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Citation management tools - Materials Science & Engineering Research Guide - Library Guides at Iowa State University
Iowa State University
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Materials Science & Engineering
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For both new and experienced library visitors: learn about library services and the resources available
to faculty, staff, and students in Materials Science and Engineering.
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Citation management tools
Bibliographic or citation management tools can
make it easier to organize and cite references.
They do this by collecting, organizing, and
storing the citation information about the
references you save, and integrating that
information into a word processor to
automatically generate citations and reference
lists for you.
If you are already using a citation manager or
would like help getting up and running with one,
ISU librarians provide support for three options:
EndNote (paid and free / basic), Mendeley
(free), and Zotero (free).
The sections below provide links to ISU Library
guides for each citation manager and some
basic information about their strengths and
weaknesses.
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Eric Schares
he/him
Email Me
Contact:
150 Parks Library
Ames, IA 50010-2140
515 294-2117
Subjects:
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Engineering,
Industrial &
Manufacturing
Systems Engineering,
Library Science,
Materials Science &
Engineering
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Citation management tools - Materials Science & Engineering Research Guide - Library Guides at Iowa State University
Which citation manager?
There is no one citation management
software that is objectively "better" than
another. All of the citation managers listed here
share the same basic functionality: storing and
organizing bibliographic information, generating
citations, integrating with web browsers and
word processing software, and allowing for
collaborations / group projects.
You will need to choose the option that makes
the most sense for you. If you are collaborating
with others and they are already using a citation
management program, it would be a good choice
to use the same system.
The Library supports EndNote Basic (formerly
called EndNote Web), Mendeley, and Zotero.
Compare your options: Here's a good list that
compares EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero,
created and maintained by librarians at Penn
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State University Libraries.
Or attend one of our Introduction to Citation
Management workshops, offered each
semester, for an introduction to all three and the
chance to work with our specialists as you get
started. The link below contains the workshops
schedule for the current semester and includes a
sign-up link for the citation management
workshop.
Library Workshop & Events Calendar
https://instr.iastate.libguides.com/materials/citation
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Citation management tools - Materials Science & Engineering Research Guide - Library Guides at Iowa State University
Zotero
Zotero for Citation Management
A guide from the ISU Library: get started
using Zotero to manage citations.
Zotero
Documentation for Zotero.
Unlike Mendeley and EndNote, Zotero is an
open-source citation management program.
Zotero exists as a desktop application, which
connects seamlessly with Word, and a
"connector" for each of the major browsers that
allows you to gather citation information from the
web. Zotero also does a fairly good job of pulling
metadata (information about a source, which is
needed to create citations) out of PDFs for you.
Zotero integrates very well into the most
commonly used browsers for Windows, Mac,
and Linux. It can collect better, more complete
citations than the other options in some cases,
especially from web resources. The latest
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versions of Zotero utilize Unpaywall to find free
PDFs of articles and connect with Retraction
Watch to flag retracted items. It can be
seamlessly integrated into Word and other word
processing programs such as LibreOffice. You
can also use Zotero with Google Docs in Firefox
and Chrome!
If you are interested in open source alternatives
to the mainstream citation management
programs, or are interested in a citation manager
that works with Google Docs or can help you find
free (and legal) versions of papers, consider
using Zotero.
https://instr.iastate.libguides.com/materials/citation
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Citation management tools - Materials Science & Engineering Research Guide - Library Guides at Iowa State University
EndNote Basic
Getting Started with EndNote & EndNote Web
ISU Library guide to get you started with
EndNote/EndNote Basic.
EndNote has the greatest functionality (probably
more than most researchers would ever need to
use), but you have to buy the software. Visit the
ISU Book Store for information on available
versions and pricing.
EndNote Basic is cloud-based and free, though
ISU affiliates have access to many more citation
styles and more storage for files than nonaffiliates. You can also share references with
collaborators when working in a group. If you
have both EndNote and EndNote Basic, you can
sync them together. However, there is no need
to have or use both - they are independent of
each other.
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If you frequently use Web of Science, consider
using EndNote or EndNote Basic. Since Web of
Science and EndNote are owned by the same
company, they integrate seamlessly.
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Citation management tools - Materials Science & Engineering Research Guide - Library Guides at Iowa State University
Mendeley
Getting Started with Mendeley
ISU Library guide to get you started with
Mendeley.
Mendeley also has both a desktop version
(Mendeley Desktop) and a web version
(Mendeley Reference Manager). Both versions
of Mendeley are free, but some features require
a premium (paid) membership. There is also a
Word add-in called Mendeley Cite.
Mendeley's features are very similar to Zotero:
you can drag and drop PDFs to extract
metadata, create group libraries, and organize
your references with folders, notes, and tags.
However, public groups were recently removed
from Mendeley, so if you want to create a public
list of references, Mendeley is not a good option.
If you use the online version of Word or are a
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major user of Elsevier search tools (such as
Scopus or ScienceDirect) and have an Elsevier
account already, you may want to consider using
Mendeley.
Last Updated: Jun 27, 2023 3:29 PM
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Subjects: Materials Science & Engineering
Tags: biomaterials, ceramics, composites, engineering,
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