Citing the works you read is an important part of the research process. It helps you situate yourself within the literature of your field and become part of the scholarly conversation.

However, citing and keeping track of your references can also be frustrating and time-consuming. At OISE, the most commonly used citation style is the American Psychological Association's style guide APA 7. Citation management software can help you save time by streamlining the process of saving & organizing sources. They can help you:

collect citations from online databases
organize, edit, and search through the references you've saved
insert in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies into your papers
create bibliographies in well-known styles like APA

Citation management tools

The most commonly used citation management software tool at OISE is Zotero. However, there are many other option too! Find out more on the Citation management guide.

This video recording of Scholarship as Conversation, delivered by OISE Library & OISE Student Success Centre (OSSC) in 2020, 1 hr 40 mins (UTORid required) helps think through how using citations and organizing references integrates into the reading and writing in your work.

Fall 2025 in-person workshops

These in-person workshops offer an introduction to using Zotero, a free, open-source reference management tool. No prior Zotero knowledge is required. Please note that this is a workshop intended for beginner Zotero users – if you have advanced Zotero questions, please consult Zotero's extensive documentation.

Introduction to Zotero - 1:30pm - 3:00pm, Tuesday, November 4: Register
Introduction to Zotero - 10:30am - 12:00pm Thursday, November 13: Register

Recorded OISE Zotero workshop

Introduction to Zotero, delivered by OISE Library, 2023, 1 hr 2 mins

If you have more questions about citation management, get in touch with us at oise.library@utoronto.ca or connect with OISE Library research services.

OISE support for citing sources

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Related services & tools

OISE Library research services

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