Citation managers are a great way to keep track of your
references when conducting research.
They offer an organized solution to handling the various sources you use
and reference in your work. You can use a
citation manager to generate bibliographies, configure citations and reference
sections for your papers, organize citations and PDFs relevant to your
research, and share your reference materials with colleagues.
With so many great options available, it can be difficult
to decide which citation manager best fits your personal research needs. To help you decide, the libraries have put
together a chart detailing the key differences between the most popular
citation managers: https://www.library.wisc.edu/services/citation-managers/comparison-chart/
When using a citation manager, there are some important tips
to remember. Citation managers may allow
the user to launch a database search from within the software itself. However, your search options will likely be
limited, and you may not find a database that fits your research needs. For example, if you are interested in finding
scholarly articles in the field of meteorology, Zotero does not offer the
option to search Web of Science or Meteorological and Geoastrophysical
Abstracts, two databases with extensive coverage of scholarly
publications. Instead of searching
through your citation manager, search each database independently, and then
export your results to your citation manager.
The university provides access to many useful subject-specific databases
that allow for thorough coverage of the atmospheric and oceanic sciences. Limiting yourself to options within the
citation manager will prevent you from uncovering a wealth of information
provided by those varied databases. The
Schwerdtfeger Library homepage has a dropdown list of ‘Research Databases’ in
the upper right corner of the webpage if you need some suggestions for
databases in the fields of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Another difficulty arises in the formatting of your
references. Most citation managers have trouble properly formatting references in AMS style (and other popular citation
styles), especially in regards to bibliographies. Make sure to double-check what your citation
manager generates. You may need to make
corrections.
If you are new to using a citation manager and would like
some help getting started, consider attending one of the university’s
workshops. Every semester the campus
libraries host free introductory workshops on Endnote and Zotero, two popular
citation managers. For more information,
visit: https://www.library.wisc.edu/help/events/workshops/citation-managers/ or contact us in the library.