It is recommended that Endeavour students have a strong understand of APA 7 referencing before they start downloading and using reference managers, as the auto-generated bibliographic data in these programs may have errors that will need to be double checked.
Endeavour recommends using Zotero or Mendeley Reference Manager for compiling references. Both programs store references in your personal library, can automatically format bibliographies into the APA referencing format, are compatible with Word, and can export citations directly from online databases.
ZOTERO
Zotero is a free reference managing software that is useful for referencing different sources.
Zotero can be used to create and manage libraries of resources as well as generate citations and reference lists.
Zotero has 300MB of free storage.
Download and install Zotero from Zotero.org/download. Make sure Word is closed before you run the installer so Zotero can be installed into the Word toolbar.
Click the “Install Connector” link for your internet browser and follow the instructions.
When searching for references online, Zotero will read the pages you view to see if they contain citations to books, journal articles, or other sources.
If Zotero detects that you’re looking at a book, catalogue, or other informational site, a book icon will appear beside the address bar in your browser. Selecting the icon will automatically save the citation to your open Zotero desktop app.
If Zotero can’t automatically capture the citation data from a webpage, you can still add them to your Zotero library by right-clicking and choosing the “save to Zotero” option from the drop menu.
To add citations and referencing in Word, select the Zotero tab on the top menu. Click the Add/Edit Citation button on the toolbar, which will also give you the choice of bibliographic styles. When the red search-bar appears, search for the title or author’s name of the saved reference in your library. Once selected, Zotero will add the citation at your chosen location in the document.
At the end of your paper, click the insert Bibliography button to insert your bibliography. New citations will be added automatically.
MENDELEY
Mendeley Reference Manager is a free desktop application tool that can help you manage references.
Mendeley an integrated PDF function and can create citation records from importing a PDF file using the browsing extension.
Mendeley has 2G of free storage.
Create an account on the Mendeley website. After registering your account, click on the arrow beside your name in the top right-hand corner.
Mendeley will then download and can be installed on your device.
Click the Mendeley icon in the bookmarks bar in your browser to use the Mendeley Web Importer. This extension will scan the current browser window for references and retrieves text PDFS whenever possible. You can then save new documents to your Mendeley library, and Mendeley will scan each document for details such as title, author, and journal.
To add papers to Mendeley, you can drag and drop a PDF into the Mendeley Desktop window, which will extract the details of the document and create the library entry. Opening the text in your library gives you the option to write annotations or highlight relevant sections.
To help cite sources, the Citation Plugin allows a quick and easy method for citing your references. It can be installed using the tools bar in Word. Once installed, you can select the Insert Citation button on the toolbar, and the Mendeley Citation Editor will appear. After you select your reference from the library, it will be inserted into the document.
You can then create a bibliography by selecting the Insert Bibliography button on the plugin toolbar, which will generate a list styled to the Citation Style you have selected. The bibliography will also reorder and restructure itself every time you add a new citation, so there’s no need to reorder the list.
