Editing Reference management software

{{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.

==Citation creators==
'''Citation creators''' or citation generators are online tools which facilitate the creation of [[Citation|works cited]] and [[bibliographies]]. Citation creators use [[web form]]s to take input and format the output according to guidelines and standards, such as the [[Modern Language Association]]'s [[MLA Style Manual]], [[American Psychological Association]]'s [[APA style]], [[The Chicago Manual of Style]], or [[Turabian]] format. Some citation creators generate only run-time output, while others store the citation data for later use.{{Citation needed|date=October 2014}}

==Research on software usage==
In 2013, a comparison of usage of [[EndNote]], [[RefWorks]], and [[Zotero]] among the legal scholars at the Oxford University Law Faculty was performed by survey. 0% of survey participants used RefWorks; 40% used Endnote; 17% used Zotero, mostly research students. The difficulty of using RefWorks, Endnote, and Zotero by Oxford legal scholars was estimated by the author as well. A comparison of these tools for legal scholars was made across several usage scenarios, including: installing and setting up [[Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities|OSCOLA citation style]]; building a personal legal bibliographic library and using extracting metadata from legal bibliographic databases; generating footnotes and bibliographies for academic publications; using and modifying OSCOLA citation style.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meredith |first=Sandra |date=2013-01-21 |title=Critical review of referencing software when used with OSCOLA |journal=European Journal of Law and Technology |volume=4 |issue=1 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2184098 |issn=2042-115X}}</ref>

In the same year, a survey conducted at the [[University of Turin]] found that knowledge of software was high but adoption was not, and the most known and used software was EndNote.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Francese |first=Enrico |year=2013 |title=Usage of Reference Management Software at the University of Torino |url=https://www.jlis.it/index.php/jlis/article/view/244 |journal=JLIS.it |publisher=University of Florence |volume=4 |issue=2 |doi=10.4403/jlis.it-8679 |access-date=2022-06-04}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Comparison of reference management software]]
* [[COinS]] – method to embed bibliographic metadata in the HTML code of web pages
* [[Z39.50]] – international standard client–server, application layer communications protocol for searching and retrieving information from a database over a TCP/IP computer network; widely used in library environments

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite web |url=https://isg.beel.org/blog/2013/10/14/what-makes-a-bad-reference-manager/ |title=What makes a bad reference manager? |last=Beel |first=Joeran |website=Intelligent Systems Group, University of Siegen |date=2013-10-14 |access-date=2016-09-08}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fenner |first1=Martin |last2=Scheliga |first2=Kaja |last3=Bartling |first3=Sönke |date=2014 |chapter=Reference management |editor1-last=Bartling |editor1-first=Sönke |editor2-last=Friesike |editor2-first=Sascha |title=Opening Science: The Evolving Guide on How the Internet Is Changing Research, Collaboration and Scholarly Publishing |location=New York |publisher=[[Springer-Verlag]] |pages=125–137 |isbn=9783319000251 |oclc=871176030 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-00026-8_8 |doi-access=free }}
* {{Cite web |url=https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1320978 |title=Reference management software comparison |last=Universitätsbibliothek Technische Universität München |date=February 2025 |access-date=2025-02-17}}

{{Reference management software}}

[[Category:Reference management software| ]]