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 is a free web and desktop reference management application that helps you simplify your reference management workflow. With Mendeley you can
As always, it is important to store your work, sources and references in more than one place (back up file).
Mendeley can be used in browser (link to website) or you can download the Mendeley Reference Manager to your desktop (download the app). Students and staff of University of Vaasa can download the app from Software Center. The library recommends the browser version since it is developed/updated more often. The free Mendeley account comes with 2 GB but more storage can be purchased.
First, create an account to Mendeley. If you have an account to any other Elsevier's product, such as Scopus, ScienceDirect or SciVal, you can sign in with the same credentials. äläDo not choose Sign in via your institution!
Mendeley Web Importer is an extension for web browsers with which you can add references from databases to your own account, i.e., your Mendeley Library. Web Importer does not, however, work in all databases, thus installing it is not mandatory. The extension works in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari, and you can install it on Mendeley's website (install plugin). After installation, you will see a red Mendeley icon in your browser toolbar.
Choose +Add new > Files from computer or drag and drop the file (e.g. PDF of a journal article) to your Library. Mendeley finds the reference information automatically and saves them to the Library along with the PDF file. Remember to check and edit the reference if necessary!
Choose +Add new > Add reference manually, and fill in the information by hand. You can also search for the reference with, for example, the DOI identifier.
Web Importer in Mozilla Firefox:
You can save the reference as a file to your computer (or cache memory) and import it to your Mendeley Library:
Add Mendeley Cite to Word, so you can add references to your text and create a bibliography:
In Citation Settings, you can choose the referencing style and language in which the references and bibliography are. You will also see a preview of what they look like in different styles.
Zotero is a free, open-source reference management tool that helps you collect and organize your references. In addition to the desktop application, you can create a cloud-based Zotero online account to use Zotero on multiple devices and share references with others. With Zotero you can:
As always, it is important to store your work, sources and references in more than one place (back up file).
To install Zotero, download the desktop application from Software Center (University of Vaasa students and staff) or visit Zotero's home page (link to website) to download Zotero to your device. Zotero offers each user 300 MB of free storage, but additional storage can be bought via your Zotero account.
If you want, you can create a free Zotero account (link to registration page). An account makes it possible to sync your library if you are using several devices. An account also allows you to create group libraries to share with others.
When you have created an account, you will need to add it to your desktop application:
Plugins:
Zotero Connector is a plugin that allows you to save content from your browser to Zotero with a single click. Zotero Connector is used for browsers Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari. Zotero Connector and other plugins can be downloaded from the Zotero home page (link to website).
Attached files are automatically saved to Zotero. This default setting can be changed (Edit > Preferences > on the interleaf General uncheck the box Automatically attach associated PDFs and other files when saving items). In Zotero you can read, highlight and make notes in the saved PDF files.
Once you have added a reference to Zotero, you can edit it if necessary. When you have added a reference, it is recommended to always check the reference and add possible missing information right away.
References can be organized info folders and folders can be created and named. Files, comments and tags can be added to the references.
References can be imported to Zotero in following ways.
You can add a reference manually (File > New Item). A reference can also be searched for with an identifier (e.g. ISBN or DOI).
If you want to add references saved as files on your computer (e.g. a PDF of a journal article), import them from your computer (File > Import) or drag and drop the files to the middle section of your Zotero library.
When downloading Zotero, the word processor plugin should automatically download as well. If you can not see a Zotero tab in Word, install it in the Zotero desktop application (Edit > Preferences > Cite > Word Processors tab > Install/Reinstall Microsoft Word Add-in).
Click Document preferences to choose citation style and language for your references and bibliography and whether you want the bibliography to update automatically.
Put the cursor where you want the citation, click on Add/Edit Citation. A red search box will appear. You can either enter the title etc. of the reference you want to cite in the red box or click the Z icon and choose Classic View to choose the reference from your library. Page numbers can be added in the box Page or directly in the citation in your document.
Put the cursor where you want the bibliography, click Add/Edit Bibliography and Zotero will create a bibliography of the cited sources. If the document does not update automatically, click Refresh.
References in Word are stored on your computer's hard disk. If you want to work on them on another computer, follow these steps to find the file:
Microsoft Word has a simple built-in reference function in the References tab. Here you can manually enter references and refer to them in the text and create a bibliography in the most common styles (APA, Harvard, MLA, etc). This built-in function is good if you have a limited number of references and you do not need to have access your references on different computers.
