Hi Alan, maybe this overview will help you?! https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/library/Public/Reference_management_software_comparison.pdf

Cheers, Nadine

Thanks I'll have a look, I'm after something simple and free :)

Two of them are free. If they are working properly, is another question :-)

Endnote is pretty good overall but not free, Mendeley is quite nice. If you are on Mac OS X then Papers is another very good one.

Thank you for all these suggestions - this added to my knowledge!!! as I was limited to Endnote!

JabRef is free. we can sort references and can eliminate duplicates. I would suggest JabRef.

You should try using Docear. I have used this application many times with success on Linux but it works on Mac and Windows as well.

------------------------------TAKEN FROM WEBSITE--------------------------------

Docear is a unique solution to academic literature management, i.e. it helps you organizing, creating, and discovering academic literature.

Among others, Docear offers:

A single-section user-interface that allows the most comprehensive organization of your literature. With Docear, you can sort documents into categories; you can sort annotations (comments, bookmarks, and highlighted text from PDFs) into categories; you can sort annotations within PDFs; and you can view multiple annotations of multiple documents, in multiple categories – at once.

A ‘literature suite concept‘ that combines several tools in a single application (pdf management, reference management, mind mapping, …). This allows you to draft your own papers, assignments, thesis, etc. directly in Docear and copy annotations and references from your collection directly into your draft.

A recommender system that helps you to discover new literature: Docear recommends papers which are free, in full-text, instantly to download, and tailored to your information needs.

And did we mention that Docear is free, open source, available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, and not evil?

http://www.docear.org/

Has anyone had experience of using these with Word? I'm looking at something that will re-organise my referencing in the document when I remove or add one in the bibliography. Lots of suggestions here though, good thread.

I also recommend JabRef. It comes with most Linux distributions and manages BibTex references quite well. It also supports inclusion of references in popular word processors. You can also do fancy things like automated journal abbreviations.

Good Info... thanks all

Dear Dr. Alan Chamberlain, It will be difficult to say best. However comparisons are possible. Like managing in-text citations and creating bibliographies are easy in RefWorks, EndNote, and EndNote Web but for Zotero it will not be smoother like others. Editing and Creating Styles, customization is not possible in EndNote Web for Zotero.

I agree with Mendeley

from my own experience i think EndNote is very good and easy to use

i will try to use Mendeley to check which is better

I like Papers (on the mac) for managing copies of the actual documents, as it does a reasonable job of populating the references, and also does citations. It appears to work with Word, though I have no experience.

I add my vote to using JabRef, especially if you are using LaTeX.

I use Mendeley. They allows 2GB free online storage also. This makes life easier, when we work on multiple devices.

Hello all

Thank you for suggesting Mendeley - will try that - I use Endnote - whilst it has its problems sometimes but it is a good software! especially to track down that 'full-stop' or 'comma' in some of the referencing styles.

Endnote is a very good tool, but it is not free. That is the reason I switched to Mendeley, and now I am happy with it. I heard from my friend that JabRef is also nice and easy to work with open office.

Hi Subramanyan Varanakkottu, you can use Mendeley with dropbox and get more storage space

Dear Dr. Alan Chamberlain, It will be difficult to say best. However comparisons are possible. Like managing in-text citations and creating bibliographies are easy in RefWorks, EndNote, and EndNote Web but for Zotero it will not be smoother like others. Editing and Creating Styles, customization is not possible in EndNote Web for Zotero.

Therefore, Endnote.

I use "Publish or Perish" and Mendeley together. Both are freeware and also able to exchange data. With MS Office Word they give me a complete solution.

In my experience, Endnote is very good (but also very expensive and you cannot use it without a license or VPN to a licensed computer). A free alternative is Zotero, it's quite good, but it tends to mess up formatting in the end...Mendeley is probably the best one out there :)

As for me, I'm using Mendeley for my research purpose. In fact, Mendeley has new features called 'recommend related documents' to find for related articles

I use Mandeley for my research purpose.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/leo/refmanagement/ref_man.html

Looks like Mendeley is coming out on top?

I am happy with RefWorks - easy to import, can create key words or files for coding/categories. There is also enough space on institutional access to attach the pdf.

Does for me :-)

I have used Endnote for many years and find it does the job. I stick with it because of habit and because our university has a site licence so I get it for free.

if you are interested in a comparison of Mendeley and Zotero (and Docear), our new in-depth review might be interesting http://www.docear.org/2014/01/15/comprehensive-comparison-of-reference-managers-mendeley-vs-zotero-vs-docear/

I would like to know about free tools to automatically create list of references in Microsoft Word document.

Harshadkumar -most of the different software above can be had for free or through your institution. They will generate a list of references - you select which ones you want - select an output style (APA, CMS etc.) & press 'go' ... a formatted list is produced that you can cut/paste into Word :-)

@Alan, very valuable question for us ho needed that sort of software.Thanking to the contributors I realised what software is available, and I am going to try , since it is very need!

Glad that you found it useful Ljubomir. I find ResearchGate really useful for these sorts of discussions.

Hi, not clear if it is useful or not but there is an article here [ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230642725_Reference_management_software_for_students_researchers_and_academics?ev=prf_pub ]. I have to declare that I am also a Mendeley Advisor.

The best advice is to choose what suits you. Paid for software like Endnote for some can be complicated and over spec'd. Web based software can be complicated to manage outside the dedicated web environment. Free to use or freemium software has been a bit of a market disrupter. Sometimes underdeveloped, problems can take time to sort out.

