reference manager annotation

Your personal research assistant

Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research.

Available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and iOS

Just need to create a quick bibliography? Try ZoteroBib .

Meet Zotero.

Collect with a click..

Zotero automatically senses research as you browse the web. Need an article from JSTOR or a preprint from arXiv.org? A news story from the New York Times or a book from a library? Zotero has you covered, everywhere.

Organize your way.

Zotero helps you organize your research any way you want. You can sort items into collections and tag them with keywords. Or create saved searches that automatically fill with relevant materials as you work.

Cite in style.

Zotero instantly creates references and bibliographies for any text editor, and directly inside Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs. With support for over 10,000 citation styles, you can format your work to match any style guide or publication.

Stay in sync.

Zotero can optionally synchronize your data across devices, keeping your files, notes, and bibliographic records seamlessly up to date. If you decide to sync, you can also always access your research from any web browser.

Collaborate freely.

Zotero lets you co-write a paper with a colleague, distribute course materials to students, or build a collaborative bibliography. You can share a Zotero library with as many people you like, at no cost.

Zotero is open source and developed by an independent, nonprofit organization that has no financial interest in your private information. With Zotero, you always stay in control of your own data.

Still not sure which program to use for your research? See why we think you should choose Zotero .

Ready to try Zotero?

• Library Accounts

• Welcome and Setting up Mendeley Reference Manager
• Using the legacy Desktop software
• Add to your Mendeley library
• Using the legacy Cite-o-Matic plugin
• Annotations and Notebook
• Collaborate
• Modifying Citation Styles
• Migration from Desktop to Reference Manager
• Help with Mendeley
• Questions? Ask Us!

Using Mendeley data and annotations to sort and search within your library

Some, but not all, of your library entry data can be searched within your Mendeley Reference Manager library.  

The following are searchable within your Mendeley library (including when within collections, folders and groups.)

• Each entry's citation information (the metadata fields, such as title and authors
• The Notes field, which you can modify for each entry within the legacy Mendeley Desktop software system

The following are NOT searchable within your Mendeley Reference Manager library

• Tags, which you can enter within the details tab for each of your library entries
• PDF or other file text
• Attached file names
• Sticky note comments made on attached PDF files
• Notebook entries within the newer Mendeley Reference Manager software system (As of November 5, 2020)
• Group, collection, and folder names

Annotating attached PDF files and using the Notebook in Mendeley Reference Manager

The newer downloadable software tool from Mendeley, Reference Manager, has an annotation feature (Notebook) that allows you to collect your notes and highlighted text (quotations) from multiple items in your Mendeley library.  Check the support page for the latest Notebook and other annotation features .

Highlight and annotate attached PDF files, and using the Notebook feature

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All things you need to know about reference manager tools: Mendeley, Zotero, and Endnote.

• January 26, 2022
• by Dr. Arnaud Brousseau
• Research Impact

Why do you need a reference manager?

When you are writing a manuscript, you need to put in references afterward, which will be a hassle if you have to do it manually. But fortunately today some tools and software have been developed to organize and manage your references very easily.

Reference manager tools also track your articles and organize everything for you so you have all your literature in one place which is basically a very nice thing to have when you are working on a project, a bachelor thesis, master thesis, or even your Ph.D. thesis.

You can just use a reference manager, and then everything will be in one place, and everything is where you need to be. There are several different programs and tools that let you put in those references, and that you can use it as a citation tool with plugins in Word or blogs, Google Docs, etc. This post will review three of the most reputable citation manager tools, EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero. Let’s start the comparative study from the Price.

The first argument is that there is a subscription fee for Endnote, while Zotero and Mendeley are free of charge. But it is a little bit more complicated than that. For example, many institutions have a license from Endnote. So it might be free for you as well, just like Mendeley and Zotero. If you’re buying EndNote for the first time, you have to pay € 276 as a One-time purchase of EndNote 20 Full License, and you get unlimited storage for all your PDFs and references. EndNote gives you a discount if you are a student, which makes it € 132 for a One-time purchase as well. 

Mendeley and Zotero are free from the beginning, but you may upgrade them by paying the subscription fee. Mandalay has free storage for 2 GB, and if you want more, you can purchase more storage which is a subscription, so you pay the money every year. Zotero has the same system, but the free version only has 300 MB as free storage for you. If you want to have the 2 GB storage, which Mendeley already offering for free, then you should pay $20 a year. Here is the individual price table regarding the Zotero storage subscription fee.

Therefore, note that Endnote has a One-time purchase while and Mendeley and Zotero have a subscription-based business model. So if you need a lot of storage, it might be best to go for Endnote rather than Zotero or Mendeley. Let’s go to the second point, which is Organization.

Organization:

An important question that may arise here is that how these reference manager tools actually manage your references. The answer is that they basically do it all in the same way. It’s just a list of all your papers, and when you click on each one, you can see the metadata for that one. It means you can see the year, the authors, the journal title, volume, pages, issue, etc. You can also open the PDF of the full-text that is linked to that paper. You can change the metadata in all tools if it is necessary. Regarding the organization, every program also has a folder structure so that you can create many folders and layers for categorizing your articles according to your projects, thesis, research works, etc. The folders are visible on the left side of the tools page.

One thing that EndNote has and Mendeley and Zotero lag is customization for your columns, meaning that you can customize, create and remove columns in your program panel. All reference manager tools have tag options, so you can just click on the Tag button and add as many tags as you want, which helps for better reference organization. For example, you can tag your papers as general or technical ones. Let’s review the next point, which is Annotation.

Annotation:

If a PDF file is linked to your article in the reference manager tool, you can annotate and make notes on the file. You can highlight some parts of the text, underline it and also make some sticky notes. In Zotero, if you open a PDF, it goes to a third-party app. 

Of course, no one intends to enter every citation in a research work manually. We just want to use a reference manager tool to do it for us in the right style. There are many different styles for citations (almost 10,000 different citation styles) that you can use for your projects. Mendeley and Zotero work with the CSL (Citation Style Language), an open-source project that helps format citations and bibliographies. It has a repository of almost 10,000 citation styles, so the possibilities are endless when you’re using Mendeley and Zotero. Endnote has its own system for the citation and has almost 6,000 citation styles that seem to be enough for every project you need to do. You can also customize styles or add new citation styles that work for all three reference manager tools.

Every reference with the same citation style should look the same if you’re using Mendeley, zero, or EndNote. However, it does matter in practice, and there are differences between output you get from reference manager tools which is mostly due to the metadata that was put in. So, if you are not putting the right metadata in your reference manager, you will not be able to generate the right references in your project. Most of the time, the reference manager can get the metadata from the PDF. But make sure you check that because it’s not always correct or some information is missing. It’s very important to have the right metadata there for the accuracy of your references in your projects.

It is important to know that on what devices Mendeley, Zotero, and Endnote work. Here are the devices available for these three reference manager tools.

Plug-in for browser :

When you find a paper in your browser, and you want to add it to your reference manager, you should use the So-called web importers, which are plugins for your browser. The browser plug-ins let you add the references to the reference manager tool you are using. Both Mendeley and Zotero have web importer options, and EndNote also has a similar thing but lets you only connect to one specific library or website. So it’s not across all websites you are using, and it’s not a plugin for Chrome.

Plug-in for Words, LaTex, and Google Docs

All three reference managers work with Microsoft Word, but more and more people are using other text formatting programs these days. One of which is LaTex which has a very good function for formatting formulas while it’s not so great for references. So you have to export all

the references from your reference manager to BibTex, which is a sort of code for your metadata, and then you have to import those in your LaTex file again. Endnote, Mendeley and Zotero, all export the data to BibTex so you can use them if you are working with LaTex. Another text-formatted tool that’s getting more and more attention under academics is Google Docs. It’s very nice when you’re doing collaborations or when you’re working on a study project together. But unfortunately, Endnote and Mendeley do not support Google Docs. Zotero, however, has a plug-in that you can use for Google Docs, and that will let you put in the references in the same way as in word basically, which is very nice if you are using Google Docs for collaborating.

Regarding the price, both Mendeley and Zotero are proposed. But Mendeley has more storage for the free option in comparison with Zotero. Mendeley is advised due to its great integration with multiple devices. J ust use Zotero , if you are interested in an open-source reference manager tool. If you need a customizer program, get EndNote which has the most functionalities and is best customizable for your needs. If you are working on research work as a collaborator, use Zotero since it has a Google Docs plugin so you can put all the references in your collaborative Google Docs documents. Now it seems you can use this post to find the reference manager that suits your needs.

