Reference Management Software: An Introduction to Zotero and Mendeley

1. Reference Management Software:
An Introduction to Zotero and Mendeley
V. Sriram
Chief Librarian, K.N. Raj Library
Centre for Development Studies
Thiruvananthapuram
India
email: vsrirams@gmail.com

2. Contents
 Literature – What and How to manage
 Basics of referencing – What and Why
 Reference management software
 Zotero – Features
 Zotero – Word integration

3. Literature
Research requires engagement with
literature at each and every stage starting
from exploring the topic to submission of the
paper / theses / report.
Researchers gather a huge mound of
literature in the research process and are
often shocked to find that they are not able
to manage it well.
Making literature manageable involves
assessing their relevance, systematically
keeping track of the sources, and maintaining
notes / annotations

4. Managing Literature
Systematic gathering of sources:
Using proper tools to gather literature –
Google Scholar, Journal Databases, …
Creating bibliographic records and making it
error free
Organizing by topic, subject, research area…
Linking the soft copy full text for easy
retrieval
Assigning a unique primary-key for print
items.

5. Managing Literature
Annotation / Notes:
Incorporating the following Author and the audience
Summary
Critical comments
Notes on relevance

6. Referencing
What is referencing?
It is a method used by the researchers to
demonstrate that they have conducted a
thorough and appropriate literature search,
and reading. To accurately acknowledge
other people's work and ideas when writing
your own work, you need to use a
referencing style. There are many types of
referencing style such as Chicago Style, MLA,
MPA …

7. Referencing
Need for referencing
Accurate referencing reflects good academic practice
and enhances the presentation of your work: it
shows that your writing is based on knowledge and
informed by appropriate academic reading.
You need referencing to ensure that anyone reading
your work can trace the sources you have used in the
development of your work, and give you due credit
for your research efforts and quality.
If you do not acknowledge another writer's work or
ideas, you could be accused of plagiarism.

8. Reference management software
To record the details of all the information
you find. You will need these details to
provide accurate references, and to enable
you to locate the information again at a later
date
Benefits:
search easily for a particular reference to
which you need to refer back
print or save lists of references
insert citations into your document and
automatically produce a bibliography in
whatever style you require

9. Zotero
Free – Open Source
Platform independent
Works Offline and Online
Over 6700 referencing styles
Data Sharing
26 fields
34 Types of Sources
Linking full text / pdf
Integration with MS-Office / Open Office

10. Firefox - Installation

11. Zotero - Installation

12. Zotero - Installation

14. Open Zotero

15. Collecting References

16. Collecting References

17. Adding items

18. Organizing items

19. Drag & Drop Items

20. Notes

21. Tags

22. Searching Items

23. Zotero – Word Add - in

24. Insert Citation

25. Insert Bibliography

26. Create Zotero Account

27. Zotero Login

28. Synchronize

29. Settings

30. Backup

31. Mendeley
Free – Open Source
Platform independent
Works Offline and Online
Over 6789 referencing styles
Data Sharing
66 fields
19 Types of Sources
Linking full text / pdf
Integration with MS-Office / Open Office

32. Mendeley Desktop - Installation

33. Installation

34. Installation

35. Installation

36. Open Mendeley Desktop

37. Adding items

38. Collecting References

39. Collecting References

40. Organizing items

41. Drag & Drop Items

42. Notes

43. Annotations

44. Searching Items

45. Word Plug - in

46. Adding Citation

47. Insert Citation

48. Insert Bibliography

49. Synchronize

50. Conclusion
Organizes your research materials
Long term storage
Reduces data entry and formatting
Helps to develop your research

51. Thank you!
V Sriram
email: vsrirams@gmail.com