Time

The lesson is expected to take about 30 minutes to complete.

About the lesson: ‘Reference tools – what are they and why should you use them?’

Watch the video here and learn how to use a reference tool to optimize your assignment writing, ensure high academic quality and save yourself trouble in the future.

Learning outcomes

When you have completed the lesson, we expect that you:

have understood the benefits of using a reference tool.
have become familiar with one or more reference tools and learned how to integrate them into your browser and word processor.
have tested the core functions of the tool: inserted references, made a bibliography and related to the choice of reference format.

Source

The lesson was produced by the University of Copenhagen as part of its learning resources for digital literacy, 2023.

Course director:

Thomas Hoffmann, information specialist, University Library (KUB)
Muhamed Fajkovic, special consultant, University Library (KUB)
Martin Weile, information specialist, University Library (KUB)
Anne Bagger, information specialist, University Library (KUB)
Karen Bendix, information specialist, University Library (KUB)

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What is a reference tool and why is it useful?

Josefine Møgelvang talks about her experiences with the reference tool Zotero in connection with her studies and explains why it is a good idea to use a reference tool.

Video: If you experience access denied, try reloading the page.
For English subtitles, please look for the CC icon in the lower right corner of the video and press English.

There are different kinds of reference tools, and they all have the same thing in common: they help you keep track of the references you come across while studying and when researching for your assignments.

By using a reference tool when you come across articles/books/material, you can:

save time and have a better overview of the books and articles you need for your assignment from the outset by saving them in the tool.
create a bibliography with the press of a button which observes the requirements of your discipline for bibliographic information (author, title, place of publication, year etc.).
document exactly where your information comes from through your references, creating a solid foundation for your argument.
build your own database, so you can easily return to a topic and resume work on it.
use your reference program (e.g. Zotero) in combination with qualitative analysis programs such as Nvivo. It makes it easier to work with systematic reviews, to structure and support your arguments and to choose methods and concepts.

You can sign up for courses on reference tools at the Copenhagen University Library.

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Footnotes and the Ancient Greeks

Footnotes are an important part of academic writing. They are used to provide additional information, source references, or explanations to specific parts of a text. Footnotes are typically placed at the bottom of the respective page and are marked with a small number or another symbol in the text that corresponds to the number in the footnote.

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Reference tools

Get help with the following reference management tools:

Zotero
The most commonly used and well-updated program. Zotero is a good, free reference management tool that integrates with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, and you can download plugins for applications like Microsoft Word and Google Docs. It can be used on both PCs and MacBooks.

EndNote
EndNote is a pay-to-use program. Employees and students at the University of Copenhagen can access EndNote via the software library on KUnet.

Mendeley
The free version of Mendeley gives you 2 GB of space to save all your references and articles. If you need more space, you can buy it.

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If you want to learn more

Courses on using reference tools
If you would like help with how to use the tools, you can register for a course on this website.
See The University library's guide to references using generative AI here.

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