Editing Reference management software (section)

{{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]]s and produces [[bibliographic citation]]s (references) for those records, needed in [[scholarly research]]. Once a record has been stored, it can be used time and again in generating [[bibliography|bibliographies]], such as lists of references in scholarly books and articles. Modern reference management applications can usually be integrated with [[word processor]]s so that a reference list in one of the many different bibliographic formats required by publishers and [[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]]s.

Reference management software does not do the same job as a [[bibliographic database]] that tries to store records of {{em|all}} [[publication]]s published within a given scope such as a particular [[academic discipline]] or group of disciplines. Such bibliographic databases are large and have to be housed on major [[Server (computing)|server]] 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]].

Many reference management applications enable users to search bibliographic records in online bibliographic databases and [[library catalog]]s. An early [[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]] |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]], which predated the invention of the [[World Wide Web]]. Although Z39.50 is still in use, today most bibliographic databases are available as [[web site]]s that allow exporting selected [[bibliographic record]]s in various bibliographic data formats that are imported by reference management software.