Citation Management Tools: Home

When you have a lot of references for a project (or a lot of projects with references), there exists a category of software to make your life easier. Sometimes known as "citation tools" or "reference management software," these applications make keeping track of your PDFs, citations, and bibliographies A BREEZE. 

You are welcome to reuse the content of this Guide as long as you attribute Butler University Libraries.

► Format a citation for a paper 

Check out our LibGuides: Citation Guides and Citing Guide for Business Majors.

► Keep track of sources for a project or long-term storage of research sources - reference management tools

There are lots of options for managing your sources and citations for larger projects. This guide highlights some of the most popular apps, but if those don't appeal, check out Wikipedia's "Comparison of reference management software" for a breakdown of features for over twenty different products.

► Create a bibliography in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word has its own bibliographic tools built-in; check out our MS Word page for links to tutorials on how to use these features.

All of the major reference management apps have plugins for Microsoft Word to insert citations in footnotes or endnotes and to generate bibliographies. 

Comic by Randall Munroe (XKCD)