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Citation Management Systems (CMS): Zotero and Mendley: Home

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What is a Citation Management System?

Citation management systems (or reference management systems) are software programs designed to help researchers collect, organize, and format citations in a variety of styles. 

There are a variety of citation management systems. This guide provides information on two popular, no-cost systems: Zotero and Mendeley.

  • Zotero is a free citation manager that can be downloaded and interact with plugins for both Firefox and Chrome.
  • Mendeley is a free reference manager and social networking utility, which combines citation management with document sharing and workgroups to enhance collaboration.

Both of these systems can be used very effectively to organize citations. The selection of a citation management system is a personal preference.