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Libraries Indiana University Bloomington

Citing Resources and Citation Management Software Overview

Start here if you need to choose a citation management software, or if you have questions about resources to use for formatting citations.

Quick Citation Generators

Check the citations generated through these and any such tools, as they can make errors. 

ZoteroBib 

Create citation and bibliographic references for 10,000+ citation styles. Allows you to enter or look up your source's bibliographic information to produce a citation in your selected format.

Using a Library Database

Some library databases (for example, OneSearch) have built-in citation generators that allow you to click on a "Cite" button to get a citation for that article or book.

This usually shows up once you do a search- in OneSearch, click on the three dots on the right of an item record to find the "cite" button.

A screenshot of OneSearch at IU. It shows a button you may click in order to generate a quick citation for an item in the database. The button is labeled "tools" and looks like three dots.

You will still need to format your own in-text citations if you use these tools, as they generally provide your reference list citations only.

Reference Tools in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word has an in-built database to manage textual citations. It cannot store files or other related data. However, you can use it to create in-text citations and generate a bibliography. This tool is best if you are working on a solo project and need a few citations in your document. Their website provides instructions that cover most of the functions it can assist with.