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Referencing Tools

Useful tools for managing citations and organising sources

Reference Management Tools

A reference management tool has more features than a reference generator. They are designed for long-term use, allowing you to build and organize a personal library of sources and integrate citations directly into your writing.

A reference management tool can help:

  • Collect references (from books, articles, websites, and other sources).
  • Organize those references into libraries or folders.
  • Insert in-text citations into written documents (e.g. Word, Google Docs, LaTeX).
  • Generate a well-formatted bibliography in various citation styles (Falmouth Harvard, APA, IEEE, MHRA, etc.).
  • Collaborate with others by sharing reference libraries for group work.

Popular Reference Management Tools - powerful tools for managing research
Tool Key features
Zotero Free, open-source; app and cloud-based, Word add-in; syncs across devices and programs. Collect references directly from your browser with one click, organize into folders and tag them for easy retrieval. Integrates with Word and Google Docs to insert citations and automatically generate bibliographies.
Mendeley An app and cloud-based reference manager and academic social network that allows you to save and annotate PDFs, collaborate with others online, and insert citations into your writing. Free, but owned by Elsevier, a major academic publishing company.
JabRef / BibTex A tool used with LaTeX documents to manage references, commonly used in scientific and technical writing (including computer science) for precise citation formatting.