# Reference management software

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{{short description|Software to use for recording and utilising bibliographic citations (references)}}
{{Distinguish|Reference software}}
{{More citations|date=March 2018}}

'''Reference management software''', '''citation management software''', or '''bibliographic management software''' is software that stores a database of [bibliographic record](/source/bibliographic_record)s and produces [bibliographic citation](/source/bibliographic_citation)s (references) for those records, needed in [scholarly research](/source/scholarly_research). Once a record has been stored, it can be used time and again in generating [bibliographies](/source/bibliography), such as lists of references in scholarly books and articles. Modern reference management applications can usually be integrated with [word processor](/source/word_processor)s so that a reference list in one of the many different bibliographic formats required by publishers and [scholarly journal](/source/scholarly_journal)s is produced automatically as an article is written, reducing the risk that a cited source is not included in the reference list. They will also have a facility for importing bibliographic records from [bibliographic database](/source/bibliographic_database)s.

Reference management software does not do the same job as a [bibliographic database](/source/bibliographic_database) that tries to store records of {{em|all}} [publication](/source/publication)s published within a given scope such as a particular [academic discipline](/source/academic_discipline) or group of disciplines. Such bibliographic databases are large and have to be housed on major [server](/source/Server_(computing)) installations. Reference management software collects a much smaller database, of the publications that have been used or are likely to be used by a particular researcher or group of researchers, and such a database can easily be stored on an individual's [personal computer](/source/personal_computer).

Many reference management applications enable users to search bibliographic records in online bibliographic databases and [library catalog](/source/library_catalog)s. An early [communications protocol](/source/communications_protocol) used to access library catalogs, and still in service at many libraries,<ref>For example: {{cite web |title=Z39.50 Gateway to Library Catalogs |publisher=[Library of Congress](/source/Library_of_Congress) |url=https://www.loc.gov/z3950/ |access-date=2023-05-08}} And: {{cite web |title=Z-BRARY – Directory of Z39.50 and SRU Targets |url=https://z-brary.com/ |website=z-brary.com |access-date=2023-05-08}}</ref> is [Z39.50](/source/Z39.50), which predated the invention of the [World Wide Web](/source/World_Wide_Web). Although Z39.50 is still in use, today most bibliographic databases are available as [web site](/source/web_site)s that allow exporting selected [bibliographic record](/source/bibliographic_record)s in various bibliographic data formats that are imported by reference management software.

==Citation creators==
'''Citation creators''' or citation generators are online tools which facilitate the creation of [works cited](/source/Citation) and [bibliographies](/source/bibliographies). Citation creators use [web form](/source/web_form)s to take input and format the output according to guidelines and standards, such as the [Modern Language Association](/source/Modern_Language_Association)'s [MLA Style Manual](/source/MLA_Style_Manual), [American Psychological Association](/source/American_Psychological_Association)'s [APA style](/source/APA_style), [The Chicago Manual of Style](/source/The_Chicago_Manual_of_Style), or [Turabian](/source/Turabian) format. Some citation creators generate only run-time output, while others store the citation data for later use.{{Citation needed|date=October 2014}}

==Research on software usage==
In 2013, a comparison of usage of [EndNote](/source/EndNote), [RefWorks](/source/RefWorks), and [Zotero](/source/Zotero) among the legal scholars at the Oxford University Law Faculty was performed by survey. 0% of survey participants used RefWorks; 40% used Endnote; 17% used Zotero, mostly research students. The difficulty of using RefWorks, Endnote, and Zotero by Oxford legal scholars was estimated by the author as well. A comparison of these tools for legal scholars was made across several usage scenarios, including: installing and setting up [OSCOLA citation style](/source/Oxford_Standard_for_Citation_of_Legal_Authorities); building a personal legal bibliographic library and using extracting metadata from legal bibliographic databases; generating footnotes and bibliographies for academic publications; using and modifying OSCOLA citation style.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meredith |first=Sandra |date=2013-01-21 |title=Critical review of referencing software when used with OSCOLA |journal=European Journal of Law and Technology |volume=4 |issue=1 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2184098 |issn=2042-115X}}</ref>

In the same year, a survey conducted at the [University of Turin](/source/University_of_Turin) found that knowledge of software was high but adoption was not, and the most known and used software was EndNote.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Francese |first=Enrico |year=2013 |title=Usage of Reference Management Software at the University of Torino |url=https://www.jlis.it/index.php/jlis/article/view/244 |journal=JLIS.it |publisher=University of Florence |volume=4 |issue=2 |doi=10.4403/jlis.it-8679 |access-date=2022-06-04}}</ref>

==See also==
* [Comparison of reference management software](/source/Comparison_of_reference_management_software)
* [COinS](/source/COinS) – method to embed bibliographic metadata in the HTML code of web pages
* [Z39.50](/source/Z39.50) – international standard client–server, application layer communications protocol for searching and retrieving information from a database over a TCP/IP computer network; widely used in library environments

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite web |url=https://isg.beel.org/blog/2013/10/14/what-makes-a-bad-reference-manager/ |title=What makes a bad reference manager? |last=Beel |first=Joeran |website=Intelligent Systems Group, University of Siegen |date=2013-10-14 |access-date=2016-09-08}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fenner |first1=Martin |last2=Scheliga |first2=Kaja |last3=Bartling |first3=Sönke |date=2014 |chapter=Reference management |editor1-last=Bartling |editor1-first=Sönke |editor2-last=Friesike |editor2-first=Sascha |title=Opening Science: The Evolving Guide on How the Internet Is Changing Research, Collaboration and Scholarly Publishing |location=New York |publisher=[Springer-Verlag](/source/Springer-Verlag) |pages=125–137 |isbn=9783319000251 |oclc=871176030 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-00026-8_8 |doi-access=free }}
* {{Cite web |url=https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1320978 |title=Reference management software comparison |last=Universitätsbibliothek Technische Universität München |date=February 2025 |access-date=2025-02-17}}

{{Reference management software}}

Category:Reference management software

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Reference management software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_management_software) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_management_software?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.