Reference Management
What can I do by using reference management software?
- Automatically fill in book or article data (e.g. by entering the ISBN)
- Collect and organise references and enhance them with abstracts, keywords and comments
- Import search results from databases and references from other programmes
- Automatically create reference lists (with selectable citation styles)
- Collect important citations and ideas for a research paper
- Search for citations via comfortable plugin directly in Word with immediate embedding. Short title records and a reference list are immediately displayed in the corresponding citation style
- Edit literature projects in a team (cloud function)
Our campus license Citavi
Bielefeld University Library offers free use of the reference management software Citavi to all members of the university (campus licence since 2008). This service includes general and subject-specific tuitions and consulting services for the use of the software.
The Citavi campus licence expires on 31 March 2027 and will not be renewed due to the provider’s current terms and conditions. From that date onwards, Citavi will no longer be licensed through the university and will therefore no longer be available to all members of the university under the campus licence.
As an alternative to Citavi, we recommend Zotero. Zotero is an open-source reference management programme that runs on all common operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS). To help you with the transition, you will find detailed information on making the switch in the FAQs.
Our campus licence currently includes Citavi 7 for Windows as well as the web version (operating system-independent). Version 6 can still be used.
Please note that Citavi Web does not include all the functions of Citavi for Windows and that Citavi Web can only be saved in the Citavi Cloud. For Mac users, we therefore recommend using Zotero.
Download / Personal License Key
Step 1: Create personal Citavi Account
Please register for a Citavi account. When you sign-up it is necessary to authenticate as member of Bielefeld University using your university mail address (@uni-bielefeld.de).
Step 2: Download and install Citavi for Windows
Storage in the Cloud
Citavi allows you to store your data locally and in the cloud. When storing data in the cloud, the library expressly points out that only non-critical data may be stored, as only the provider has data sovereignty. Critical data must be stored locally or on a university drive. It is therefore the responsibility of the Citavi project management to influence Citavi project participants to keep critical data away from Citavi or to remove it if it has been saved there.
Zotero
Zotero is an open source reference management programme that runs on all common operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS) and can be connected to Word, Libre Office and Google Docs. Its use is not linked to a licence, i.e. Zotero can continue to be used after the end of your studies or if you change universities. We also offer training courses for literature management with Zotero.
- Training courses on literature management with Zotero
- Instructions for using Zotero with the university cloud Sciebo (PDF, in German only)
- Zotero Download / Documentation
For more detailed information about Zotero and switching from Citavi to Zotero, please visit our FAQ section.