Referencing software
Software for referencing is sometimes called bibliographic management software or reference management software. It enables you to keep a database of the sources you use (books, journal articles, websites etc.) when researching your assignments. You can then automatically select them when citing your sources in your written work and produce bibliographies automatically from the citations you have included. Various output styles can be chosen for your citations and bibliography to conform to your departmental guidelines.
Generally, the software allows you to: collect and store references; organise references into folders; link to the full text, web pages and documents; cite your references and create bibliographies.
The university officially supports these two bibliographic software packages. Although we recommend RefWorks for undergraduates and EndNote for postgraduates, this is by no means a fixed rule.
Undergraduate students working with standard sources (books/articles/conference papers/government papers etc) often find RefWorks slightly easier. However, if you are using non-standard sources (maps, images, audiovisual sources etc) or are a postgraduate student who may want to import literature into the NVivo qualitative analysis package then EndNote will definitely be better. You can also download this document: EndNote v RefWorks - a detailed comparison of features for a more comparative viewpoint.
Referencing software workshops
Other referencing software
Mendeley and Zotero are free bibliographic software packages that have desktop and online options, but neither are available on the University Network and are not supported by the University. Mendeley and Zotero do not support the University of Hull Harvard or Footnote referencing systems but if your department uses APA or OSCOLA they may meet your needs.
