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Research Guides

Citation Management: Choose a citation manager

Resources for managing information

Make an informed choice

How do you know which citation manager is right for you?

Check the chart below -- you'll see a comparison of citation managers (some the Library supports). You'll want to consider questions like:

What is the norm in your field? What do your collaborators use?
Do you prefer a Web-based tool, or one that is installed on your computer?
Will you be sharing citations or your database with others?

Endnote Web is a good choice for many undergraduates. It is free, web-based, and easy to use.

It's not a lifetime commitment - you can change citation managers. And you can use more than one citation manager and move citations from one type of manager to another.

Go HERE for more information about Citation Tools at Drew.

Adapted from U of Minnesota Libraries

Comparing citation managers

Citation manager comparison

  EndNote Basic Mendeley Zotero
Cost Free to Drew students, staff, & faculty Free for basic edition Free
Access  Access free from Web Of Science

Download a desktop version—allows offline use and online version at Mendeley

Desktop software available for download at Zotero
Use on computer or flash drive or sync across computers
Allows work offline
 
Collaboration Share libraries with other EndNote users and citations via EndNote Basic Create shared groups for citations but limited sharing for pdf's Create group libraries and sync through Zotero
Audience

Good for undergraduate level research and collaboration.

Good choice for papers for classes

Good choice if you already have a lot of pdfs for your research.
Good choice for papers for classes. Best choice for capturing web-based and other non-standard sources (non-journal)
Ease of Use

 Moderately easy

Moderately easy Easy

Importing Citations

... from library databases Yes Yes Yes
... from library catalog  No No No
... from websites Save manually Yes Yes
PDF annotations & highlighting No Yes

No

3rd party software options available

Storage Capacity &  Limited to 10,000 references

2GB for free 

More space available for a fee.

300 MB for free. More space available for a fee.
Notes & Tags Can add notes and tags.  Can add notes and tags Can add notes and tags.
Word Processing Software Compatibility

Cite-While-You-Write: MS Word and OpenOffice
Also  Rich Text Format (RTF) & Open Document Format (ODF) documents.

MS Word Plugin, Open Office, and BibTex

 
Word Processor Plugins for MSWord, Google Docs & LibreOffice
Citation Styles

 

All major styles. Can request custom styles.
 

All major styles. Can edit and create new styles. All major styles. Can edit and create new styles.

Find comparisons of a more comprehensive list of citation managers at Wikipedia's Comparison of reference management software. Source: adapted from Univ of Minnesota Libraries.

Citation managers: Wikipedia

Questions? Need Help? Email reference@drew.edu

Drew University Library, http://www.drew.edu/library