Paperpile and Google Docs

For many years now, I have urged students and colleagues, to immediately stop typing their citations and references, and get on board with any one of the reference management systems, also called “bibliography database managers,” available. There is simply no reason to continually type the same information over and over, relying on your own typing accuracy, and remembering how to format your citations and references accurately—accomplishments that are way too time consuming and simply beyond human capability. But as convincing as this argument is, more often than not many who were subjected to my urging declined to make the commitment to using a reference manager. Often people felt they did not have the time to invest in learning how to use the program and for many, learning such an application seemed like a huge technological hurdle they just could not face! I have to say I understood their reticence, having experienced the challenges of Endnote myself. But I also knew very well that making the investment of time, and learning at least the basics of a reference management system, would be well worth the effort.