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Citation Management Tools

This guide will help you learn how to use Endnote, Zotero, and Mendeley, three citation management tools that can help you keep your sources organized and generate citations.

Organize and Find References

Creating and organizing collections in Mendeley Reference Manager is a straightforward process to help you manage your references efficiently. Using collections allows you to group articles by topic or project, making your research process more organized and productive.

To create a collection:

Click  on the left-hand sidebar.
Type a name for the collection and press enter, or click the checkmark.

Options to add references to a collection:

  • Drag and drop references from 'All References' into the desired collection.
  • Click the box for selected references, click 'Organize' on the bottom pop-up toolbar, and then click 'Add to Collection.'

Search for references in your library:

On the top bar, click to find a saved reference from a particular author, title, author, source, or year.

Editing Citation Information

You can edit citation information in your Mendeley Reference Manager.

Click on the line of the file, and citation details (i.e., title, authors, journal, volume, issue, DOI, etc.) will appear in the right-hand pane. Click on the field directly to make edits. The changes will save automatically as you make them.

Adding PDFs to the Reference Manager

If the PDF file is added to Mendeley, a green checkmark will appear next to reference in your list, indicating that the PDF is attached and readily accessible within your library. 

For references without a PDF, you can add the PDF file through several options:

  • Drag and drop the file into Mendeley
  • 'Import File' under 'Add references'
  • Attach the PDF manually by selecting the reference, clicking on the Add File button in the details pane, and browsing for the file on your computer.