Physics and Astronomy

Zotero is a great tool for managing and organizing references. Zotero is free (with an account) and is an open source tool.

Zotero is also useful for organizing readings and other multimedia sources. If you're interested in organizing a library of references for personal use, not just for a paper or project, this can be a powerful tool for that as well. 

See our guide to using Zotero for more information on how to download, set up, and use Zotero. You can also meet with a librarian for support.

BibTeX for LaTeX Users

BiTeX can be a helpful tool and a file format to describe and process lists of references, mostly in conjunction with LaTeX documents.

For information about using BibTeX and Zotero, check out this Royal Holloway University of London guide.

Always check with your instructor or the organization you're submitting work to in order to confirm what citation style to use. Preferences for citation styles can vary between instructors, journals, conferences, and other entities, so be sure to understand what citation style you are expected to use.

Additionally, you should always double check formatting, regardless of what tool you use to compile your bibliography (or even if you're putting it together manually). Sometimes, even the most accurate tools don't have enough metadata or don't have the right metadata to export a correctly-formatted citation for your reference. 

For more information about formatting and incorporating citations into your work, check out our citation guide.