Citation managers (also known as reference managers) are tools designed to make your life as a researcher easier.
Tools like Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley can help you:
- Save citations of the articles you find in databases, search engines, and other sources as you search
- Keep your citations organized in a way that makes sense to you
- Save PDFs of articles and other resources with your citations
- Quickly generate references lists
- Efficiently switch to a different citation style with just a few clicks
- Share articles and resources with colleagues
- Create in-text citations
- ...and much more!
Citation managers generally have more sophisticated features that distinguish them from simpler citation generators (e.g., EasyBib, NoodleTools). CITATION GENERATORS ARE GOOD FOR SOME THINGS, BUT CITATION MANAGERS CAN DO MORE. THINK ABOUT RETURN ON INVESTMENT, RULE OF THUMB IS 10 SOURCES OR LESS, MAYBE MORE THAN YOU NEED. HOWEVER, GETTING PRACTICE BEFORE YOU NEED IT ISN'T A BAD THING.