You have many options when it comes to selecting a program to manage your citations; view the columns below and the tabs above for more information on specific citation managers.
All citation management programs let you:
For tips on styles and manuscript submission, see the Citation Styles/Submitting Manuscripts/Writing guide
EndNote is a client-based program, which means the software resides on your computer and is not accessible via the Internet (but you can sync with the web-based version). EndNote features include:
EndNote Support, and the EndNote Guide (v.X9 | v.20) are the best places to start when you are learning EndNote or have problems.
For a comparison of the differences among the current EndNote version and earlier versions, see their comparison chart.
EndNote Basic, a free web-based version, limits the number of citations you can store, has a limited number of citation styles, and a limited number databases that it's compatible with. Purchasers of EndNote Desktop also get access to the full EndNote Online.
EndNote Training Calendar, from EndNote.com
RefWorks is cloud-based and allows for easy collaboration. Access to RefWorks is provided by the UCB Library to UCB students, staff, and faculty. Once you are registered, log in at any computer with Internet access.
Need more help? See the New RefWorks help guide. (or the Legacy RefWorks help guide).
Zotero, an open source (free) program, may be used in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Zotero features include:
Need more help? See a Zotero guide and the Zotero support site.
See also this self-paced online tutorial, which includes several very brief Zotero how-to videos: Download; Connector; Importing PDFs; Word; Google Docs; and more (also available on YouTube)
Mendeley is a free citation manager and academic social network with web-based, desktop, and mobile versions. Works with Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and BibTeX.
Mendeley Overview: the basics of downloading and using Mendeley. And for more help, see their help guides.
Also see a Mendeley guide.
Overleaf is a free online collaborative LaTeX editor with integrated real-time preview. It offers hundreds of templates for arXiv, journal publishers, presentations, exams, dissertations, and more. The Library licenses Overleaf for Institutions to provide access to premium features for faculty, students, and staff. Sign up with your Berkeley email address to get access to these features:
Non-UC Berkeley users can also sign up for a free Overleaf account that includes unlimited private projects, up to 1 collaborator, and direct submission to selected publishers.
Overleaf offers extensive documentation for learning about both LaTeX and Overleaf. It also hosts templates customized for UC Berkeley thesis, presentations, and more.
The Library also provides basic training on writing in LaTeX through our LaTeX in Engineering & Physical Sciences guide and vOLT tutorials.
The tools listed above are the most popular at UC Berkeley, but there are several others available.
Some that your UCB colleagues are using include: Sciwheel (formerly F1000 Workspace), Qiqqa, Paperpile, Citationsy, and ReadCube Papers. Google Docs also has a (very limited) citation tool.
Use the open source AnyStyle to parses your bibliographies or lists of references regardless of citation style and and turns them into structured, bibliographic data. This is useful if you have a list of references (eg, in a Word document) and wish to import them to citation management software.
Before you embark on a systematic review, please understand that this could easily be a one year or more project. Here is a decision tree (source) to help you decide is a systematic, or other type or review, is appropriate.
You may also wish to peruse UCSF's Systematic Review Guide for information. You may also wish to consider conducting another type of literature review; see this table for information on several types of reviews (eg, scoping review, mapping review, rapid review, etc.). (Table reproduced from A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies).
These articles may also be helpful:
How to conduct a systematic review from beginning to end (from Covidence; easy to read summary of the 7 steps).
Five steps to conducting a systematic review. Khan KS, Kunz R, Kleijnen J, Antes G. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 2003 Mar;96(3):118-21. PubMed PMID: 12612111
A Guide to Conducting a Standalone Systematic Literature Review Okoli C. Communications of the Association for Information Systems 2015; 37(1): 879-910.
The difference between a systematic review and a scoping review (from Covidence).
PRISMA for Scoping Reviews. Includes a checklist with 20 essential reporting items and 2 optional items to include when completing a scoping review, as well as one-page tip sheets on each item.
An article on the importance of looking at the science behind the articles you review when assessing quality: Challenges and recommendations on the conduct of systematic reviews of observational epidemiologic studies in environmental and occupational health Arroyave WD, et al. Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology 2021; 31(1):21-30.
Consult the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (2nd edition) for a very thorough discussion of the systematic review process.
UC Berkeley licenses Covidence, a tool to help you with your systematic reviews.
In Covidence, you can:
import citations,
screen titles and abstracts,
upload references,
screen full text,
create forms for critical appraisal,
perform risk of bias tables,
complete data extraction, and
export a PRISMA flowchart summarizing your review process.
As an institutional member, our users have priority access to Covidence support. Our license allows unlimited simultaneous reviews, and you can add people who are not affiliated with UCB.
To access Covidence using the UC Berkeley institutional account, start at this page and follow the instructions.