Citation Management Software

Software for PC & Mac. Web-based application. iOS mobile app

Software for PC, Mac, and Linux. Web-based application. iOS & Android mobile apps.

Software for PC, Mac, and Linux. Web-based application. iOS & Android mobile apps.

No charge for current BC/CU students, staff, & faculty

Freemium. Free accounts hold up to 2 GB of content. Users may purchase additional storage.

Freemium. Free accounts hold up to 300 MB of content. Users may purchase additional storage. Open-source program

Download from Columbia Libraries, with current UNI. Sign up for a web account on EndNote.

Download from Mendeley. Register for a free account online at Elsevier.

Download from Zotero. Register for a free account online.

• The most robust of the citation managers.

• If you need to download thousands of citations, EndNote is probably the best tool.

• Includes advanced functions such as autocomplete, edit/create your own filters.

• Also has many customizable fields, displays, and other options.

• It’s easier to edit existing citation styles or create your own.

• Greater flexibility in sharing citations.

• If you need access to many different citation styles, EndNote provides the greatest number (more than 5,000).

• Integrated with ResearcherID

• Includes Spell check

• Can export and import data to and from other citation management programs

• Has duplicate detection

• Easy integration with BibTeX.

• Each user is given a researcher profile at Mendeley where one can display publications & achievements.

• You can have Mendeley watch a folder for automatic PDF importing.

• If you have a huge number of PDF files in your computer that you want to import into a citation manager, Mendeley works the most smoothly for this purpose.

• If you want to save citations of web pages, Mendeley allows you to capture a screenshot of the page as well as other data about the page.

• Can export and import data to and from other citation management programs

• Has duplicate detection

• Quick to learn; one click saves a citation directly from your browser

• Works the same for every web page and every database, without requiring log-ins.

• Makes it easy to keep track of your PDFs and annotate your references from multiple devices.

• Free and open for all

• If you want to archive web pages, Zotero allows you to capture a screenshot of the page as well as other data about the page.

• Zotero allows you to import citations from sites such as Amazon and Flickr.

• Syncing your citations to your online Zotero account is easier and works more smoothly than syncing EndNote Desktop with EndNote Web.

• Group libraries are easy to create and share

• Has RSS feeds

• Can export and import data to and from other citation management programs

• Has duplicate detection

• More complex. Takes longer to learn, but not difficult with training

• Limited sharing capability without using EndNote Online

• Focuses on the sciences

• Lose access when no longer enrolled at Barnard/Columbia

• No RSS feeds

• Free 2 GB for storing PDFs without a paid account

• Default privacy settings are set to be open

• No spell check

• No RSS feeds

• Free up to 300 MB storage without a paid account

• Because of the way Zotero gets its data, some citations may be “glitchy” and need to be expanded and corrected manually.

• No spell check

• Export references from databases

• Add citations manually.

• Add citations for websites using the browser extension

• Export references from databases using .ris format

• Add citations manually or via the DOI/PubMed ID lookup tool

• Add citations for websites using the browser extension

• Import PDFs directly from file locations and edit the metadata

• Use the Mendeley paper search feature to find papers

• Export references from databases

• Add citations manually.

• Add citations for websites using the browser extension

• Integrates with Word & Open Office.

• Paste citations one at a time into other programs.

• Auto-cite with Word via a plugin.

• Bib TeX files can be automatically generated for LaTeX

• Paste or Drag-and-drop formatted citations manually into documents or Google Docs

• Integrates with Word & LibreOffice

• Bib TeX files can be automatically generated for LaTeX

• Paste or Drag-and-drop formatted citations manually into documents or Google Docs

• Link references in your EndNote database to PDF files, images, and documents on your computer.

• Include links to Web resources.

• Set up a Watched Folder to automatically import PDFs.

• Attach multiple PDFs, data files, and other content to one entry via the “Add File” option in the citation panel.

• Set preferences to attach an associated PDF, image or web page snapshot automatically.

• A citation saved to Zotero will also save a link to its original location.

• Link to resources online or on your computer.

100,000 max. records, 5GB for attachments on EndNote Web.

Unlimited on desktop (size restricted by local storage capacity); 2 GB free web space.

Unlimited on desktop (size restricted by local storage capacity); 300 MB free web storage.

• Use the “Find Full Text” feature to search for, and find full text PDFs.

• Search within PDFs; mark up PDFs with annotation and highlighting tools.

• Web uses eLink

Mendeley's bookmarklet will

automatically grab full text if an article is Open Access (unless you say

otherwise in the settings).

Click the “Locate” button in the Info pane to locate full text for each reference.

• Collaborate by activating your EndNote Online account.

• Transfer references between the Web and your computer using

• EndNote Online.

• Transfer file attachments and figures with EndNote X5.

• Give collaborators Read-only or Read-and-Write access via EndNote Online

Shared libraries may be completely public, visible to the public, or private. Privately shared libraries may share PDFs and annotations.

• Collaborate on shared libraries of citations and publish bibliographies to the web.

• Create shared folders that can be updated by multiple people

• Predefined fields for notes and abstracts, plus 8 user-defined fields.

• All fields in EndNote are customizable. Term lists assist in adding keywords consistently to multiple fields. You can also attach notes files.

• Tag your references with keywords.

• Fields for notes.

• Robust annotation tools in privately shared libraries and your personal library, including in-document notes and highlighting.

• Predefined field for abstract.

• Tag your references with keywords (note: uses tag clouds rather than term lists)

• Create unlimited notes under the “notes” tab, make standalone notes, or link to separate notes files.

Files are saved on your computer; you

must back them up locally.

Using EndNote Online, back-ups are done automatically with the EndNote server.

• Create a backup in the Help menu.

• When cloud file syncing is enabled, your annotations and files will be saved to the web (must make account).

Back-ups can be done automatically on the Zotero server through the "sync" tool (must make account). You may also save back-up files on your own computer.

Yes, in desktop version only

Yes (using CSL Editor).

Yes (see tutorial).