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University of Iowa

University Libraries

Citation Management Programs: Home

This guide contains information about different resources to use when you need to manage citations.

About this Guide

This guide was designed to provide you with resources for citing sources in your paper. The University of Iowa Libraries offer support for EndNote. Some support may be available for Mendeley and Zotero.  All of these tools will store and organize citations that can then be inserted into your articles or papers. However, they are not perfect and some basic knowledge of citations styles is required.

There are many different styles to use when citing a source in a paper.

  • If you are writing a paper for a class, you should use the style recommended by your professor.
  • If you are writing a paper for publication, you should use the style recommended by the publisher.

If you have questions about citation styles or if you're unsure which style you should use, please use the Citation Styles guide or contact a librarian.

EndNote Workshops

Choosing a Citation Management Software

EndNote desktop

EndNote Basic

Best use

Those with complex, ongoing research projects and planning on career of publication who are primarily using the same workstation for research and writing.

Less complex projects. Ideal for those who are going to be using multiple computers for research.

Location of files

Locally on your computer

On EndNote Basic site (server)

Getting citations in…

Automatic export from many databases. 2 step process if not available.

Automatic export from many databases. 2 step process if not available.

# of styles

Over 4500

Over 3200
Sharing

Because library lives on your computer, sharing is through sharing of computer or compressing files. PDF files can be shared. Colleagues will need EndNote installed to view.

Manage Groups feature allows you to share groups with anyone with an EndNote Basic account (though pdfs cannot be shared in this way). Non-UI folks can sign up for a free version of EndNote Basic.

Overall strengths

Great for very large amounts of citations. Also has a feature that can pull some PDF’s and automatically attach them to citations.

Very easy to learn, use anywhere with an internet connection. Fairly easy to share citations with others.

 

Ask a Librarian

Librarians are available to help you with your questions. Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions you might have regarding citation styles, citation management, etc.

Use the chat box below, contact your subject specialist librarian or Ask a Librarian for more options.

Endnote for STEM