Stop typing out those references! Quit looking up where the commas are supposed to go in APA or AMA or whatever style you need to use. Avoid making piles of articles on your desktop. You should be using a reference management tool!
Reference management software can help you collect and organize your references (journal articles, books, Websites, videos, etc.), and then generate citations and bibliographies for your papers, scholarly articles, and any other publications.
There are a lot of different reference management programs that can help you gather PDFs and format your reference lists. EndNote, RefWorks, Papers, Mendeley, and Zotero are some of the most popular programs. With so many reference management tools available, it can be difficult to decide which one to use. For example, do you need to share references with project collaborators, or should you use the cloud versus the desktop version. To help you decide, Medical Center Library staff have developed a LibGuide with a handy reference chart that compares some of the features of each tool and provides help on how to install and use the tools. Duke provides the full version of both Endnote and RefWorks FREE to Duke faculty, staff and students.