Which Software to Choose?
There are a number of choices, but the main commercial software packages are EndNote, ProCite, Reference Manager, and RefWorks. There are also some free choices that might work for you, such as Zotero or EndNoteWeb (free only to current OSU students and faculty). Check either of this Web site for a comparison of the major software options.
As you are exploring the web pages and specifications of the software packages, consider these questions:
- What bibliographic software do colleagues in your field use?
- Do you use a Mac or a PC? Some packages are not available for Macs.
- Do you usually use the same computer, or do you use many different computers to do your research writing? Some packages are web-based (Refworks, Biblioscape, Zotero and EndNoteWeb) which easily facilitates the use of multiple computers.
- What kind of software support is available? OSU Libraries has an online EndNote tutorial, as well as instruction and classes offered at OSU Libraries for EndNote, Zotero and EndNoteWeb (call 541-737-9902 to find out when the next class is), but OSU does not offer any other software support.
- Is there a university discount? EndNote is the only package available at an educational discount at OSU .
- How big of a database do you need? Some allow more individual records than others.
- Do you want to store images? Some packages, such as EndNote 10 and higher, offer this capability.
- Is there a demo version? Try it out first to see if you like it.
Software Options
EndNote - available at a reduced rate for OSU faculty and students
Bookends (for Mac OS X)
BiblioExpress - free
CiteULike - free
EasyBib - free
EndNoteWeb free access is available if you "register for more features" through OSU Libraries subscription to Web of Science. This service is available to you only as long as you are a student, staff or faculty of OSU, whereas if you buy the software, you take it with you.
LaTeX - free
Zotero - free
How Can I Manage My Citations?
Bibliographic management software packages help researchers collect and manage citation information about papers, books, web sites, and images. As you collect more citations and papers, it will gradually become harder to keep up and keep track of them. Bibliographic software makes it easy for you to:
- Keep all your citations in one place
- Search the papers you collect by author, title, journal, subject headings or your own keywords
- Automatically generate bibliographies or works cited lists in particular style formats
- Insert footnotes or endnotes directly into your documents, depending on the software package you have.
EndNote Tutorial
Last Update: 01 Oct 11:43 | Tagged with: Research Tools Keeping Current Library resources
