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Course & Subject Guides

English Department Orientation - Pittsburgh Campus

Guide to resources and services available to graduate students in Pitt's English Department.

What is a citation management system?

A citation management system is a tool designed to make your work easier!

There are many great features to a citation management system:

  • save and organize your references
  • insert and format citations within your paper
  • create a bibliography
  • search library databases
  • collaborate with others online
  • discover the latest research
  EndNote Mendeley Zotero
Vendor Clarivate Elsevier Open Source
Strengths

Unlimited Storage Space

Can edit and create customs citation styles within the desktop program

Sharing capabilities include public and private groups

Crowd sourced database and individual paper recommendations 

Connector tool allows for easy reference information capture

Captures website snapshots

Word Processor Capability Yes Yes Yes
Share Resources With Others Yes Yes Yes
Social Network No Yes Yes
Operating System Support Mac, Windows, iOs app Linux, Mac, Windows, iOs app, Android app  Linux, Mac, Windows, Zotero for Mobile
Cost

Free to Pitt students and faculty via Pitt IT.

Available to Pitt staff at a reduced cost.

Free (extra cost for upgraded storage)

Free (extra cost for upgraded storage)

Storage Unlimited 2 GB 300 MB

 

What is Mendeley?

​Mendeley is a  reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research.

Use Mendeley to:

  • Automatically generate bibliographies
  • Collaborate easily with other researchers online
  • Easily import papers from other research software
  • Find relevant papers based on what you’re reading
  • Access your papers from anywhere online

Use Mendeley Desktop on the device you use most often; log in to Mendeley Web from any other device with internet access and sync your work to your Desktop account!

To learn more about Mendeley web and desktop component  please see  Mendeley @ Pitt

Downloading Mendeley and Exporting References

Mendeley -- Get started by creating a free Mendeley Web account using your University of Pittsburgh email account and downloading the software from the Mendeley website.

When you have located a title or titles you would like to add to Mendeley from a database or catalog search:

  1. Select the “Import to Mendeley” button
  2. Mendeley will detect and capture bibliographic data and import it directly to your Mendeley Web account or allow you to view the information in Mendeley Desktop.

What is EndNote?

EndNote is a popular reference management program.

You can use it to:

  • save and organize your references
  • insert and format citations as you write your paper
  • easily put together a bibliography
  • search and save article and book citations from library databases and/or Google Scholar

Use EndNote Desktop on the device you use most often; log in to EndNote Web from any other device with internet access and sync your work to your Desktop account!

To learn more about EndNote, please visit the EndNote @ Pitt guide

Downloading EndNote & Exporting References

Downloading EndNote Desktop
EndNote is available to Pitt students and faculty for free through the Software Download Service at My Pitt. The site gives detailed instructions on the download process.

Export references into EndNote from a database or other resource. Many databases and online resources offer an option to export references directly into EndNote, or an option to save to a general citation manager. Either option will work.

About Zotero

Zotero (pronounced "zoh-TAIR-oh") is an application that collects, manages, and cites research sources. It's easy to use, connects with your web browser to download sources, and best of all it's free.

Zotero will allow you to:

    Collect books, articles, videos, etc, and have them all in one location
    Easily create citations from databases and PittCat
    Tag your citations for greater searchability
    Attach PDFs, notes and images to your citations
    Enter citations and bibliographies, in many formats (MLA, Chicago, APA, etc.)
    Create in-text citations
    Share your research and references with a group

 

Step 1. Install the Zotero application

Download and install Zotero from the Zotero website.

(There's a different version for each operating system: Windows, Mac or Linux.)

Step 2. Install connectors

Connectors allow your web browser to save citations to your Zotero library.

The Zotero downloads page should automatically detect what browser you're using and give you a link.

Each browser has its own version of the Zotero connector, so if you use Chrome, Firefox and Safari you'll need to install all three.