- This article contains a list of best free reference management software for Windows. These software are reference manager plus bibliography software which can be used by students, teachers, scholars, or any research participant to organize their knowledge database. You can basically arrange and manage references which you have used in your study and research.
- Citation Machine® helps students and professionals properly credit the information that they use. Cite sources in APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, and Harvard for free.
Mendeley is a free citation manager and academic social network with web-based, desktop, and mobile versions. Works with Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and BibTeX. Introduces social networking tools to collaborate with fellow researchers, including sharing lists of references and collaborative tagging of documents; Add PDFs to your citation library.
Papers helps you collect and curate the research material that you're passionate about. Our award-winning reference manager will dramatically improve the way you discover, organize, read, annotate, share, and cite.
'I wish I would have known about ReadCube Papers in college. This is amazing. I'm in love.'
'Papers is an excellent app for organizing my personal library, citations, references, and write notes.'
'ReadCube Papers is the best! It's on all of my devices. I love it!'
'Great app, love it for organizing research papers and other publications.'
Andrea D.
'Simple, intuitive, works online (web browser) and offline (desktop app). Smart lists are also really useful.'
Gael S.
'Papers is extremely helpful and makes everything organized well. I really appreciate what you have contributed to the research community.'
'I very much liked the previous versions of Papers, but I like Readcube Papers even more.'
'I continue to be impressed by the steady of new features added each month.'
'Having tried other apps, Papers is just plain smarter. It automates so many of the tedious steps I used to have to do manually.'
Michael T.
'It is a very helpful tool, I like it very much - even more than Papers3! Thank you for that!'
'Papers is intuitive with so many useful built-in features. Thank you very much for this wonderful app.'
'Fantastic repository management, ease of use and automatic data uploading. Such a useful piece of software!'
'I am happy to have continued using Papers and have always been positive + have recommended it to colleagues.'
'The Papers browser extension plugin is my favorite part of the app.'
Nick F.
Search & Save
Search across your favorite scholarly search engines (in app and via our handy browser extensions) and enjoy 1-click downloads to quickly add references & full-text PDFs to your library.
Check out our personalized recommendation engine and related article feeds to ensure you never miss an important paper again.
Read & Annotate
Papers helps you focus on the task at hand with our full-screen Enhanced PDF reader. Highlight, underline, strike through, make inline notes, draw and add sticky notes. Switch between different documents with tabs, view supplemental files or jump to referenced articles - conveniently linked inline.
Cite Faster with SmartCite
Our users LOVE SmartCite because it's fast, reliable, and most important - easy to use! Simply add the SmartCite Add-in to Word (2016+) or Google Docs and you'll have access to your entire library right from your document.
- Search for references within your personal or shared collections or use our built-in search engine.
- APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, Nature... choose from over 9000 citation styles built into SmartCite. Need something specific? Customize your own style!
- SmartCite was made for collaboration so simply email your document to another Papers users and they'll be able to pick up right where you left off!
It's Time to Get Organized
Say goodbye to desktop clutter and those folders of uncategorized PDFs.
Papers automatically identifies and matches imported articles with not only the complete metadata, but also available supplemental data, citations and full-text (if available).
Free Citation Manager For Mac
What's more? Use tags, labels, ratings, smart collections, file management and watch folders to keep you organized down the road.
Share & Collaborate
Papers users can create private shared collections to collaborate with up to 30 other Papers users at a given time. Simply add your collaborator by email and they will be added to your shared folder. Perfect for remote teams, lab collaborations, journal club, or tackling that upcoming manuscript.
Looking for a custom solution for larger teams? Learn more about our Academic and Corporate plans
Sync Across Devices
Securely sync your entire library including notes, lists, annotations, and even highlights across all of your devices including your desktop (Mac/PC), mobile devices (iOS/Android) or even through the Web.
Plus enjoy unlimited cloud storage space for your growing personal Papers library.
In-text citations are required when you use someone else's ideas, theories or research in your paper.
Quick Guide
Examples: (choose depending if author and/or date is mentioned in text)
Quotation:
- 'The bones were very fragile' (Cole, 2019, p. 13).
- Cole (2019) found that 'The bones were very fragile' (p. 33).
- In 2019, Cole found that 'The bones were very fragile' (p. 33).
Paraphrase:
- The bones broke easily because they were porous (Cole, 2011).
- Cole (2011) discovered that the bones broke easily.
- In 2011, Cole found that the bones were easily broken (p. 33).
Note: APA style encourages the inclusion of page numbers for paraphrases, but it is not mandatory. Include page or paragraph numbers if it will help reader find the information.
Authors
No authors: Use the title in place of author. Shorten title if needed. Use double quotation marks for title of an article, a chapter, or a web page. Use italics for title of a periodical, a book, a brochure or a report.
- the observations found ('Arctic Voyage,' 2014)
- the book Vitamin Discoveries (2013)
Two authors: Within the text use the word and. If the authors' names are within parentheses use the & symbol.
- Cole and Dough (1998) argued ...
- ...if they were left to their own devices.(Cole & Dough, 1998)
Three or more authors: Include only the last name of the first author followed by 'et al.'
(Wasserstein et al., 2017)
Groups
Spell out the name in full the first time and abbreviate subsequent times only if abbreviation is well known.
- First time: American Psychological Association (2020) explained...
- Second time: APA (2020) proved ...
Best Citation Manager
Quotations
When quoting always provide author, year and specific page citation or paragraph number for nonpaginated material.
If the quotation is less than 40 words incorporate it into the text and enclose the quotation with quotation marks. Cite the source immediately after the close of the quotation marks.
Citation Management Software
If the authors are named in the text, they do not have to be used in the citation.
In fact, 'a neurosis is characterized by anxiety' (Kristen & Warb, 2012, p. 157).
'A neurosis is characterized by anxiety,' according to Kristen and Warb's (2012, p. 157) longitudinal study.
If the quotation is over 40 words, you must indent the entire quotation and start the quotation on a new line. No quotation marks are required. Cite the quoted source after the final punctuation mark.
Alberta is occasionally divided into two regions, Northern Alberta and Southern Alberta. The majority of Alberta's population is located in large urban cities, mostly located in the South. Alberta is Canada's most populous province of all three Canadian Prairie provinces. Edmonton is the Capital of Alberta. (Hern, 1996, p. 22)
Paraphrasing
APA style encourages the inclusion of page numbers, but it is not mandatory. Include page or paragraph numbers if it will help reader find the information.
- (Reiton, 2003, para. 3)
If the document does not contain page numbers, include paragraph numbers.
- (Reiton, 2003, para. 3).
If neither is available omit page and paragraph numbers. Do not count paragraph numbers.
When paraphrasing from multiple sources, include all authors name in parentheses in alphabetical order.
- (Cole, 2006; Mann & Arthur, 2011; Zigmung, 2000).