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Reference Management

Open access.

• First Online: 17 December 2013

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• Martin Fenner 3 ,
• Kaja Scheliga 4 &
• Sönke Bartling 5 , 6  

39k Accesses

3 Citations

4 Altmetric

Citations of relevant works are an integral part of all scholarly papers. Collecting, reading, and integrating these references into a manuscript is a time-consuming process, and reference managers have facilitated this process for more than 25 years. In the past 5 years, we have seen the arrival of a large number of new tools with greatly expanded functionality. Most of the newer reference managers focus on the collaborative aspects of collecting references and writing manuscripts. A number of these newer tools are web-based in order to facilitate this collaboration, and some of them are also available for mobile devices. Many reference managers now have integrated PDF viewers (sometimes with annotation tools) for scholarly papers. Reference managers increasingly have to handle other forms of scholarly content, from presentation slides to blog posts and web links. Open source software and open standards play a growing role in reference management. This chapter gives an overview of important trends in reference management and describes the most popular tools.

• Reference Manager
• Bibliographic Database
• Authoring Tool
• Bibliographic Information
• Reference Management Software

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Referencing Made Easy: Reference Management Softwares

Romit Saxena & Jaya Shankar Kaushik

Open Citation Content Data

The Way We Cite: Common Metadata Used Across Disciplines for Defining Bibliographic References

Introduction.

Reference management is perceived to be tedious and time consuming by many researchers, especially when it is done manually. In the past, references used to be written on index cards and stored in boxes. Now, reference management software allows for the digitalization of a personal collection of relevant scholarly publications. The earliest programs to manage the basic task of storing references and adding them to manuscripts have been around for over 25 years (including Endnote and BibTeX/LaTeX-based programs which are still popular today), but each individual entry had to be typed by hand. In the last 15 years we have seen a number of significant developments that have made reference management much easier for the researcher:

Retrieval of reference information from online bibliographic databases

DOIs and other persistent identifiers for bibliographic information

Automated management of PDF files

Open Access for easier access to full-text content

Web-based reference management for easier collaboration and use across multiple devices

In this chapter we describe what reference managers are and provide an overview of some reference management products. We do not make recommendations as to which reference manager may be the best as this is a personal choice and depends on the workflow of the individual researcher.

What is a Reference Manager?

A reference manager supports researchers in performing three basic research steps: searching, storing, and writing (Fenner 2010a ). It helps researchers find relevant literature, allows them to store papers and their bibliographic metadata in a personal database for later retrieval, and allows researchers to insert citations and references in a chosen citation style when writing a text. To support those steps, a reference manager should have the following functionalities as identified by Gilmour and Cobus-Kuo ( 2011 ):

Import citations from bibliographic databases and websites

Gather metadata from PDF files

Allow organization of citations within the reference manager database

Allow annotation of citations

Allow sharing of the reference manager database or portions thereof with colleagues

Allow data interchange with other reference manager products through standard metadata formats (e.g. RIS, BibTeX)

Produce formatted citations in a variety of styles

Work with word processing software to facilitate in-text citation

A reference manager is a software package that allows scientific authors to collect, organize, and use bibliographic references or citations. The terms citation manager or bibliographic management software are used interchangeably. The software package usually consists of a database that stores references and citations. Once a citation is inserted into the database, it can be reused to create bibliographies which are typically found at the end of a scientific text.

Almost all reference managers allow direct importing from bibliographic databases through direct access from the reference manager and/or bookmarklets that import content from the web browser. Alternatively, references can be imported from other reference managers or from files in the BibTeX standard format with the help of import tools.

The reference database can then be searched, indexed, and labeled. Most reference managers offer tools for organizing the references into folders and subfolders. Some reference managers allow the inclusion of full-text papers in PDF format. References can be shared via the Internet and organized into workgroups so that all members can use the same reference database.

Reference managers offer tools for exporting citations and references into word processing programs by selecting relevant items from the database. The citation style can be selected from a corresponding database which contains styles that aim to cover the requirements of a large number of scholarly publishers. Some reference managers allow for styles to be edited and saved.

There is a wide variety of reference management software, and the strengths and weaknesses of reference management software are perceived differently depending on the workflows of individual scientists. The deciding factor for a particular reference manager is often its popularity within a particular community, as collaboratively writing a manuscript is facilitated if all authors use the same reference manager (see chapter How This Book was Created Using Collaborative Authoring and Cloud Tools ). Reference managers have been commercially available for a long time, but free solutions offer comparable functionalities and are increasingly gaining importance.

Some reference managers allow sharing, collaborative editing, and synchronization of reference databases across a private workgroup and/or publicly via the Internet. Public sharing of references is the focus of online-only social bookmarking tools such as CiteULike and Bibsonomy, but is also available with other reference managers. This functionality makes it possible to share Open Access papers online (see chapter Open Access: A State of the Art ) and to generate usage statistics as a novel means of measuring scientific impact (see chapter Altmetrics and Other Novel Measures for Scientific Impact ).

Getting References into the Reference Manager

All reference managers provide the functionality to manually enter bibliographic data. However, it is more convenient if the references are automatically extracted from an online bibliographic database such as Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, or Google Scholar. Most reference managers can also import references directly from a webpage, usually using information embedded via CoinS. All reference managers can import/export references in the BibTeX and/or RIS format; this is a convenient way to share reference lists with colleagues.

Bibliographic Databases

Some of the largest bibliographic databases (Web of Science, Scopus, and others) are only available via a subscription. In the last 10 years we have seen the emergence of an increasing number of openly available bibliographic databases. This trend started with PubMed in the late 1990s, includes Google Scholar, and, more recently, Microsoft Academic Search and the CrossRef Metadata Search, and now also includes bibliographic databases built by reference managers themselves (e.g. Mendeley or CiteULike). The availability of these databases increases the options for researchers to automatically import citation information, either via direct integration into the reference manager, or via a bookmarklet that captures the bibliographic content on the web page.

COinS: Hassle-Free Import of Bibliographic Data

ContextObjects in Spans (COinS) is a method that includes relevant bibliographic metadata of a scientific publication into the HTML code of a web page. If appropriate plugins are installed in a standard web browser, the bibliographic information of a reference can be easily retrieved by a reference manager, thus omitting tedious copy and paste processes. For example, if a reference is found in PubMed, a little symbol appears in the browser address line if the Zotero plugin is installed. At the click of a button, all important bibliographic information will be transferred into the Zotero database. Many scientific databases, scientific social networks, and journals support COinS (Fig.  1 ).

Showing COinS in action. At the click of a button, a reference is included into the reference manager software (Zotero) from information that is contained in the COinS information in the displayed web page: No need to manually copy references

Digital Object Identifiers and Other Unique Identifiers

Most journal articles can now be uniquely identified by a digital object identifier (DOI). DOIs for journal articles are issued by CrossRef, a non-profit organization that has most scholarly publishers as its members. DOIs can also be used for other content, e.g. conference proceedings or book chapters. DataCite is another non-profit organization that can issue DOIs, focusing on DOIs for datasets. There are also other unique identifiers for scholarly content, e.g. the PubMed ID, PubMed Central ID, or the ArXiV ID. These identifiers make it much easier to handle bibliographic information: reference managers can extract the DOI from imported PDFs, obtain more citation information using the DOI, store the DOI internally to help find duplicate records, etc. Authors only need to worry about the DOI (or other unique identifier), all the other information they need (authors, title, journal, link to the full-text) can be obtained from it.

Standardized Bibliographic Data Formats: BibTeX and RIS

BibTeX and RIS are the two most established file formats for storing bibliographic data, and one or both of these formats are supported by all reference managers. Exporting data in a standardized format is important because it allows users to backup their reference lists independently of the reference management software, to switch from one reference manager to another, or to use multiple reference managers in parallel.

BibTeX has existed since the mid 1980s and was designed to be used in combination with the typesetting system LaTeX. The format is now widely supported by reference managers that work with Microsoft Word and other authoring tools, and by online bibliographic databases such as Google Scholar.

Research Information Systems (RIS) is a standardized tag format originally invented by Research Information Systems (now part of Thomson Reuters). The format is widely supported and has been adapted over time, e.g. to include a field for digital object identifiers (DOIs).

Endnote XML and Citeproc JSON are newer formats which are not yet as widely supported. BibTeX and RIS are plain text formats. XML and, more recently, JSON have evolved into the standard data exchange formats of the Web, and are easier to process automatically. They may therefore over time become the predominant formats for exchanging bibliographic information.

