HDFS 637: Program Planning, Assessment, and Evaluation

Citation managers store, organize, and format citations for papers and bibliographies in a variety of output styles such as APA or MLA.  Many citation managers include features such as allowing users to annotate a citation, attach a PDF to the citation, collaborate with others, or create in-text citations.  The four most commonly used citation manager programs at the University of Delaware are:

RefWorks

The University of Delaware Library has a subscription to RefWorks. Users can create multiple accounts, which are easy to share among research groups and with class project teammates. Undergraduates will find this tool generally easy to use. A strong Write-N-Cite component is available for use when writing a paper. Graduate students will find the organizational options in RefWorks an aid in the research and writing process. Faculty may find the ease of sharing bibliographies with students an advantage of RefWorks

EndNote online with the Web of Science

EndNote online is built into Web of Science and is especially easy to use with this database.  EndNote is a rather sophisticated citation manager and offers a large number of citation formats and options.  The capabilities of the purchased EndNote software that is loaded on one's computer differ from those of the web product provided by the Library. EndNote features comparison chart.

Zotero

Zotero is a free, easy to use, open source citation manager available on the web.  Many users like Zotero because of its simple integration into the browser and its ability to add PDFs, images, audio and video files, and snapshots of web page with a single click.

Mendeley

Mendeley is also free on the web.  The social networking capabilities are a major attraction of this citation management software. 

A permalink is a permanent link, stable URL or web address that will consistently point to a specific online information resource such as an article, book chapter, e-book, or other online resource. Depending upon the resource being used, permalinks may also be called a DOI (direct object identifier), a stable, durable, persistent, permanent or document link or URL, a bookmark or simply, link. Here is what they look like in our most commonly used databases:

Why bother with a permalink?  Can't I just use the URL from the address bar or load a PDF directly onto my site? 

No, Database links from the URL address bar are temporary and will time out after a certain period. To get back to your articles, the permalink will always get you back to your article because it's a permanent identifier.