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Citation and Reference Management: Citation Management Tools

Information about citation and citation management

At Carnegie Mellon University, we provide assistance with four tools: EndNote, F1000, Mendeley, and Zotero.  If you are interested in comparing a more exhaustive set of tools, please refer to this list from Wikipedia.

Trying to decide on a tool?  Here are some key factors to consider:

  1. Cost: while there are many free tools, most limit functionality to a fee-based version.
  2. Technical specifications: operating system, mobile capabilities, storage, and online syncing are just a few examples.
  3. Supported formats:  files (html, pdf, doc, etc.)
  4. Interfacing capabilities: 
    • importing or exporting, drag and drop, capturing metadata vs. full text, etc.
    • Searching:
      • Local and global sources: what do you need and how does it do it?  Can you search by specific fields, like author, subject, etc.? 
      • Search tool library for specific records or documents?
    • Editing:
      • can you easily edit documents and records?
      • can you annotate or tag?
      • can you remove duplicates, or merge records?
  5. Collaboration:  for example, sharing, joint editing, social networking.  More importantly, are all group members able to use this feature?
  6. Citation styles:  most effective tools should support a large number of citation styles, but it is also important to know if you can edit them for specific journals that may not be included.
  7. Cite as you write: are you able to interface with word processors?
  8. Miscellaneous: ease of use, help availability, how and where do I usually work? [see the "Choosing a Tool" tab]
EndNote F1000Workspace Mendeley Zotero
       

Institutional Option:  Carnegie Mellon University student, staff, and faculty have access to EndNote Basic through the institutional subscription to the Web of Knowledge.  Get Access.

Individual Options:

Institutional Option:  Carnegie Mellon University student, staff, and faculty have access to F1000Workspace.  Get Access.

NOTE:  Once you create an account, go to your account profile and set your proxy settings to this link: http://proxy.library.cmu.edu/login?url=$@

Individual Options:

  • Free account  free provides unlimited access to account and references with limited project features.
  • Three Project limit. 
  • Unlimited online reference storage <offline access coming soon>

Institutional Option:  Carnegie Mellon University student, staff, and faculty have access to Mendeley Institutional Edition (MIE), among other added features.  Get Access.

Individual Options:

Institutional Option:  Not Available. 

Individual Options:

  • Zotero software is free but a personal account provides limited storage (see Technical Specifications).  You can create a personal account on Zotero.com.
EndNote SciWheel Mendeley Reference Manager Zotero
       

Online Storage: 

  • Personal: 2GB with Free or Institutional access; unlimited with plan purchase
  • Shared: unlimited

Online Storage:

  • Personal: unlimited reference storage.
  • Shared: unlimited reference storage, but see collaboration below for project limits.

Online Storage:

  • Personal: 2GB with Free account; We no longer support Mendeley Institutional but you are welcome to purchase additional plans (see plans).
  • Shared: 100MB web storage with free and individually purchased plans.

Online Storage:

  • Personal: 300MB with Free; no institutional plan available; varies when purchased (see pricing).
  • Shared: depends on group membership.

Operating System: Mac; Windows

Operating System: Mac; Windows; Linux.

Operating System: Mac; Windows; Linux.

Operating System: Mac; Windows; Linux.

Add-ons: Mobile; Word Plug-in supported

 

Add-ons: Android & Apple apps; Word Plug-in, and Google Docs supported.

Add-ons: Mobile; Word Plug-in supported.

Add-ons: Mobile from a third party; Plugins

Citation Styles:

  • EndNote Basic 21 (more with institutional access; Purchase plan supports thousands of styles
  • can edit/create own styles

Citation Styles:  Supports thousands of citation styles and more can be added.  Styles cannot be edited via CSL.

Citation Styles: Supports thousands of citation styles and styles can be edited.

Citation Styles: Supports thousands of citation styles and styles can be edited.

Collaboration:

  • Private Group/members: 14/unlimited.
  • Public Groups/members: unlimited.
  • Social Networking: n/a.
  • Newsfeed: n/a.

Collaboration:

  • 3 Project limit with free version.  Unlimited for CMU affiliates.
  • Projects are shared with account holders only (private).
  • Social Networking: available,
  • Newsfeed: available,

Collaboration:

  • Up to 5 groups and 25 collaborators for free accounts.

 

Collaboration:

  • Private Group/members: unlimited/unlimited.
  • Public Groups/members: unlimited/unlimited.
  • Social Networking: available.
  • Newsfeed: available.

 

Syncing: Available with the purchase of the desktop version.

Syncing: N/A (will be available when desktop version is released)

Syncing: Available

Syncing: Available

EndNote Web Mendeley SciWheel Zotero
       

Discovery:

  • Free & searchable article collection: n/a
  • Paper recommendations: n/a
  • Readership and Metrics: n/a
  • Open API: n/a
  • Search personal library: yes
  • Search external databases: yes

Discovery:

  • Free & searchable article collection: n/a
  • Paper recommendations: yes
  • Readership and Metrics: yes
  • Open API: yes
  • Search personal library: yes
  • Search external databases: n/a

Discovery:

  • Free & searchable article collection: n/a
  • Paper recommendations: yes
  • Readership and Metrics: n/a
  • Open API: n/a
  • Search personal library: yes
  • Search external databases: n/a

Discovery:

  • Free & searchable article collection: n/a
  • Paper recommendations: n/a
  • Readership and Metrics: n/a
  • Open API: yes
  • Search personal library: yes
  • Search external databases: n/a

Document Management:

  • Annotation: supported
  • Plugins: Word supported
  • Syncing: supported if desktop software purchased

 

Document Management:

  • Annotation: supported
  • Plugins: Word only 
  • Syncing: supported

Document Management:

  • Annotation: supported
  • Plugins: Word and Google Docs supported
  • Syncing: supported

Document Management:

  • Annotation: supported
  • Plugins: Word supported
  • Syncing: supported

 

Record Management:

Export/Import: Tab Delimited; BibTeX; EndNote (XML); RIS

Record Management:

Export/Import: BibTeX; EndNote (XML); RIS

Record Management:

Export/Import: Tab Delimited; BibTeX; XML(EndNote); RIS; Refer/BiblX;MODS, and more.

Record Management:

Export/Import: Tab Delimited; BibTeX; XML(EndNote); RIS; Refer/BiblX;MODS, and more.

Need Help?

Please search our events calendar for upcoming workshops, or contact contact your liaison librarian with questions, for one on one assistance, or to suggest a tool.