Web-based Citation Management Tools: Comparing the Accuracy of Their Electronic Journal Citations

Many students struggle when citing sources in their research papers and have turned to web-based citation tools in increasing numbers. In order to test the accuracy of the citations generated by these products, a sample of student-selected electronic journal articles was collected and MLA and APA citations for these articles were created using EBSCO Discovery Service's Cite tool, EndNote Basic, RefWorks, and Zotero. Although EndNote Basic, RefWorks and Zotero's APA citation error rates were significantly lower than that of EBSCO Discovery Service, none of the programs was capable of generating an error-free MLA electronic journal citation.