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Using Legal Citation Checking and Citation Management Software

This guide aids Boston College Law faculty and students in collecting and managing their sources as well as formatting their legal citations and writing projects.

Tools for Organizing Your Research

These tools allow you to organize your research as you build your brief, memo or research paper.  

PowerNotes

Sign up for PowerNotes using your bc.edu email to benefit from the Boston College Law Library subscription. 

Casemap - Lexis

CaseMap is the Lexis knowledge management tool which is available as a free download to law students and law faculty.  Use CaseMap to organize all your materials and notes for a paper or brief. 

  • Organize materials and notes for a paper or brief
  • Format citations in Bluebook style as you enter them

Evernote

Evernote provides a suite of software programs and services for you to collect, store, archive and retrieve information.

  • Stores "notes" in various formats. A note may be a full-text document, webpage, web clip, photo, voice memo, video, etc.
  • Syncs between all devices
  • Stored content is searchable

Mendeley

Mendeley is a citation tool that works using a browser plug-in to capture content from library catalogs, websites, and databases to build your own library of references. You can create an account using your BC email address; you will be prompted to enter the name of your institution (BC) during registration. The Mendeley Reference Manager helps users organize their own Mendeley library to collect sources and capturing source pdf files. You can add the Bluebook citation style by downloading Mendeley Cite. There are helpful tutorials available on the Mendeley website.

Jurism and Zotero

Jurism is a variation of Zotero that is geared to collecting and organizing sources for legal writing  projects.  Jurism supports a citation style based on the Indigo Book (an open access version of the Blue Book) and allows for style guides based on jurisdiction's citation requirements.  Download the Jurism client here.  

Zotero enables you to collect and manage research sources and output citations in a number of styles, including the Bluebook.  With an easy to use browser extension you can:

  • Automatically capture citations.
  • Remotely back up and sync your library.
  • Store PDFs, images, and web pages.
  • Organize with collections and tags.
  • Access your library anywhere.
  • Fully search stored PDFs, notes, and citations.
  • Import/Export your library.
  • Collaborate with private or public groups.

Zotero is open source, free, and regularly updated.  For more information on Zotero, see the BC Law Library's Zotero Guide.