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Citation Management: About

Citation Management services help you collect, store, and organize all your research sources and easily create bibliographies.

This guide features different citation management applications which are free and support APA and Chicago citation styles.

Citation management tools allow you to keep track of the sources (articles, books, websites, etc...) you use in your research and easily create citations and reference lists.

Different citation management platforms have variations in features, options, and compatabilities. But all allow you to:

  • Import bibliographic data or enter it manually
  • Save citations and organize them into categories
  • Generate complete bibliographies/works cited for papers and projects
  • Store your citations and retrieve them later

You will need to evaluate which option works best for your research needs and web capabilities. For example, some citation management services are not compatible with Internet Explorer so you may not be able to use them on a government computer.

Citation Style Guides

Citing Records in the National Archives of the United States

Library of Congress: Citing Primary Sources

Even with a citation manager it is good practice to be familiar with the components and proper formatting of the citation style you are using. Minor formatting errors do occur so always double check your citations for accuracy.

Another excellent resource is the Online Writing Lab from Purdue University which provides formatting guidelines for APA and Chicago citation styles.