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ENGL 121/203 Porter, Webster: Citing Sources and Using Zotero

Using a citation management system

Citation Managers are applications or websites that store and organize source information. This means that a researcher using a citation manager can quickly find the sources they put into the manager and can easily create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles and even create accurate internal citations while writing research papers. Citation Managers can help you: 

  • Cite in all major citation styles, with some specialized or custom styles
  • Directly import from databases and the web
  • Build bibliographies with a single click 
  • Create in-text citations by using the "cite while you write" integrations
  • May allow PDF attaching and annotating 
  • Allow you to share libraries or folders of citations with other researchers

There are many different types of citation managers. Some are free and some only work with certain sotware and systems. You can use any citation manager that best suits your specific needs, or you can opt to use your own system of organization.  

The Zotero citation management system

Zotero is an easy to use, free, open-source citation management system that is available for Firefox and Chrome.  

  • Any UST Academic Support llibrarian can assist with installation and use.
  • A Quick Start Guide is available.
  • It works well with both websites and library databases.
  • You can download a plugin that connects Zotero to word and allows accurate in text citations.
  • Groups can share their citations.
  • The cloud version syncs to the desktop version.
  • Additional file storage is available for purchase (300 MG for free).

MLA citation style