Citation Styles and Citation Style Language

Citations can be formatted in many different ways: what information to include (authors, title, journal, year, issue, pages), how to order and format this information, and how to reference these citations in the main text (e.g. by number or author/year). These so-called citation styles are important for printed documents, but are not really relevant for digital content (where citations are exchanged in BibTeX and other data formats). Unfortunately, most manuscript submission systems do not accept references in digital format, and authors are forced to format their references in the style requested by the publisher and include them as plain text at the end of the manuscript (and, in turn, publishers then spend time and money to get these references back into a bibliographic data format).

What publishers are really interested in are unique identifiers, such as the DOI, for all references. This allows them to double-check the reference information against bibliographic databases (using tools such as eXtyles), and to format the citations into their preferred style. Citation information in free-text format can contain errors, and these errors are propagated if citations are entered manually (see Specht 2010 ).

Citation styles are needed not only to correctly identify all references (for which bibliographic formats and digital identifiers are better suited), but also to help the researcher while reading the text. Citations are an important part of all scholarly documents, and citation styles should facilitate that process. Even though a number of common styles exist (e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver), there is no standard style for citations in scholarly documents, and with the differences in citation practices between disciplines, it is not likely to ever happen. Some disciplines use simple reference lists at the end of the document, whereas other disciplines use footnotes at the bottom of pages and/or make heavy use of annotations.

Until it becomes standard practice to submit references in a bibliographic file format together with manuscripts (some publishers do this already), authors must resultingly deal with a large number of citation styles. This also often means changing the citation style when a paper has to be resubmitted to another journal. This is a time consuming endeavor, thus automating the process of adjusting to the various citation styles is an important feature of all reference managers.

Most reference managers support a large number of citation styles: EndNote Footnote 1 supports over 5,000 bibliographic styles, and Mendeley, Zotero, and Papers all support 2,750 citation styles. Some reference managers include a style editor, in case a particular style is not yet supported. Citation styles used to be in proprietary format and owned by the publisher of the reference manager, but the Citation Style Language Footnote 2 (CSL) has evolved as an open XML-based language to describe the formatting of citations and bibliographies. Originally written for Zotero, CSL is now also used by Mendeley, Papers, and many other tools and services. In 2012, a web-based editor Footnote 3 to create and edit CSL styles was launched, facilitating the creation of additional styles.

Managing Full-Text Content

Reference management has traditionally been about managing information about scholarly content (authors, title, journal, and other metadata). With the switch to digital publication and the availability of content in PDF, as well as other formats, reference management increasingly dealt with managing this digital content: linking references to the full-text document on the computer, performing full-text search, making annotations in the PDF, managing the PDF files on the hard drive, etc. Papers was the first reference manager to focus on this aspect, but most reference managers now have functionality to manage PDF files.

Most scholarly journal articles are currently distributed via subscription journals. This makes it important to store a copy on the local hard drive for easier access, but it can also create problems when these PDF files are shared with collaborators (which most publishers do not allow, even within the same institution). Reference management software therefore has to make decisions as to what is technically possible and convenient for researchers vs. what is possible under copyright law (see chapter Intellectual Property and Computational Science ).

Content published as Open Access does not have these limitations. This not only makes it much easier to share relevant full-text articles with collaborators, but it also means that we often do not need to store a copy of the full-text on the local hard drive, as the content is readily available.

Reference Management Tools

From the large number of available reference managers, we have chosen seven popular products that are described in more detail below. We have included a table that gives an overview of their basic features. A feature list is not the only criterion in picking a reference manager though; ease of use, stability, price, and available support in case of questions are equally important factors.

EndNote is a commercial reference management software package produced by Thomson Reuters. Endnote is one of the most popular reference managers and has been around for more than 20 years. It allows collecting references from online resources and PDFs. References from bibliographic databases can be imported into EndNote libraries. Full-text can be imported too. EndNote provides plugins for Microsoft Word and OpenOffice. References can be exported to BibTeX. While EndNote does not include any collaborative features, EndNote Web provides the functionality for collaboration with other users. Users can give group members read/write access to their references and import references from other people’s libraries. Endnote also integrates with other bibliographic tools produced by Thomson Reuters, including Web of Science and ResearcherID.

Mendeley is a reference manager developed by a London based startup, but has been bought by Elsevier earlier this year. Its strength lies in its networking and collaborative features, and also in providing facilities for easily managing PDF files. It offers both a desktop and a web version with synchronized bibliographic information, allowing access from several computers and collaboration with other users. PDF files can be imported into Mendeley desktop and metadata such as authors, title, and journal are automatically extracted. It is possible to do a full-text search, highlight text in PDFs, and add sticky notes.

The web version recommends papers to users based on their profiles and the content in their libraries. Users can create both private and public groups and share papers and annotations. Mendeley is free to use, but costs a monthly fee if the number of documents in Mendeley web or the number of private groups exceeds a limit.

Zotero is a popular open source reference manager, originally developed as a plugin for the Firefox browser. The newer Zotero Standalone offers the same functionality but runs as a separate program and works with Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Zotero also includes a hosted version in order to synchronize references across devices and share them in private or public groups.

Zotero allows users to collect and to organize a variety of web sources such as citations, full-texts, web pages, images and audio files directly in the browser. Citations from Zotero can be integrated into Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.

RefWorks is a commercial web-based reference manager by ProQuest. The Write N Cite utility enables the integration of references into Microsoft Word where in-text citations and reference lists can be formatted into various styles. RefWorks makes it easy to collaborate with others as all references are stored in the web-based version. The Write N Cite utility can also work offline, but RefWorks is not the right tool for researchers with intermittent or poor Internet connectivity.

Papers is a commercial reference management software, now part of Springer Science+Business media. Initially Papers was only available for Mac, but now there are also versions for iPad and PC. Its main strength is its excellent handling of PDF documents (including metadata extraction) and its polished user interface, whereas the collaborative features are less developed than in some of the other products. Papers uses the Citation Style Language and provides a word processor plugin.

JabRef is an open source bibliography reference manager popular with LaTeX users. It runs on Java and is thus compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac. The native file format is BibTeX which is the standard LaTeX bibliography format. The strength of JabRef is that references can be formatted directly in LaTeX, thus providing access and control over a wide range of citation styles. JabRef provides direct search and downloads from PubMed and IEEEXplore. There are plugins for word processing programs and also other Java based plugins, which expand the general functionality.

CiteULike is a free online reference manager and social bookmarking tool. References are primarily entered via a bookmarklet that captures bibliographic content in web pages. New entries are public by default and are added to the common library, but entries can be also made private. Users can assign tags to entries which make it easier to organize and search through content. References can be exported in BibTeX and RIS formats. The social networking features are the strength of CiteULike. Users can create profiles, connect with other researchers, and create and join groups where they can collaborate on library content.

Other Reference Management Products

Many other reference managers are available, including Citavi which is popular in some disciplines and also helps with knowledge management, and ReadCube which has a very nice user interface and a good PDF viewer. An extensive list and comparison of available reference management software can be found on Wikipedia (Fig.  2 ). Footnote 4

Feature comparison of popular reference managers (see also Fenner 2010b )

Reference management has become easier, cheaper, and more social in the past few years, and this trend will continue. We will see the integration of unique author identifiers (ORCID, etc.) into bibliographic databases and reference management tools (see case in chapter Unique Identifiers for Researchers ), and this will facilitate the discovery of relevant literature and the automatic updating of publication lists. We will increasingly see citations of datasets and other non-text content (see chapter Open Research Data: From Vision to Practice ). Digital identifiers for content and support for the open Citation Style Language will also increase, as will the availability of open bibliographic information. Three areas still need improvement. Firstly, the automatic importing of the references of a particular publication, and the integration of reference managers into authoring tools. Secondly, the word processor plugins for reference managers still do not work together, and some of the newer online authoring tools (Google Docs, etc.) need to be better integrated with reference managers. Finally, instead of having references in plain text, which makes it difficult to get to the full-text and reformat it into a different citation style, publishers, institutions, and funders should start to ask for reference lists in standard bibliographic formats using digital identifiers.

EndNote Output Styles: http://endnote.com/downloads/styles

Citation Style Language: http://citationstyles.org/

Find and edit citation styles: http://editor.citationstyles.org/about/ .

