How do you know which citation manager is right for you?
Check the chart below which compares the citation managers we support, and consider questions such as:
- 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?
Mendeley 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.
Consider taking a library workshop on a particular citation manager, or a session introducing all the features that they share.
Citation Manager Comparison
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EndNote Desktop | Mendeley | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Cost
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Free to U of M students, staff, & faculty | Desktop: $115.95 (version X7 academic pricing as of Aug. 2016) at U of M Bookstore | Free for basic edition | Free |
|
Access
|
Access free from Web Of Science |
Desktop: software (Mac/PC) Allows work offline |
Download a desktop version—allows offline use and online version at Mendeley |
Firefox plugin or standalone versions 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 | Share your library with up to 14 other EndNote Desktop users | 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 for users who write a lot of papers and for long term research projects. |
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 sources (non-journal)
|
|
Ease of Use
|
Moderately easy |
Desktop version is more difficult to learn. | Moderately easy |
Easy
|
|
Importing Citations |
||||
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... from library databases
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Yes
|
Yes | Yes |
Yes
|
|
... from library catalog
|
Yes
|
Yes | Yes |
Yes
|
|
... from websites
|
Save manually
|
Save manually | Yes |
Yes
|
| PDF annotations & highlighting | No | Yes | Yes |
No 3rd party software options available |
| Storage Capacity & |
Limited to 10,000 references
|
Unlimited |
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 |
Can add notes and tags.
|
|
Word Processing Software Compatibility
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Cite-While-You-Write: MS Word and OpenOffice |
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, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, & Google Docs
|
|
Citation Styles
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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. | 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
Additional Resources
Citation Management Tools Guides
