These tools allow you to build your own database of source citations, that you can use to create and format in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies. Export citations from scholarly research databases to your citation manager. Capture citations from websites and more.
Key considerations in choosing a citation manager:
Most citation managers capture a link back to full text articles when gathering the citation information, but you may not want to rely on that for your ongoing access to the article. Some citation managers, such as Zotero, give you options for capturing and storing the article pdfs along with the citation, but there are usually limits to the amount you can store on a free account. It can also be a hassle to try and access your pdfs through your citation manager. Depending on the volume of literature you need to capture for later reading, you may want to consider storing.