Managing References the Easy Way

Years ago, researchers organized their references on index cards, and citation management described the organization of these cards--and by extension, the references that they referred to--so that scientists could find specific papers as needed. Unfortunately, this system suffered from a number of drawbacks. Searching the "database" was a manual chore, and finding a reference without knowing the author or the indexing keyword was nearly impossible, as was finding every paper with a given word in

Written byDeborah Fitzgerald

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Many scientists already consider bibliographic management software a "must-have" item. In a recent poll conducted by The Scientist, 76% of respondents indicated that they use such a program to organize their reference material collection.¹ First introduced in the 1980s, this software accomplishes three separate yet related tasks. First, the program creates a reference database, with each article or resource given a unique record. Users need only to key an article into the database once, and then they never need to type that reference again, no matter how many papers they write that cite the article. This approach minimizes typographical errors, and helps standardize indexing keywords and reference formats.

Bibliographic management software is also a search tool, enabling users to query local and remote databases, such as PubMed, for specific articles. This approach eliminates the need to learn multiple databases' syntaxes. The software lets users easily find references by keyword, author, ...

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