Comparison of reference management software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software

Fenner, M. (2010a). Reference management meets Web 2.0. Cellular Therapy and Transplantation, 2 (6), 1–13.

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Fenner, M. (2010b). Reference manager overview. Gobbledygook . Available at http://blogs.plos.org/mfenner/reference-manager-overview/ .

Gilmour, R. & Cobus-Kuo, L. (2011). Reference management software: A comparative analysis of four products. In Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship . Available at http://www.istl.org/11-summer/refereed2.html .

Specht, C. G. (2010). Opinion: Mutations of citations. Available at http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/29252/title/Opinion–Mutations-of-citations/ .

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Martin Fenner

Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany

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Fenner, M., Scheliga, K., Bartling, S. (2014). Reference Management. In: Bartling, S., Friesike, S. (eds) Opening Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00026-8_8

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Which reference manager?: Comparison of EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero

• Comparison of EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero
• Referencing guides

Reference management tools

A reference management tool is a software for storing and managing information resources. Generally, a reference management tool can help you:

• import references from search engines, databases and websites 
• save PDFs, images and other documents
• annotate PDFs
• insert citations and create bibliographies on Word documents  
• collaborate with other researchers

EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero are the most popular reference management tools used by many researchers and students.

Find more details about these three tools in the following comparison table and detailed instructions in our online guides for each tool.

EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero: which is the best tool for you

 The following comparison table of EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero may help you choose a right tool to meet your research needs.

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• Last Updated: Jan 25, 2023 11:42 AM
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Mendeley : Annotate PDFs with Mendeley

On this page..., getting started with pdf annotating in mendeley reference manager, getting started with pdf annotating in mendeley desktop.

Mendeley Reference Manager allows you to annotate and highlight PDFs that are uploaded into your Mendeley library. You can tell which files have PDFs uploaded by whether or not they have a green check in the 'File' column. Files are not automatically downloaded, so in order to annotate a PDF, you may have to first click the download icon. If no file is present, you can attach a PDF. 

To open a PDF file, click on the green check. This will open a new tab within Mendeley with the PDF displayed. You can then use the icons in the Annotations toolbar at the top of the page to highlight, leave notes, etc. To navigate back to your library, click the 'Library' button in the upper left hand corner of the page.

For additional help and more information, see Mendeley's Help Page on annotating PDFs in Mendeley Reference Manager .

Mendeley allows you to annotate and highlight PDFs that are uploaded into your Mendeley library. Once a PDF is uploaded, click on the PDF icon that appears next to the reference. 

This will open a new tab within Mendeley with the PDF displayed. You can then use the icons in the Annotations toolbar at the top of the page to highlight, leave notes, etc. To navigate back to your library, click the 'My Library' tab underneath the Annotation toolbar.

For additional help and more information about annotating PDFs in Mendeley, click here .

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Handle Citations with Reference Data Management

Introduction

What is the need for reference management, how do you manage references.

• What is reference management software?

Using ATLAS.ti as research management software

For many researchers, a citation manager or reference management tool is an important component of the research process. Whether you are compiling research papers , book chapters, web pages, and other scholarship for a literature review or adding citations to your written research reports, consider using reference management tools to build your reference library. This kind of personal research assistant can save you time in the research process.

This article looks at the role of reference management software in qualitative research and how ATLAS.ti can help you collect references and organize research for a meaningful and robust research inquiry.

Reference management brings order to the potential chaos of handling numerous sources. For scholars, the ability to quickly access, cross-reference, and accurately cite information is crucial. It's not just about keeping a tidy library of resources; it's about upholding academic rigor and integrity .

A robust reference management system streamlines the research process by keeping track of all sources, thus preventing plagiarism and ensuring that proper acknowledgments are made in scholarly work. It's also vital for teamwork, allowing for shared access to reference materials, which is increasingly important in collaborative research environments.

At the core, reference management supports the researcher’s credibility. Proper citation practices, facilitated by these tools, respect intellectual property and anchor research in a trustworthy context. In essence, an organized reference database is not a mere convenience; it's a fundamental aspect of responsible research practice.

Managing references effectively is crucial in maintaining the integrity and quality of research. Citation managers and reference managers can organize large libraries of journal articles, book chapters, and other sources of scholarly information in order to give researchers access to the most relevant materials quickly and easily.

But what is a reference? The rest of this section will outline what a reference looks like so we can discuss how references are managed.

What are the characteristics of reference data?

Reference data must be comprehensive and precise to enable clear identification and retrieval of sources. This includes the author(s), title, publication year, publisher, volume and issue number, page numbers, and digital identifiers such as DOIs or URLs. The details must be accurate to ensure proper attribution and to help other researchers locate the original sources.

What is an example of reference data?

Consider a journal article by Jane Doe on climate change. The reference data might look like this:

Doe, J. (2023). "Climate Change Impact on Coastal Ecosystems." Environmental Research Journal , 57 (2), 200-220. doi:10.XXXX/ERJ.20XX.11223344.

In this example, every element serves to uniquely identify the source: Doe’s name as the author, the article title, the journal in which it was published, the volume and issue where it can be found, the page range, and the DOI, which provides a link to the content.

Managing references involves cataloging such details for all sources relevant to your research. By maintaining a structured and detailed repository of reference data, researchers ensure that they can always support their findings with the appropriate sources and that these sources can be shared and verified within the academic community.

How are references used?

First and foremost, references are the foundation from which literature reviews are conducted so that the state of art of knowledge in the field can be developed. In addition, managing references provides an organized database with the necessary details to write reference information.

When citing published studies, writers of research need to reference the authors who published their research and the year in which they published it. Research reports also come with a bibliography or list of references, which should list the titles of each referenced article, the journals they belong to, and the DOI numbers that readers can use to gain access to the references.

Reference management software is essential in the world of research and academic writing. It is a specialized tool designed to organize and manage references, which are the backbone of scholarly work.

In the digital age, where information is abundant and sources are vast, such software becomes an invaluable asset in a researcher's toolkit.

Should I use a reference manager?

The decision to use reference management software hinges on the volume and complexity of research one engages with. For students and professionals who handle multiple papers, projects, or publications, a reference manager is a necessity for effectively managing all that information to demonstrate expertise or at least a comprehensive knowledge of a given research inquiry.

It helps in compiling and organizing research materials, providing quick access to sources, and ensuring that the referencing in manuscripts is accurate and consistent. Reference managers can often be linked with writing software (such as Microsoft Word) to automatically insert and format references according to whichever style the researcher specifies (e.g., reference formats such as APA, Harvard, or Chicago style). In a collaborative research setting, it becomes even more critical as it ensures that all team members are synchronized in their use of references and citations.

What's the best reference manager?

Selecting the best reference management software is not a simple choice. There are many tools to choose from, including Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley.

Zotero has a user-friendly interface and web-based browser integration, making the collection of references as simple as clicking a button. Users can view their Zotero library in desktop software or in the web interface through their online account seamlessly.

EndNote for desktops and EndNote Web allow for complex document creation, widely adopted for their powerful features and integration with databases and library catalogs. Like with other platforms, EndNote can produce references in a variety of output styles depending on the needs of the researcher.

Mendeley doubles as a social network for researchers, facilitating collaboration and discovery of research trends. Mendeley allows users to import records, create bibliographies, and share references with other researchers.

The ideal choice balances factors such as the capability to import references directly from other platforms, citation style flexibility, database connectivity, and collaborative functionality. Other considerations such as operating system support, attachment of associated files, and the ability to export references can be valuable to researchers who need such capabilities.

What's the difference between a reference manager and a citation manager?

The terms "reference manager" and "citation manager" often converge in their functionality, but they originated with distinct purposes. A reference manager is a comprehensive system that stores bibliographic information, allowing for the organization, annotation, and retrieval of references.

Citation managers, on the other hand, focus on inserting citations into written work and formatting bibliographies according to various style guides. Modern reference management software, however, tends to encapsulate both functions, presenting an all-in-one solution that assists researchers from the point of gathering sources to the final citation process in a document.

The software streamlines the meticulous task of citation formatting, adapting to numerous citation styles such as APA, MLA, or Chicago, often with just a few clicks. Integration with word processors enhances its utility, enabling the "cite-while-you-write" feature, which automatically inserts in-text citations and updates bibliographies in real time.

For researchers juggling a plethora of articles, books, and digital content, reference management software becomes a central hub for all things citation-related. It can dramatically cut down the time spent on formatting and re-formatting references, which allows researchers to invest more time in the actual research and analysis. Whether managing a small project or a comprehensive systematic review, the software provides a structured and reliable method for handling the scholarly information essential for academic success.

