Studies and analysis of reference management software: a literature review
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paper_title: Fore‐cite: tactics for evaluating citation management tools

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore a general set of criteria that can be used by librarians and information professionals for the evaluation of citation management tools.Design/methodology/approach – Collection development practices found in the library world are combined with software selection criteria from the corporate sector and applied to the citation management environment. A discussion of these practices identifies general criteria, or best practices, that can be used in the evaluation of various types of citation management tools.Findings – Eight criteria are discussed. Key questions are raised that can assist librarians and information professionals in the evaluation process. Additional resources that may assist with evaluation efforts are highlighted, where applicable.Originality/value – Existing attempts to evaluate citation management tools have employed an approach centering on the features and functionality of a limited set of tools. While effective, these studies neglect new...
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paper_title: Storage and retrieval of bibliographic references using a microprocessor system

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Abstract A program is described for the storage and retrieval of bibliographic references. The program, designed for a dual floppy disk microcomputer system, allows fast access to references, which can be retrieved by keywords, by authors' names or by string matching. Provided a printer is available, the program prints reprint requests, while new references are being stored, and prints hard copies of the references. The program also includes the possibility of creating a new bibliographic file from one or more already existing files.
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paper_title: Managing bibliographic citations using microcomputers

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Abstract Programs are now available to construct and retrieve lists of bibliographic citations by microcomputers. Although considerable effort must be expended to learn to use them, once mastered, they can be useful to anyone who must manage large collections of references. There are several ways to use personal computers to store and retrieve bibliographic citations. Word processors can be used to manage relatively small lists of citations. Preprogrammed bibliographic systems are available that are designed specifically for this purpose. A general data base management program can also be adapted for bibliographic purposes and used for other functions as well. This essay has been prepared to provide guidance to those who have a working knowledge of microcomputers and wish to expand this to use a data management system for bibliographic purposes. The dBASE II program Is used to illustrate how to set up a bibliographic system. Methods are described on how to prepare citations for storage and retrieval using combinations of key words and Boolean operators, how to prepare selected lists of references and arrange them in alphabetic order or by subject heading, and how to print tailored lists of citations. The system was found to be highly responsive to commands and able to provide rapid retrieval of information.
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paper_title: A Guide to Conducting a Systematic Literature Review of Information Systems Research

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This working paper has been thoroughly revised and superseded by two distinct articles. The first is a revised and peer-reviewed version of the original article: Okoli, Chitu (2015), A Guide to Conducting a Standalone Systematic Literature Review. Communications of the Association for Information Systems (37:43), November 2015, pp. 879-910. This article presents a methodology for conducting a systematic literature review with many examples from IS research and references to guides with further helpful details. The article is available from Google Scholar or from the author's website. The second extension article focuses on developing theory with literature reviews: Okoli, Chitu (2015), The View from Giants’ Shoulders: Developing Theory with Theory-Mining Systematic Literature Reviews. SSRN Working Paper Series, December 8, 2015. This article identifies theory-mining reviews, which are literature reviews that extract and synthesize theoretical concepts from the source primary studies. The article demonstrates by citation analysis that, in information systems research, this kind of literature review is more highly cited than other kinds of literature review. The article provides detailed guidelines to writing a high-quality theory-mining review.
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paper_title: Reference management software for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: an exploration of usage and usability

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Reference management software programs enable researchers to more easily organize and manage large volumes of references typically identified during the production of systematic reviews. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which authors are using reference management software to produce systematic reviews; identify which programs are used most frequently and rate their ease of use; and assess the degree to which software usage is documented in published studies. We reviewed the full text of systematic reviews published in core clinical journals indexed in ACP Journal Club from 2008 to November 2011 to determine the extent to which reference management software usage is reported in published reviews. We surveyed corresponding authors to verify and supplement information in published reports, and gather frequency and ease-of-use data on individual reference management programs. Of the 78 researchers who responded to our survey, 79.5% reported that they had used a reference management software package to prepare their review. Of these, 4.8% reported this usage in their published studies. EndNote, Reference Manager, and RefWorks were the programs of choice for more than 98% of authors who used this software. Comments with respect to ease-of-use issues focused on the integration of this software with other programs and computer interfaces, and the sharing of reference databases among researchers. Despite underreporting of use, reference management software is frequently adopted by authors of systematic reviews. The transparency, reproducibility and quality of systematic reviews may be enhanced through increased reporting of reference management software usage.
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paper_title: Bibliographic Citation Management Software for Web Applications

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SUMMARY The bibliographic citation management software librarians already use to support scholarly research can also be used to deliver databases to the Web. Scott Memorial Library at Thomas Jefferson University uses a combination of Reference Manager and Reference Web Poster to publish indexes to bibliographic literature, and searchable lists of electronic journals and frequently asked questions (FAQs). This approach to serving data is suitable for materials of a bibliographic nature and/or for low budgets. To get started, all that is required is a copy of a citation management program, such as Reference Manager, EndNote, ProCite or Biblioscape. Any of these will produce static pages coded in HTML. Optional additional packages (Reference Web Poster or BiblioWeb Server) provide interactive Web-based searching.
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paper_title: Defrosting the Digital Library: Bibliographic Tools for the Next Generation Web

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Many scientists now manage the bulk of their bibliographic information electronically, thereby organizing their publications and citation material from digital libraries. However, a library has been described as “thought in cold storage,” and unfortunately many digital libraries can be cold, impersonal, isolated, and inaccessible places. In this Review, we discuss the current chilly state of digital libraries for the computational biologist, including PubMed, IEEE Xplore, the ACM digital library, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Citeseer, arXiv, DBLP, and Google Scholar. We illustrate the current process of using these libraries with a typical workflow, and highlight problems with managing data and metadata using URIs. We then examine a range of new applications such as Zotero, Mendeley, Mekentosj Papers, MyNCBI, CiteULike, Connotea, and HubMed that exploit the Web to make these digital libraries more personal, sociable, integrated, and accessible places. We conclude with how these applications may begin to help achieve a digital defrost, and discuss some of the issues that will help or hinder this in terms of making libraries on the Web warmer places in the future, becoming resources that are considerably more useful to both humans and machines.
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Title: Studies and analysis of reference management software: a literature review

Section 1: Introduction and background
Description 1: This section provides an overview of the historical context and necessity of reference management software, as well as its development and significance in the field of scientific research.

Section 2: Goals and working hypotheses
Description 2: This section outlines the main and secondary goals of the article, as well as the working hypothesis regarding the rigour of published assessments of reference management software.

Section 3: Methodology
Description 3: This section describes the systematic literature review method adopted for the study, including the steps followed to gather, tabulate, order, review, and analyze the data.

Section 4: Data collection
Description 4: This section details the process of collecting relevant articles from databases and other sources, including the criteria used to select the articles for review.

Section 5: Results analysis and discussion
Description 5: This section presents the analysis and discussion of the 37 reviewed articles, categorizing the types of reviews, functions evaluated, and the evolution and trends in reference management software.

Section 6: General
Description 6: This section summarizes common aspects and criteria used in the evaluation of reference management software and highlights significant trends and observations from the reviewed articles.

Section 7: Conclusions
Description 7: This section provides the final conclusions drawn from the review, discussing the lack of a standardized methodology, the evolution of reference management software, and the contributions of Library Science to this field.