Citation Management Tools

This guide will present tools to help with managing your sources as you research.

Comparing Citation Managers

Features

EndNote icon

EndNote Basic

Mendeley icon

Mendeley

Zotero icon

Zotero

Add notes to references Yes, in “notes” field Yes, via “notes” tab in desktop version Yes, notes can stand alone or be attached to references
Annotate PDFs No Yes in PDF viewer Yes, with new built in PDF viewer
Attachment limits

No limit on attachments per  citation;

no limit on file size; total attachment storage limited to 2GB

No limit on attachments per citation;

attachment file size limited to 250MB; total (free) attachment cloud storage limited to 2GB

No limit on attachments per citation;

no limit on file size; total (free) attachment cloud storage limited to 300MB

Auto-complete data entry No Yes, for journal title, tags, keywords Yes, for author(s), journal title, tags
Collaboration and sharing

Share EndNote Web account with other EndNote Web users (cannot share file attachments)

Create shared groups that all users can edit

Create public and private groups

Automatic synchronization of collections among multiple computers

One private group of 3 members free (costs for private groups)

Create public and private groups

Automatic synchronization of collections among multiple computers

Cost Paid by UA Libraries Free; option to pay for additional cloud storage or additional private groups Free; option to pay for additional cloud storage
Creates formatted bibliographies and in-text citations in a word processor Yes Yes Yes
Direct export from online databases Yes, via Capture Reference importer Yes, via web importer Yes, via browser connectors
Direct search of online databases Yes: List Can search the Mendeley database (papers in the libraries of other users) No; only identifiers such as DOI or ISSN
Duplicate detection Yes Yes Yes
Edit or create citation styles No, must request from EndNote support Yes, via the Mendeley CSL Yes, via Citation Style Editor
Export data between citation managers Yes Yes Yes
Field searching No - searches entire record only Yes, by author, title, publication names, year & notes Yes, any field
Filters for importing from online databases Yes Import from supported websites and databases via web importer. Importing is based on browser connectors; works on web pages as well as database records
Full-text PDF search No Yes Yes
Global find/replace editing Yes No No
Journal abbreviation lists None Abbreviations based on citation style selected; can be edited Version 4.0 and later can automatically abbreviate journal titles in Index Medicus/MEDLINE format
Mobile device applications No iPad/iPhone app, Android app iOS app; 3rd party apps for Android
Number of reference types 51 pre-defined 20 pre-defined 38 pre-defined
Operating System Requirements (for most recent version) Web-based Windows; Mac; Linux Windows; Mac; Linux
Read-only sharing Yes (Read-only share “group” with anyone who has an EndNote Web account) Yes (By “follow” option through web interface) Yes (via member settings within groups)
Retrieve citation information from PDF No Yes- PDF text analyzed for information, DOI, Arxiv, PubMed, Crossref ids all used; Mendeley also uses it's own database to check citations Yes - uses DOI or other extracted information from PDF; matches in Unpaywall and Google Scholar
RSS feeds No Yes Yes
Screen capture webpages No No Yes
Sorting capabilities Author, title, year, and more Any field Any field
Spell check No No No (words in notes highlighted with red squiggle - English only)
Storage in cloud and maximum number of records

2GB cloud storage

10,000 records/library

2GB cloud storage

Unlimited records/library

300MB cloud storage free; add more for annual subscription

Unlimited records/library

Support EndNote Support via email or chat Help Guides and Groups User forums with Zotero developers often answering

 

NOTE: This chart is adapted from one found on the University of Wisconsin- Madison libraries website: https://www.library.wisc.edu/research-support/collecting-organizing-analyzing-information/citation-managers/comparison-chart/
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