A reference management program is used to keep track of the literature collected for your own scientific project and thus helps with the creation of a scientific publication. Depending on the program, citations and references can be managed and output in a suitable citation style.

If you have been using Citavi because knowledge organization is important to you, we recommend switching to Zotero and have compiled information on installing Zotero for you.

Depending on your previous working methods and the status of your projects, we suggest the following procedure:

The Citavi university license is available until 31.12.2024. If you have completed your writing project by then, there is no need to take any action. Continue working with Citavi as usual. For new writing projects, we recommend using Zotero.

Transfer your writing project to Zotero. The web version provides you with 300 MB of storage space. If you need more storage space, you can synchronize file attachments in Zotero with the HTW cloud (or comparable cloud storage services) via WebDAV. You can find instructions here.

Please note:

Unfortunately, the references in your text that you have created with Citavi cannot currently be automatically linked to Zotero.

You can also import locally saved projects to Zotero without a Citavi account. You can find the backup copies in your Citavi backup folder (file extension .ctv6bak). You can unzip the file as described here (instructions from Zotero, English) or here (pdf, instructions from HTW Berlin, German) and then import it into Zotero.

Cloud projects in Citavi Desktop are not automatically saved locally on your computer. After the license expires, you will no longer have access to them with other reference management programs. Make sure you back up your project as a local project in good time. You can import local projects to Zotero even after your license expires.

Private license
If you are considering purchasing your own license, check the current conditions with the provider.

Transferred data will be:

• Literature sources with all bibliographic data
• Quotations and comments as notes
• Assignments (but without reference to the title or project)
• PDF documents including the markings

Not transferred data will be:

• Categories or keywords that you have added to knowledge items (e.g. quotations or comments) in Citavi.
• Assignments to a source in knowledge items (e.g. in citations or comments)
• Images
• References to other sources created with Citavi

If changing the reference management program is not an option for you because you may be working on extensive texts with many references, you can purchase a single license after the campus license expires.

A detailed overview of the advantages, disadvantages and functions of various reference management programs has been compiled by the colleagues of the library of the Technical University of Munich and the SLUB Dresden: