News

Search tip: Organising literature with reference manager software

article_published_on_label
December 8, 2020

When you find relevant literature for your research project, you need to organise it so you can easily retrieve it when you need it. You can use reference manager software for this.

What is reference manager software?

Reference manager software is a software that lets you organise your literature, and then cite it in essays or papers. You can consider it your own library with literature that is only relevant for you.

What can I do with reference manager software?

Besides citing in text and making reference lists, you can also use the reference manager software to store, import and annotate PDFs, organise your literature per project, or share your library to easily collaborate with others.

Which reference manager software should I choose?

The WUR Library supports EndNote and Mendeley. Which one you choose depends on your own preferences, but also perhaps on your science group. Using the same software as your group will facilitate collaboration.

EndNote is a licensed program. It is free for WUR staff and students, and has unlimited storage space. Many databases have export options for EndNote, but it is not as user-friendly as Mendeley.

Mendeley is free to use, even you leave the WUR. It is a user-friendly program but has limited free storage space (2GB) and you can setup only one 3-members private group with the free account.

You may want to try out both to see which one best suits you. Have a look on their website to read about their features.

Do you want to know more about how to use reference manager software? Join one of our EndNote live demo. You can also find lots of tutorials online and on our website to help you get started.