Referencing Tools

Reference management tools help you keep track of what you're  reading and make referencing easier.

As with everything online there are several different tools you can use to manage your references and you should probably try out a couple and see which one works for you.

A few examples of Mendeley Zotero and EndNote. They're all free to use, but you might need to log in as a student to access some of them.

They all do roughly the same three things:

• they add a plugin to your internet browser so you can simply add anything you find to your reference management tool; it collects all the information you need for your bibliography and saves articles as PDFs; 
• they keep a library of the resources you've saved so you can search and organize them however you want; 
• and they use a plugin for Microsoft Word to look up and insert citations as you write. This means that they automatically create a bibliography at the end of your essay from the citations you've used.

It takes a little bit of effort to set up your account and install the plugins but in the long run they're really worth it because

1. it keeps all your reading in one place so you'll never ask yourself where did I find that quote 
2. it saves time  making a bibliography because it generates one automatically 
3. it's really simple to switch referencing styles and
4. your resources are there ready to use again in your next assignment so if you use the same reference management tool for your whole degree you'll quickly build up a comprehensive bibliography of everything you've read for your course 

Remember it's your responsibility to get your referencing right; know your referencing rules; and check your work before you submit it.

Find out more on referencing tools LibGuide.