Make the most of your research with ATLAS.ti

Use our powerful tools to turn literature and data into critical insights. Start with a free trial of ATLAS.ti today.

ATLAS.ti serves as a comprehensive research management software , particularly beneficial in the realm of qualitative analysis . Its utility extends into the domain of reference management, where it can be used to import, organize, and analyze bibliographic data. This comprehensive approach allows for an in-depth engagement with the literature that underpins a research project.

Collecting references

In the initial phase of research, ATLAS.ti helps in systematically organizing collected references. Literature and other sources of information , including audiovisual files , can be imported and managed in ATLAS.ti.

The software can be used to organize these references in a way that aligns with the overarching themes and categories of the research project. Researchers can tag and annotate entries, enriching the bibliographic data with insights and notes pertinent to their analysis.

Importing references

The process of importing references into ATLAS.ti is designed to be intuitive and accommodates data from various reference managers. Researchers often begin with references organized in software like Zotero or EndNote. ATLAS.ti can import data from these programs, through EndNote XML files or bibtex files, which permits researchers to import references from just about any reference manager software.

Once the data is imported, ATLAS.ti allows for the integration of these references into the qualitative data analysis workflow. This integration enables researchers to draw direct connections between their source materials and the evolving themes and patterns in their data. If you have already highlighted or written comments on the PDFs of your literature sources, these will also be automatically imported and conveniently converted into quotations and comments so you can pick up right where you left off.

Analyzing references

ATLAS.ti facilitates a deeper analysis of references. It goes beyond mere cataloging by allowing researchers to interact with the content of their sources. The literature can be read and manually analyzed, and researchers can also harness of a range of AI-powered tools to automatically analyze aspects of their literature. Data analysis tools can also be used to create visual displays of the literature.

References can be coded, and annotations can be added, making it possible to integrate the literature review directly with the data analysis. This creates a dynamic library where references are not static but are active components of the research process.

Citing references

ATLAS.ti can prepare researchers for the citation process by organizing references in conjunction with their qualitative data . The insights garnered from the integration of reference management and data analysis within ATLAS.ti can then be translated into academic writing.

For the actual citation, researchers can export a list of references from ATLAS.ti for use in papers and presentations. Comments can be written on documents to include supplementary information such as citations and then exported as a spreadsheet or text document.

Make reference organization easy with ATLAS.ti

Manage documents, codes, and insights in one easy-to-use package. Download ATLAS.ti today.

Reference management. Clean and simple.

What is an example of a reference manager?

Reference managers help researchers collect and organize sources and citations. There are several reference managers available that cater to different needs and preferences.

⇨  What is a reference manager?

⇨ Free reference manager

Some examples of reference managers include:

• Paperpile : A clean, simple, yet feature-rich reference manager, Paperpile combines powerful reference management capabilities like PDF management, efficient citation formatting, annotation and note-taking capabilities, and access across multiple devices.
• Zotero : A free and open-source reference manager that offers several typical features, including integration options and support for multiple platforms.
• Mendeley : This reference manager combines reference organization, PDF management, and social networking features, allowing researchers to connect and collaborate within the Mendeley community.
• EndNote : EndNote offers typical reference management capabilities, compatibility with various databases, and advanced features for large research teams.

Some examples of tasks that a reference manager can help you accomplish include:

• Citation formatting
• Importing and exporting references
• PDF collection, organization, and annotation
• Research sharing

For example, Paperpile allows you to:

• Import references from various sources (online databases, library catalogs, and other reference managers)
• Upload and store PDFs in your personal library
• Annotate sources
• Highlight important sections
• Add notes to facilitate your reading

Paperpile also integrates with Google Docs and Google Scholar, making it easy to access and cite references directly within your documents. It also offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, allowing you to save references from webpages with a single click.

What users say:

“Paperpile does everything I need it to, especially annotations, simply and easily.” — PhD student, University of Michigan

“Paperpile is a great tool for organizing papers across multiple devices.” — Graduate Research Assistant, INRS-EMT

Read more about reference managers:

Other interesting topics:.

All your papers in one place. Nice and tidy.

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Simplify Your Research: Why You Need a Reference Manager

As a researcher in any space, the information and data that you ingest daily can be overwhelming. Even just organizing all of that information can be a challenge in and of itself. Between storing PDFs on your desktops, printing and annotating, and emailing version after version back and forth with peers and collaborators, it’s nearly impossible to keep it all together. What if you had one place where you could store, organize, annotate, and share all of your research literature? A reference manager would do the trick! In this blog, we’re taking a look at what a reference manager is and how it can help you in your research life.

Reference managers can make your research life so much easier. A reference manager is a tool or application that allows you to organize your existing research seamlessly. Typically, reference managers are desktop apps with a corresponding web interface that allows for both storage of local PDFs and documents from your desktop as well as enabling import directly from the web. 

Why should you use a reference manager?

A tool like this can really help a research or writing workflow  – with all of your references and documents in one place, you’re able to organize your extensive research library however you’d like. Create a shareable folder for a specific project. Tag PDFs by topic. The possibilities are endless and customizable to fit your research style.

In addition to organizing your literature, you’d also have the ability to read and annotate as you go. All of your notes and annotations can be automatically saved on the PDFs you’re working on. You can even share these PDFs and the notes you’ve made with peers and colleagues, making co-authoring works a breeze. Having a digital platform as your reference management tool as opposed to sharing printed PDFs, enables real-time collaboration with team members or advisors, saving valuable time and resources.

What About Citing My Findings?

Once you’ve collected, read, and annotated your references, you’re ready to export your findings. A reference manager will also serve as your citation engine. As you wrap up your research, you’re able to collate all of the references cited into one organized list in your required style for publication. Some reference managers, like Papers , offer plug-ins for word processing applications that can give you access to your references right next to your document, simplifying in-text citations , and even automatically generate a bibliography in whatever citation style you need to use. 

Instead of collecting a bunch of printed PDFs, or even saving version after version on your desktop, a reference manager can help you make sense of your research workflow. Save time and effort by creating an organized library that you can easily sort through and find exactly the resources you’re looking for. From organization to annotation, citation to dissertation, a reference management system, like Papers, will help make your research life seamless.

Published 02/23/2023 by admin_papers in Blog ,

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Mendeley Notebook

Highlight & notate attached .pdfs, using the notebook.

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Notebook is a new note taking tool from Mendeley Reference Manager. Notebook allows you to highlight PDFs attached to your references, keep your notes from multiple PDFs in the same place, and retains links back to the source PDF.

You can highlight passages and attach notes to any .pdf attached to a Mendeley reference. 

Highlighting

• Select a reference with a .pdf attachment, and select the attachment.  The Notebook screen should open.
• In the upper left of the screen, select the arrow icon.  In the document, select and highlight the passages you want to highlight.
• Once you've finished highlighting the passage, you should see an option to highlight that passage.  Select that option and the passage will be highlighted.
• You can change the color of the highlight by selecting the highlighted passage and then selecting a new color using the menu in the upper left of the screen.

Inserting Notes

• Select the note tool (the word bubble) in the upper left of the Notebook screen.
• Place your cursor at the point where you want to insert a note and select.  A note window should open up, allowing you to type in a note.

You can create individual Notebook pages to collect highlights and notes from several attachments.  This is really useful to help organize passages from across several sources.

• Create a Notebook page by selecting the Notebook button in the upper left.  The Notebook menu will open on the right of the screen.  Create a page by selecting the New Page heading at the bottom of the menu.
• Add a title for your page, and you can type your own notes into the body of the page.
• To add highlights, select the .pdf you want, and then select the highlighted text by clicking on it.  You will see a dialogue box that offers 'Change color', or 'Add to Notebook' or 'Delete Annotation'. Click on  Add to Notebook , and you will see the highlighted text copied to your Notebook (boxed and italicised).
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10 tips on how to use reference management software smartly and efficiently

Most researchers nowadays use reference management tools, but many fail to take advantage of the useful features that these software programs offer besides generating bibliographies. Here are 10 tips and tricks that help you to optimise the use of your reference management software.

Disclosure: This post has been sponsored by Paperpile . I only recommend products or services that I truly believe can benefit my audience. As always, my opinions are my own.

