The study presents detailed data on the use of citation tools by college students at 4-year colleges in the United States. Students evaluation the quality of the information literacy instruction that they have received in citation tools and point out the programs and tools about which they would like to learn more. The 135-page report also presents individual data for commonly used tools such as EasyBib, RefWorks, Papers, BookEnds, EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero and other programs and tools. Students also note their preference for web-based or software tools.
Data in the report is broken out by sixteen variables including but not limited to year of student class standing, age, gender, general academic subject major or intended major, SAT/ACT scores, college grades, public or private college, type of college by general Carnegie class and many other characteristics.
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
82% of students report having ever used citation software or web application tools.
Students who grew up outside of the United States were significantly less likely than those raised in the USA to report having ever used citation software or web applications.
17.46% of students have ever used RefWorks.
Students majoring in engineering, mathematics, or computer science were most likely to prefer software rather than web applications as citation tools.