Bibliographic Information Management System as a Means of Scientific Work

When writing a paper, a scientist spends a lot of time searching for sources and arranging file to be used for producing future papers. The emergence of computers caused qualitative changes in this process. The first bibliographic information management systems (BIMS) appeared in 1980s. BIMS is an e-system to facilitate the arrangement, storage and change of data and information, create and reuse bibliographic references. The main tasks carried out by BIMS are as follows: to organise and storage private or collective library of sources, and form reference lists and bibliography. BIMS uses plugs to import bibliographic references from bibliographic databases, web-pages, and text documents into specific databases. It also uses macros of text editors (Microsoft Word, iWorks Pages, Open Office, LaTeX, Scrivener and others) to organise references according to different citation styles. BIMS also helps organise group work. Some BIMS can be free of charge. They can be personal or corporate. It is possible to use them on-line. If one prefers to work locally on the computer, it is necessary to install the programme, and its functions will be accessed only through this computer. In order to access the library from different computers, it is necessary to sign up for BIMS website. But the majority of BIMS are universal in character: they can be installed and synchronised with one's own account. The aim of the paper is to acquaint scientists with such BIMS as EndNote, Evernote, RefBase, KBibTeX, JabRef, Docear, Zotero Standalone, Mendeley, and Citavi. The paper provides information on VAK.in.ua, a portal that helps organise references according to the requirements developed by Certification Board under the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The author mentions that it is possible to arrange references and bibliography using Microsoft Word text editor. BIMS helps save time, as it selects bibliographic information, organises reference lists, and exports them to text editors. BIMS is useful for scientists, research teams, postgraduate students, and students.