1. Consider a long-term perspective when choosing a reference management tool

2. build up your personal reference library gradually, 3. organise publications in your reference manager by using a folder system, 4. use your reference management tool to collaborate with others, 5. make use of your reference manager’s plugins and browser extensions, 6. integrate your reference manager with academic databases and search engines, 7. use your reference management tool throughout the research process, 8. take advantage of your reference software’s annotation and note-taking options, 9. regularly clean up your reference manager’s library, 10. regularly update your reference management software.

Many academics opt for the reference manager offered by their university, which is often Endnote or Mendeley. However, this is not a good strategy. When choosing a reference management tool, it’s important to plan ahead.

Just because your university offers free access to a specific reference manager doesn’t mean it’s a good long-term choice, as you may lose institutional affiliation in the future.

Thus, before deciding on a reference management software, ask yourself if you are willing to pay for it if you lose your institutional affiliation.

Losing access to your software management tool, for instance when you complete your studies or when your PhD programme ends, can be a costly mistake. Especially when considering the high price tags of some reference managers such as Endnote at $274.95.

While it’s possible to migrate libraries between some reference managers, the process can be time-consuming and frustrating.

Therefore, it is wise to choose a reference management software that is free, or one that offers high functionality for a low cost such as Paperpile , which won’t break the bank with $2.99 per month.

Reference management software is great to create your personal library. However, it is unrealistic to expect to create a perfect library within a week or two.

Instead, think of your reference library as an ongoing project.

The best reference manager libraries are developed over the course of several years. Such a library can accumulate a wealth of information that reflects your research interests and academic journey.

Taking the time to build your library gradually will ultimately result in a valuable research tool that is tailored to your unique field of study and interests.

Good organization is a prerequisite for an effective personal library created with your reference management software. All good reference managers allow you to create a folder system to categorise your references.

A clear and organized folder system in your reference management tool is important for creating a repository of knowledge.

Many academics create folders based on their publication projects or thesis chapters. Others use thematic folders and sub-folders.

It’s important to come up with a system that works for you and allows for easy reference retrieval. Spend some time developing a folder system that works best for you!

At Master Academia, we firmly believe that collaboration is more effective than competition. This principle also applies to using reference management tools!

Fortunately, most reference managers allow you to share individual folders or even entire libraries with others.

By sharing folders of your reference manager library, you can enhance knowledge exchange and collaborate more smoothly with others.

For example, think about co-authoring an academic paper. In most reference management tools, you can easily share references, take notes, and annotate publications. It will save you from countless emails or lost files.

Sharing reference manager folders can also be beneficial for those who teach alongside their research and want to share a set of academic publications with their students.

Many academics make the mistake of not using reference managers to their full potential.

The real time-saver of reference management tools lies in their add-ons, plugins and browser extensions .

For example, with a browser extension, you can easily save academic papers that you are reading online into your reference library. Often with just one click! This means that you do not need to download the file, go to your downloads, find the file, and manually drag it into the desktop version of your reference manager.

Plugins are for instance available for Word, or Google Docs. Paperpile, for instance, is available for both Word and Google Docs . By installing them correctly, you can easily include references while you write. This is an effective strategy before you start paraphrasing , as you will never mistake a direct quote for your own writing again.

Another timesaving strategy is to integrate your reference manager with the academic databases and search engines that you use on a regular basis.

These databases and search engines include, for instance, Google Scholar, Web of Science , or Scopus .

If your reference management tool allows for integration, it becomes even easier to download and store academic publications.

Bonus tip: Try to save a publication directly into the appropriate folder in your library. If you’re unsure where to place it at the time of download, save it in a separate folder labeled “Read and Categorize Later.” This way, you won’t clutter your carefully crafted library.

Some researchers only use a reference management tool at the end of their research project when they need to create a reference list before submitting their work to a journal or publisher.

This is a missed opportunity because reference management tools can be incredibly helpful throughout the entire research process.

Reference management tools can be used to support various research steps, including:

• Searching for references
• Assembling research insights
• Categorizing existing knowledge
• Conducting ( systematic ) literature reviews
• Reading academic articles
• Highlighting useful sentences and paragraphs
• Annotating references
• Note-taking
• Sharing references and notes with colleagues
• Academic writing
• Paraphrasing
• And, of course, generating a reference list.

There are various note-taking software and tools on the market for note-taking. They allow you to extract quotes from academic articles, create visual representations of your notes, and more.

And while many of us still believe in the benefits of taking notes by hand, it is easy to lose track when you are dealing with complex information.

Thus, if you are looking for a digital note-taking strategy, especially for the academic literature you are reading, first explore the annotation and note-taking options of your reference manager.

Why add another software or tool when you can take notes and annotations within your reference manager?

You may be surprised at the options and functionalities that contemporary reference managers have to offer.

Even someone who is typically organized may have a messy room that needs cleaning from time to time, and the same goes for reference manager libraries.

Even if you have a well-structured folder system and a folder for articles that need to be read and categorized, there comes a point where your library can become disorganized. This can happen if you move references into the wrong folder, include irrelevant articles, or download too much at once to handle.

Therefore, it is helpful to regularly tidy up your reference manager to prevent it from becoming too chaotic. If you do it regularly, such as once a month for 30 minutes, it won’t take up too much time. Trust me, you will be thankful later.

All the benefits that come with efficiently and intelligently using a reference management software disappear the moment it becomes too cluttered to make use of its various functionalities.

Technological advancements are constantly being made. This is also true when it comes to reference management tools.

Regular updates of your reference management software allow you to take advantage of the fastest options and latest features, while removing potential software bugs.

Checking for updates can be easily integrated into your regular routine of tidying up your reference library. This way, you can ensure that your reference manager is both organized and up to date, allowing you to focus on your research without any interruptions or issues caused by outdated software.

And if you tend to forget things, you can always use a reference manager such as Paperpile which updates automatically! 

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12 Best Reference Manager Software For Research

Reference manager software is a computer application used to manage references. This can include creating a database of references, inserting citations into a document , and creating bibliographies .

Some of these applications include social networking, highlighting and annotating PDFs, and sharing and collaboration tools.

Reference manager software, or citation managers as they are sometimes known, offer a one-time submission and citation service or serve as secure source repositories for long-term projects.

These tools can also cater to more than academic purposes: businesses can benefit from having a unified system to organize and share research data documents.

There are many options for research management software on the market today. Most research manager software are web-based. Although, some of these tools have desktop versions with more advanced features.

So, in this post, I share some of the best reference manager software I have reviewed to help you find the best product for your research needs.

Best Reference Manager Software For Research

EndNote is a reference manager research that helps users accelerate their research by assisting them in searching through hundreds of online resources and PDFs for content to insert into their papers.

The application has powerful features, including unlimited simultaneous users, unlimited storage, PDF management with optical character recognition (OCR), 6,000+ reference styles, and smart search filters for refining searches and linking to Google Scholar for full-text searching.

Users can also import PDF files directly from their computers and edit them within the program.

The application also offers group sharing capabilities so that users can share access to their libraries with their team members and easily collaborate on projects together.

However, using EndNote in a collaborative text editor like Google Docs is tricky. Google Docs does not support EndNote Cite While You Write. Nevertheless, EndNote can still be used with Google Docs if unformatted citations are inserted, saved as RTF files, and then formatted using EndNote.

For security purposes, EndNote allows users to set passwords on their libraries and export citations in XML format that are importable into other applications like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer.

Users of EndNote can also access their libraries on the go using their mobile devices and tablets via WebApp. The mobile app is available for both iOS and Android devices.

Pricing starts at $268.70 for a full license and a discounted price of $124.65 for a student license (after verifying academic status). You will need to contact the EndNote sales team for group and corporate pricing.

Explore the best alternatives to EndNote in this post.

Zotero is an award-winning open-source reference manager research tool that is free to use and requires no subscription or registration.

This reference manager offers users several valuable features, including the ability to save PDFs of sources, pull together notes on a selected text, and save an annotated copy of a PDF using the Readability add-on.

Zotero supports automatic syncing across all platforms so that users can access their databases from any computer. With this feature, researchers can update their database from their smartphones or tablets without manually downloading the entire database to their devices.

Zotero’s autofill feature also deserves mention: using this feature, researchers save a great deal of time when filling out online forms such as journal submission forms.

You can also import your bibliography from applications like Mendeley, RefWorks, Papers, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, and more into Zotero.

Furthermore, using your Google account credentials, you can add your library to your Google account to access it from any computer or device. All bibliographic data can be exported in CSV format for other applications.