Of the freemium's, I think Mendeley is best for three reasons: 1) easy to use; 2) comes with a fully integrated web version and a good, and constantly improving desktop version as well; 3) may be good or bad depending on your point of view, but now backed by Reed Elsevier has some substantial investment behind it and will keep developing and improving.

My advice is that if you come to this fresh. so to speak. Start with Mendeley and see if it fits. If it does you are sorted! BW Matt

Article Reference management software for students, researchers and academics

I vote for Zotero.com

I'm using it witch Chrome (Zotero Connector).

There are also various Zotero-compatible applications for mobile devices.

You can expand/move storage using WebDAV server (i.e. Box.com, or your organisation storage server).

I've used zotero before as well, as it is open source, but for some standard layouts it really can be a pain...It's a very decent solution short term though, but there are better managers out there

I use Endnote and Mendeley desktop. TQ

EndNote.

Citavi.

I find it difficult to persuade students to use any kind of software for managing their references. Despite introducing them to the benefits fairly early on in their studies many of them still turn in papers with poorly written reference lists. This is a pity because a good reference manager is more than a way to compile a reference list accurately (although that would be an added bonus). Good use of a reference manager through the period of working on a paper or thesis can result in a much more coherent literature review.

I absolutely agree with David Gardner. Students usually do not want to hear it.

My personal opinion is that students don't find software necessary because they are not revising enough. Once I realized how many times I had to revise (and reformat the references for every submission) to get papers published I quickly started using a reference manager for my next paper! I've been using Mendeley myself (have found it easy to troubleshoot and share reference libraries with writing collaborators) and also have heard good things about Zotero.

I agree its a hard sell, especially the commercial versions which I find to be overspec'd. My personal view is that products like Mendeley and Zotero are easier to use and more accessible to the average student,

If you want simplicity I think one of the best options is ENDNOTE.

Loads of people still use Endnote

It is an easy and practical software...I tryed a lot of them..

Dear Dr. Alan Chamberlain, 

I found a good material on "comparison of reference management software". The document can be accessed via link provided below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software

The choice of many people is EndNote

Mendeley is a solid choice.

It's free to use, has a powerful range of tools to sort your references as you need them and can be installed and accessed from all the commonly used devices and operating systems. It can take a bit to get used to, but it's certainly worth it.

Additionally, Mendeley accounts can now be connected to SciFlow, an online text editor made for researchers. You can access your Mendeley references from SciFlow to write, cite, and format your papers in one place.

You can find Mendeley at https://www.sciflow.net/

If you're curious about how SciFlow and Mendeley work together:

https://www.sciflow.net/mendeley

Best regards,

Carsten

Mendeley is the best choice as alternative from Docear. My opinion, Docear is very and unique tool for reference and literature management, but Docear is not more supported. :(

Alan Chamberlain here are my two cents on the topic:

https://medium.com/swlh/fantastic-reference-managers-and-where-to-find-them-a412621eb4ba

There probably is no "best" software, just people's preferred software. My preferred reference manager is Endnote. I use it a library manager for all my downloaded e-papers as well as for the usual role of creating citations and reference lists in papers written in Word for Windows. I think most of the good reference managers can do similar things. I also love the fact that our university library catalogue can export the full reference information directly into Endnote. Endnote also has quite powerful database tools so I can search, organise and add notes to my library. My university also has a site licence so I get to use it in the office and at home for free. What's not to like?

docear is best tool

Amit Singh Rajput Docear has been shut down in 2015, in 2017 the developer ceased to support it. It is DEFINITELY not the tool to chose if you don't want to run into a bunch of problems.

Nice Dear David Gardner

Following

Zotero is available on all platforms and integrates nicely into MS Word. It automatically adds information from the internet to PDFs. You can search your data base including the PDFs. And it is for free.

I have been using it for more than 10 years.

I believe Mendeley is a good choice.

Mendeley + JabRef

I am using Mendeley, somehow for me it is good enough user friendly...

Jabref is a good choice. Please try at https://www.jabref.org/

JabRef is very efficient, easy to learn and use, but stay away from Version 5 (5.0 and 5.1) which is crap

Haven't really tried Mendelay, but Zotero works really well for me.

I go for Mendeley Desktop. it comes with a very good .pf files editor. You can add note and highlight text.

Above all very good to make inline citation and bibliography.

While selecting the software keep in mind:

- Mendeley does not allow to export you reference database (easily) for migration to other software.

- Zoterro understands references formatted by Mendeley in MS Word, but immediately changes them to its own format, incompatible with Mendeley :)

- References sometimes break in the document in collaborative editing with EndNote when different versions are used (I experienced it with ~5-year different versions).

Mendeley

Mendeley and End note

I used to use EndNote but some 6-7 years ago it stopped being free (+: it had a great reference-bibliography style editor).

Then I experimented with Mendeley but I could not import my existing lists into it - neither I could properly output. (+: you may annotate pdf-s, but all is in the cloud).

Now I use Zotero as I do not need pdf annotation, only generating reference items and biblio list. (+: could import existing EndNote lists - the only drawback compared to EndNote is that creating your own reference style is extremely difficult: a very clumsy scripting tool is built-in with no good explanation anywhere to be found... i.e. creating your own csl is hard work).

Mendeley is a good choice.

Best wishes.

I prefer JabRef

Mendeley sounds the best

I zotero

Zotero + Jabref can solve your most problems.

Mendeley or Zotero are best for me.