also produce citations in many styles, and it provides better support for some features such as journal title abbreviations.
The library no longer provides access to or instruction for EndNote.
Mendeley is a popular and free-to-use citation manager from Elsevier.
The library does not provide support for Mendeley, but those who wish to explore it can review these help guides and other documentation from Mendeley.
There are many web-based citation creation tools that let you create references one-by-one, either by manually entering the item information or by searching for it and letting the tool fill in the information. These tools can be handy for quickly and easily generating a small number of citations without having to install any software. Some of them are free to use, others have limitations to the free version and require payment for extra features. Some of these tools are part of broader sets of tools for writing help.
If you want to use a web based tool, the Fresno State Library recommends ZoteroBib (zbib.org) . It's completely free to use; it lets you search by title, URL, DOI, or other identifiers; and it provides all the thousands of styles that are available in Zotero.
Other tools you may want to consider (The library does not endorse any of these):
Do you have a favorite not listed here? Let us know!
Some databases and other library search tools can generate citations for sources that they index. They don't provide the same help with collecting and organizing sources, but this can be a quick and easy way to generate a few references. Be sure to check these automatically-generated citations to make sure they are correct before using them in your paper!
The library's discovery system includes a "Citation" button with search results that provides citations in MLA, APA, and Chicago styles.
The "Cite" link that appears with each result in Google Scholar will provide citations in several styles.
EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and other library databases often include a "Cite" tool on item pages.