Zotero also allows users to collaborate via Zotero Groups. When creating a group, you can specify whether the group should be public (or private). Then, you can invite members and set preferences for who can see and edit the group library.

You can organize the entries in your library according to different metadata fields such as author name, title, publisher name, publication date, subject categories, etc.

Additionally, you can create smart folders that will automatically organize entries based on rules you set yourself.

Zotero is a free reference manager program; however, it only has 300 MB of storage. If you need more storage space, it has a subscription-based model of $20/year for 2 GB, $60/year for 6 GB, and $120/year for unlimited storage.

3. Mendeley

Another software that stacks up well for researchers is Mendeley.

It is a cloud-based citation management tool that supports full-text search, document management, social networking, and collaboration capabilities to help users organize and manage their research documents.

Users can collect and store up to 2GB (or upgrade for more) of research documents and PDFs and access them from anywhere using any internet-connected device.

Documents are automatically grouped by their titles so users can easily find what they are looking for using the software.

Furthermore, Mendeley allows users to create and manage their libraries, collaborate, and share their research with colleagues and friends.

It saves any changes made to your documents in the cloud so that you can always access the most recent version of your document from any location.

It also allows users to annotate documents, highlight text passages, add sticky notes, and write comments directly on the pages of the PDF documents.

Moreover, Mendeley syncs all changes you make to your PDF annotations across all your devices and computers so that you can work on a document anytime you want without downloading the file to your computer first.

The software has a built-in PDF reader that allows users to read PDFs directly within your web browser.

You can collaborate remotely with other Mendeley users by utilizing Mendeley’s group feature on projects or ongoing research by adding references to the group as if it were a collection. In addition to sharing citations, Mendeley group members can also share PDFs and any annotations made to them.

Mendeley also allows users to have unlimited private groups and delineate how many members a group can have based on their account status.

People using a free version can have groups with up to 25 members, while users with paid storage are entitled to have 50 members. An institutional status lets users have up to 100 members.

A unique job search feature in Mendeley allows users to search for jobs in science, technology, and health based on keywords and location. Users can find jobs that match their search criteria with just a few keywords and the “Search” button.

The price ranges from $55 for 5GB to $165 for unlimited storage.

The major drawback of this application is that it only exports the bibliography to OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, and LibreOffice.

Mendeley is a great citation management tool that can benefit researchers at all levels, from students to professors, and with diverse research projects.

Check out this interesting comparison between Zotero and Mendeley .

4. RefWorks

This program is popular among institutions and is one of the best reference management software for research.

RefWorks is a web-based application that allows users to easily create and manage bibliographies and insert citations in their papers using the “cite while you write” functionality.

It is compatible with Mac and Windows systems and enables users to collaborate with other users via the cloud.

Using RefWorks’ cloud storage service, users can save all their bibliographic data in a single location and access it from other computers or mobile devices; however, they can export their data in Excel/CSV format.

With RefWorks’ sharing feature, users can collaborate with others. You can share a folder with collaborators with either read-only or edit-only permissions. Users can invite individuals to join a shared folder or share a folder with anyone within their institution.

With a free account, a user can store up to 2GB of data; however, a paid subscription is necessary to access additional features such as full-text searching of references in PubMed and other databases. The subscription fee ranges from $70/year for individuals to $1,500 for institutions.

The only con I find with this software is its pricey subscription rate. But it makes up for that with its ease of use and compatibility with Google Docs – one of the most used online collaboration software today.

RefWorks is a robust reference manager software, and students, particularly undergraduates, can effortlessly adopt this user-friendly tool for managing references.

NVivo differs from the other programs on this list because it doesn’t focus on organizing bibliographic data . Instead, it helps users analyze, visualize, and summarize data based on associations between variables and theories.

The software’s utility for researchers comes from its qualitative analysis capabilities and advanced data management and analysis features.

This freeware and cross-platform software is available as a standalone application and as a plug-in for Microsoft Word, Excel, and other cloud applications.

NVivo is a qualitative data analysis software tool used by professionals from various disciplines such as social sciences, health, education, marketing, and business research.

With NVivo, you can collect, manage, analyze, and report on qualitative data. NVivo has a companion app, Citavi (the reason NVivo is on this list), which allows you to collect and manage bibliographic data.

You can also collaborate with other users via cloud-based storage provided by NVivo. Users with a paid account can also share their data with other users who can work on that data simultaneously.

NVivo has a unique pricing model: you can either pay-as-you-go or yearly. In addition, you can also subscribe to Citavi – right in the UI of NVivo.

If you are looking for a less expensive tool with just as many features, Papers is an excellent choice.

Papers is a web-based application that offers powerful citation management and collaborative research features. This application has powerful built-in search functionality that allows users to quickly find relevant papers and journals without wasting time on manual searches.

Users can also organize their papers into folders and create multiple collections to track their research progress by saving specific sets of papers under these collections.

Like other tools in this list, users can export their bibliographies into MS Word/OpenOffice/LibreOffice formats; however, unlike its competitors, Papers was specially designed for Mac.

I am not saying it doesn’t work on other operating systems, but the experience isn’t as smooth as on a Mac.

Papers also feature a built-in powerful content management system that allows researchers to store and share PDFs, PDFs with captions, and PDFs with annotations.

As a researcher, you can share your workflow with your colleagues by allowing them to download or view your papers instantly.

The Papers Cite Faster feature grants you access to insert references from personal/shared libraries or use the built-in search engine. With 10,000+ supported citation styles, you can format your papers correctly every time.

And like most of the tools in this article, you can sync your Papers database to the cloud and access your citations and papers anytime you want from any device with an internet connection .

For just $36/year, students can upgrade to a Pro account and request a discount under certain conditions. See, it’s less expensive, but just as good nonetheless.

After citing all the sources for your research paper, you still need to check for plagiarism and grammatical errors to ensure a well-written essay.

What if you can do all these in one place? Instead of switching between tools and switching between screens – you can do it all in one app with BibMe.

BibMe is an all-in-one tool: you can track your citations and references, search for keywords in your articles, check for plagiarism, and quickly edit your sources without getting distracted.

You will always have access to your citation data wherever you go since all data is stored and synchronized in the cloud.

Moreover, to guarantee you have the best result, BibMe uses similar technology in Turnitin to flag possible cases of plagiarism. So you get instant results, and you can fix it right away.

Additionally, with BibMe Expert Check, you can receive feedback from writing experts, who will assess based on your paper’s main idea, structure, and overall writing quality in 24 hours.

Getting an opinion on your paper, especially from a professional, can be the difference between a good paper and a great one.

BibMe offers a free version with over 7,000+ citation styles, including APA & Chicago. For $9.95 a month, BibMe Plus includes 7,000+ citations, unlimited grammar checks, and expert help for 30 papers.

8. EasyBib.com

In May 2016, Chegg, the online textbook service, acquired Imagine Easy Solutions, the parent company of BibMe and EasyBib.com. EasyBib.com and BibMe are similar in many ways.

EasyBib is a reference manager software similar to BibMe. It is also an all-in-one tool that lets you manage your references/citations/sources/papers/journals in one place without switching between tabs or apps.

It also allows you to upload PDFs and other files directly in your bibliography to access them later.

You can also use it to make quick edits to your citations without leaving the app – perfect if you forget to add an author or date or you want to make minor changes.

And with the EasyBib.com integration option, you can add a citation to your bibliography with just a few clicks.

It is the pricing plan that differentiates BibMe from EasyBib. There are two plans available with BibMe. However, with EasyBib, you can select another option known as EasyBib® Plus & Chegg® Study Pack.

This tier is higher than the Plus plan in BibMe, offering unlimited expert help for your papers at $19.95/month.

So, if you are familiar with BibMe and love the service, but need expert help more than 30 times per month, consider switching to EasyBib and subscribe to the Chegg Study Pack.

9. Cite This For Me

Cite This For Me is another popular citation tool and one of the best reference managers for research.

Like other tools mentioned in this article, Cite This For Me is a freemium service: free to use with a limited number of features and a paid upgrade to unlock the full suite of features.

To start using this application, select the website or article icon. If you’re using another source type, like a book, click “More” to see all available options. From there, a form will pop up and show you all the information you should look for in your source.

You can create a citation at any time and also go back and edit it as many times as you want.

Cite This For Me will automatically find reference information and fill out some forms for you to save time and effort when referencing websites, journal articles, etc.

This software also stacks up many citation styles you can use, including the most popular ones like APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE.

