Business

Please note: there are no citation management products that store data exclusively on Canadian servers. Popular competitor products like Endnote, Mendeley and Zotero all store their data on non-Canadian servers.  Use of these services is voluntary and by using them you will have your username, email address and citations stored on a US server means that your account information will be subject to US laws, specifically the US Patriot Act, which allows US authorities to have access to your personal information.

There are many tools available to assist you with managing the references that you collect in the course of your research. Features may include:

• formatting citations and reference lists according to different styles
• allowing you to add your own annotations, tags, links.
• integration with word processing applications
• managing references for different projects in folders 
• accounts or groups that allow you to collaborate with other researchers
• uploading files and associating them with references in your database
• exporting references for use in other tools

This guide is meant to assist in selecting a tool that serves your needs, and to offer links to help resources.

Citation management software is a very useful tool, but remember that it is only a tool.  Like a spell checker, it gets things right most of the time but does not take the place of careful proof-reading.

No one citation management tool does everything that you need.  It is important to think about your needs and select a tool that best suits it.  Most citation management tools allow you to take copies of your data and import that data into another product, should you discover that the tool that you've selected is limiting.