How do non-LaTeX users handle citations?

It isn't exactly hard to do references by hand, in any word processing system, just boring and a bit fiddly at times. However, given the number of questions here on references it isn't like the citation managers aren't fiddly as well.

Having in the deep dark past written citation handling/numbering preprocessers/code for nroff, spinoff, and straight TeX (since LaTeX was too foofy for real scientists), those aren't that hard to do either with a modicum of programming skill. After the pain of writing the system in the first place, it is all gravy from there.

Even 30 years ago programs such as EndNote made it pretty easy to get a citation manager that integrated well with Word (plus or minus various perversions caused by Word itself). Nowadays there are more options, and it mostly comes down to finding a word processing system and citation manager that work together and that you will stick with for long enough to make it worthwhile.

That last part is key - after investing the time and energy to build up and learn a system that works for you, it is a pain to change. All of a sudden you move from grad school to a post-doc, and your advisor doesn't use the same tool set -- what now? Do you switch from LaTeX to Word (and the citation manager as well)? Or do you do all editing/revisions on paper? Once you have switched (for whatever reason) a few times, one might decide that doing it all by hand really isn't so bad.

When working with non-LaTeX users, I've seen people use many different workflows for citation management. The answer mainly depends upon what workflow and software people use. Here's some things I saw:

• EndNote. The EndNote web version had some nice features for sharing libraries across users. I used this in Grad School to collaboratively do a review of the literature. A downside is that the program requires a subscription.
• Zotero. I use this when I am forced to write in Word. It has nice import features that can import citations based upon DOI or ISBN. As a plus, it is open source. I also think there is a web version, but we're not allowed to use at work due to security concerns.
• Google Docs now has reference managers add-ons(Thank you Konrad Rudolph for catching this). I have not used this before. But, I have written many first drafts of papers.

More broadly, my non-LaTeX workflow current consists of drafting a document in Google Docs and including references as comments (e.g., Smith et al. 2018 would have a comment with the full citation details). Once the group has written the document, someone pulls it down to Word and then adds in the citations with Zotero. Zotero can then automatically format using the same .cls files as BibTeX.

In my own, limited, experience, non-LaTeX users often have the desire to automate their workflows using reference mangers.

Other programs and workflows:

• SecretAgentMan reports that RefWorks makes nice workflows as well.
• Ian suggested Citavi works well for him.
• Formite suggested Papers.

I (and many of my collegaues) use Mendeley as paper and citation manager. It has a plugin for Word, that makes it extremely easy to insert citations.