# Citation Management Software

### What is citation management software?

> A reference manager supports researchers in performing three basic research steps: **searching, storing, and writing** \[...\]. It helps researchers find relevant literature, allows them to store papers and their bibliographic metadata in a personal database for later retrieval, and allows researchers to insert citations and references in a chosen citation style when writing a text.
> 
> <sup>[Fenner, Martin, Kaja Scheliga, and Sönke Bartling. ‘Reference Management’. In *Opening Science*, edited by Sönke Bartling and Sascha Friesike, 125–37. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00026-8\_8.](https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/28008/1001989.pdf?sequence=1#page=129)</sup>

Citation managers can save researchers a lot of time, as well as help to reduce mistakes and avoid plagiarism.

- **Collecting Research**
    - Citation managers allow users to gather research materials from various sources. They can automatically save data from webpages, capture journal articles, and import PDFs directly into the library.
- **Organizing Information**
    - Researchers can organize their references using folders, tags, and notes. This helps in keeping track of important information and categorizing research materials for easier access.
- **Annotating Sources**
    - Citation managers provide tools for annotating and adding notes to documents within their library, which can be crucial for reviewing literature and making notes for future reference.
- **Citing Sources**
    - The software integrates with word processors like Microsoft Word, allowing for the easy insertion of citations and bibliographies in various styles, which is essential for writing research papers.

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### Zotero

<table border="1" id="bkmrk-%C2%A0-zotero-is-a-popula" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="width: 23.8708%;">[![Zotero_icon.png](https://libguides.berlin-international.de/uploads/images/gallery/2022-03/scaled-1680-/zotero-icon.png)](https://libguides.berlin-international.de/uploads/images/gallery/2022-03/zotero-icon.png)

</td><td style="width: 76.1292%;">[Zotero](https://www.zotero.org) is a popular free and open-source option among researchers that offers many features as well as extensions.

##### [Using Zotero: A Sequenced Tutorial](https://oakland.libguides.com/using_zotero/tutorial)

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