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Citing Sources

Learn more about why we cite the sources we use, how to cite sources in a specific style, and strategies for avoiding plagiarism.

Tools to Manage Sources, Create Reference Lists, and Insert In-text Citations

There are many options for generating bibliographies and managing sources. Here is what we recommend and support at Milner Library.

Recommended Source Managers

Source Manager Comparison Chart

Other Source Managers

Reference/Citation Generators

Recommended Source Managers

Source Manager Comparison Chart

 

zotero logo

EndNote logo

Time to Learn

30 minutes

30 minutes

Help Guides

Zotero Online Guide

EndNote Basic (Online) Guide

Strengths

Open source; robust features on both desktop and web Direct export from most library databases

Weaknesses

Smaller storage space for free account

ISU does not support desktop version; not available if no longer associated with ISU

Cost

Free

Free to all ISU

Can access after leaving Illinois State

X

 

Browser tool to save sources from web

X

X

Share with others / Create groups

X

X

Create folders to organize content

X

X

Create subfolders

X

 

Good for a scholarly content

X

X

Easy to add diverse source types

X

 

Create bibliographies in specific styles / journal formatting

X

X

Tool for adding in-text citations into a word processor document

MS Word (Windows/MacOS)
Google Docs
LibreOffice/Open Office

MS Word (Windows/MacOS)

Assign keywords/tags to improve searchability

X

X

Attach / Store PDFs

X

X

Attach / Store other file types

X

X

Annotate PDFs

X

 

Compatible with all major browsers

X

X

Compatible with multiple operating systems

X

X

Storage capacity

300MB (free); $ for more

2GB (free); $ for 5GB

Other Source Managers

Looking for alternatives? Here is a list of other source managers you may like to explore.

Wikipeda provides a great comparison chart of source management software.

Reference Generators

Reference generators (also called citation generators) are handy tools to quickly create a preformatted reference for one or two sources. Usually you need to copy & paste content into a form. Most generators do not save the information entered into the form.

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