The Cite This For Me Chrome extension lets you add sources to your bibliography with just one click. With this extension installed in your browser, you can save time by adding citations directly from your browser without having to open the app each time.

With Cite This For Me, you can export your bibliography into your project, paper, or document. But you’ll need to sign up for a premium account if you want to export it to Word.

Another benefit of a premium account is controlling ads and saving your work as you progress.

Also Read : Best Free Writing Assistant Software

One of the fields free, open-source software can help with is research. This is because researchers usually need to manage large databases and then organize them properly to generate meaningful reports or insights – which can be difficult and expensive if the software is proprietary and costly.

One application that can help you manage data and organize it efficiently is JabRef – a reference manager/database/citation manager software that can create bibliographies for you in seconds.

It can generate bibliographies for journals and other publications and manage your references and citations in a database for easy access.

You can also export your references as plain text files for use with other bibliographic management software or databases.

And you can organize your information into groups to help you categorize your research and make it more organized.

JabRef Edit capabilities allow you to customize and add new metadata fields or reference types to the citation. It can also export your data into CSV and BibTex formats.

It supports importing from various file types, including CSV, BibTex, and any other file format that supports Cross Reference Table (CRT) references.

In addition, its cite-as-you-write function allows you to write complete bibliographic citations as you type automatically. Also, you can organize your research data by fields or in a tree structure.

You can also use JabRef with MS Word, LibreOffice, and OpenOffice to insert your citations into your documents.

The program is very user-friendly and it’s free, so you can download it and try it out to see if it’s right for you.

11. StudentShare.org

StudentShare.org is a database of essay samples that students can use to help write their papers by providing vivid examples of previous academic works. This platform has a free citation generator, which is why it makes this list.

To use the generator, select the citation type you intend to use, choose a website, journal, or other publication, and enter your source information. StudentShare will then generate a citation that you can use for your paper.

It is an easy-to-use tool that generates citations in MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style, Harvard, and more.

12. BibDesk

Last on our list is BibDesk, a reference manager software specifically designed for Mac users to help them create and edit their bibliographies easily and quickly.

This application helps you organize your resources by author, title, and other criteria – and automatically adds new resources to your database as you find them online or create them manually.

You can add as many authors as you want to your list and easily create multi-author bibliographies for your projects. It also allows you to easily import data from various file formats such as PubMed, EndNote, CSV, and others. Once imported, you can add and edit the information in BibDesk.

You can also add new references to your database by pasting in the URL of an online resource or using one of its built-in search mechanisms to find relevant resources to add to your list. As necessary, you can edit the entries in BibDesk and add or delete entries.

BibDesk comes with a comprehensive manual to help you get started if you are unfamiliar with these applications.

Also Read : Best Archive.is Alternatives

If I have to pick one from the list, I will go with Zotero as a general-purpose tool for managing research and generating bibliographies for papers, projects, etc.

Due to its comprehensive functionality and ease of use – even for beginners – this application is an excellent choice for students or researchers who need to organize their research and manage their data without spending much money on expensive software.

In addition, you can use it to generate citations and a bibliography in Google Docs, which is a plus.

Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.

Scribbr Citation Generator

Accurate APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard citations, verified by experts, trusted by millions

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Cite any page or article with a single click right from your browser. The extension does the hard work for you by automatically grabbing the title, author(s), publication date, and everything else needed to whip up the perfect citation.

Perfectly formatted references every time

Inaccurate citations can cost you points on your assignments, so our seasoned citation experts have invested countless hours in perfecting Scribbr’s citation generator algorithms. We’re proud to be recommended by teachers and universities worldwide.

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Look up your source by its title, URL, ISBN, or DOI, and let Scribbr find and fill in all the relevant information automatically.

APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard

Generate flawless citations according to the official APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard style, or many other rules.

Export to Word

When your reference list is complete, export it to Word. We’ll apply the official formatting guidelines automatically.

Lists and folders

Create separate reference lists for each of your assignments to stay organized. You can also group related lists into folders.

Export to Bib(La)TeX

Are you using a LaTex editor like Overleaf? If so, you can easily export your references in Bib(La)TeX format with a single click.

Custom fonts

Change the typeface used for your reference list to match the rest of your document. Options include Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri.

Industry-standard technology

Scribbr’s Citation Generator is built using the same citation software (CSL) as Mendeley and Zotero, but with an added layer for improved accuracy.

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Describe or evaluate your sources in annotations, and Scribbr will generate a perfectly formatted annotated bibliography .

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Scribbr’s popular guides and videos will help you understand everything related to finding, evaluating, and citing sources.

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• Introduction
• Finding sources

Evaluating sources

• Integrating sources

Citing sources

Tools and resources, a quick guide to working with sources.

Working with sources is an important skill that you’ll need throughout your academic career.

It includes knowing how to find relevant sources, assessing their authority and credibility, and understanding how to integrate sources into your work with proper referencing.

This quick guide will help you get started!

Finding relevant sources

Sources commonly used in academic writing include academic journals, scholarly books, websites, newspapers, and encyclopedias. There are three main places to look for such sources:

• Research databases: Databases can be general or subject-specific. To get started, check out this list of databases by academic discipline . Another good starting point is Google Scholar .
• Your institution’s library: Use your library’s database to narrow down your search using keywords to find relevant articles, books, and newspapers matching your topic.
• Other online resources: Consult popular online sources like websites, blogs, or Wikipedia to find background information. Be sure to carefully evaluate the credibility of those online sources.

When using academic databases or search engines, you can use Boolean operators to refine your results.

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Get started

In academic writing, your sources should be credible, up to date, and relevant to your research topic. Useful approaches to evaluating sources include the CRAAP test and lateral reading.

CRAAP is an abbreviation that reminds you of a set of questions to ask yourself when evaluating information.

• Currency: Does the source reflect recent research?
• Relevance: Is the source related to your research topic?
• Authority: Is it a respected publication? Is the author an expert in their field?
• Accuracy: Does the source support its arguments and conclusions with evidence?
• Purpose: What is the author’s intention?

Lateral reading

Lateral reading means comparing your source to other sources. This allows you to:

• Verify evidence
• Contextualize information
• Find potential weaknesses

If a source is using methods or drawing conclusions that are incompatible with other research in its field, it may not be reliable.

Integrating sources into your work

Once you have found information that you want to include in your paper, signal phrases can help you to introduce it. Here are a few examples:

Following the signal phrase, you can choose to quote, paraphrase or summarize the source.

• Quoting : This means including the exact words of another source in your paper. The quoted text must be enclosed in quotation marks or (for longer quotes) presented as a block quote . Quote a source when the meaning is difficult to convey in different words or when you want to analyze the language itself.
• Paraphrasing : This means putting another person’s ideas into your own words. It allows you to integrate sources more smoothly into your text, maintaining a consistent voice. It also shows that you have understood the meaning of the source.
• Summarizing : This means giving an overview of the essential points of a source. Summaries should be much shorter than the original text. You should describe the key points in your own words and not quote from the original text.

Whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source, you must include a citation crediting the original author.

Citing your sources is important because it:

• Allows you to avoid plagiarism
• Establishes the credentials of your sources
• Backs up your arguments with evidence
• Allows your reader to verify the legitimacy of your conclusions

The most common citation styles are APA, MLA, and Chicago style. Each citation style has specific rules for formatting citations.

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Scribbr offers tons of tools and resources to make working with sources easier and faster. Take a look at our top picks:

• Citation Generator: Automatically generate accurate references and in-text citations using Scribbr’s APA Citation Generator, MLA Citation Generator , Harvard Referencing Generator , and Chicago Citation Generator .
• Plagiarism Checker : Detect plagiarism in your paper using the most accurate Turnitin-powered plagiarism software available to students.
• AI Proofreader: Upload and improve unlimited documents and earn higher grades on your assignments. Try it for free!
• Paraphrasing tool: Avoid accidental plagiarism and make your text sound better.
• Grammar checker : Eliminate pesky spelling and grammar mistakes.
• Summarizer: Read more in less time. Distill lengthy and complex texts down to their key points.
• AI detector: Find out if your text was written with ChatGPT or any other AI writing tool. ChatGPT 2 & ChatGPT 3 supported.
• Proofreading services : Have a human editor improve your writing.
• Citation checker: Check your work for citation errors and missing citations.
• Knowledge Base : Explore hundreds of articles, bite-sized videos, time-saving templates, and handy checklists that guide you through the process of research, writing, and citation.