In the scientific community, establishing theories and claims as facts is based on scientific work and research done by other researchers. A citation tells where the original idea is from and guides the reader to see more information about the source in the list of references. Every source that is cited in the text is mentioned in the list of references, and every source mentioned in the list of references is cited in the text.
Main principles:
Reference management programs help you collect and organize materials you cite in your research and provide a useful way to keep track of your sources. They also allow you to use different referencing styles, e.g., APA, Chicago, MLA, Harvard etc. We recommend the free version of Mendeley or Zotero, because they both are compatible with Microsoft Word.
Note that when choosing a reference management program, you should follow the recommendations of your own university for security reasons.
The program collects and stores the bibliographic information of references from databases or imported files. You can then modify and organize them into folders and attach or view already attached PDFs. When writing your research, you can easily add references in the text and create a bibliography that stays up to date when you add new references. Reference management programs work with Microsoft Word, Libre Office, Google Docs and LaTex.
When choosing a reference management program, you must take into consideration your needs. Do you want the program to be compatible with a certain word processor? Do you want to use the program on more than one device? Do you want to be able to work offline? To help you with your decision, check out this comparison between Mendeley, Zotero and EndNote (link to the table). In Wikipedia, there is also a more comprehensive list of different reference management programs (link to the comparison).
Mendeley and Zotero are free reference management software. You will find thorough instructions on how to use both in Tritonia's LibGuide Reference management.
