Skip to Main Content

Managing Your Citations: An Overview of Citation Managers

Information and Tools to Help You Manage Your Citations

User Experience Librarian

Profile Photo
Kimberly Vardeman

Contact:
Texas Tech University Library
Room 110A
(806) 834-4156

Getting Started

Please refer to Mendeley Quick Start for instructions and links to resources that will help you begin using Mendeley. I invite you to email me with any questions you have or to schedule an individual consultation for personal assistance.

Managing Citations with Mendeley Workshop (Video)

Managing Citations with Mendeley Workshop | Kimberly Vardeman

Archived recording of presentation on September 14, 2020

This 1-hour workshop will provide you with a beginner-level overview of Mendeley Desktop, a citation manager used to organize references, create a searchable library of research articles, and generate in-text citations and bibliographies. References saved to a Mendeley account are accessible from any device using the desktop software or by visiting Mendeley.com.

This workshop covers how to create a Mendeley account and install the software and plug-ins; import PDFs into Mendeley, organize a reference library, and search for new citations to add; and generate reference lists in Microsoft Word.

Why Cite?

Stacked volumes—It is important to credit the authors of the resources you consulted in your research. This credit is given through a proper citation that includes the original author's name, the title of the work, the date of publicationinformation enabling others to access the research you cited. You should cite sources when
  • you use a direct or indirect quotation.
  • you paraphrase or summarize someone else's writing.
  • you refer to someone else's research or ideas.
Reasons for citing resources:
  • Avoiding plagiarism and academic dishonesty
  • Demonstrating the originality of your research by distinguishing your ideas from those expressed by other scholars
  • Showing that you examined related research
There are multiple steps to citing your resources properly. These may include
  • Creating a list of citations for the resources for a bibliography, works cited, or reference list.
  • Citing the resources in footnotes or endnotes.
  • Citing the resources in the text of your document.
  • Obtaining permission to use a quote or content created by someone else.