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.
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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?
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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 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.
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/
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!
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'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 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.
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,
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:
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. :(