Finding scientific information

Creating citations and a reference list is smoother when you immediately store the necessary details of the publications you use.

It is recommended to save the references or source details of the publications you consider relevant

• in a separate document,
  • by copying ready-made referencing details in different citation styles provided by databases, e.g., in Oula-Finna (Cite this), in Ebsco under Cite, in Google Scholar under Cite, 
• in a reference management software,
• by logging into the databases you use.

In-text citations and the reference list can be created

• both with a reference management software, 
• in-text citations manually and the reference list by using ready-made referencing details in different citation styles provided by databases, e.g., in Oula-Finna (Cite this), in Ebsco under Cite, in Google Scholar under Cite,

• or both entirely manually.

With reference management software you can:

• save the reference information of publications found from different databases in one place, 
• organize references into folders or groups according to topics or purposes,
• insert in-text citations into your thesis text file, 
• create the reference list according to many different citation styles,
• create groups and share references with group members.

A reference management software can speed up the process of creating a reference list, which is often time-consuming and requires precision.

Mendeley

• Mendeley guide

Zotero

• Zotero guide

Reference management with BibTeX

BibTeX is a file format typically used for citing with LaTeX.

• see also JabRef.

• Name-year system
• Number reference system
• Footnote reference system

Each referencing system has many variations. The citation styles used vary between academic disciplines and publications.

Always check the guidelines for using the citation style with your supervisor or your discipline!