Use of Reference Management
Software in Research
V. Sriram
Chief Librarian, K.N. Raj Library
Centre for Development Studies
Thiruvananthapuram
email: vsrirams@gmail.com

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

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

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.

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

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 …

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.

Citation Style
http://citationstyles.org/
https://zotero.org/styles
7126 styles and growing …
APA, Chicago Manual of Style, IEEE,
MLA …

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

Reference management software - Evolution
Proprietary / Free Open Source
1980s – Reference Manager, End
Note, Bookends
1990s – Pybliographer, Biblioscape,
2000s – 25 new software – Mendeley,
Zotero
Comparison -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_managem
ent_software

Reference management software - Evolution
 MS Word: References. Citation and
Bibliography
 Beginner: Zotero
 Advanced: Mendeley
 LaTex users: JabRef

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

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

Thank you!
V. Sriram
email: vsrirams@gmail.com
Mob: 9447251892

Firefox - Installation

Zotero - Installation

Zotero - Installation

Open Zotero

Collecting References

Collecting References

Adding items

Organizing items

Drag & Drop Items

Notes

Tags

Searching Items

Zotero – Word Add - in

Insert Citation

Insert Bibliography

Create Zotero Account

Zotero Login

Synchronize

Settings

Backup