We have so many options for Reference Management but which one is better and why? Please consider some factors in your answer: ace of use, reliability, user friendliness, portability (we can use on different devices as same time) etc.
I know only Mendeley which i used and save me a lot of time.
Of course i can't compare to other software as i know just this one but here some info about it:
- Software can be installed in different devices in same time. So no problem of portability. --> I just try to use it in same time in my laptop and desktop and no problem, you can use it in same time in different device.
- There is a browser plugin which work with Firefox and Google Chrome, so a simple "bookmark" from the wanted page of pubmed/scopus/etc and it saves it on your Mendely library. --> 1 click to bockmark and 1 click to save it on the wanted folder. Easy, quick and intuitive.
- There is a Word plugin which allow you to add refecence inside the text ("add reference" and then start to write author / keyword / name of the paper, this plugin will automaticaly detecte paper that you have on your library and list them) and it allows you to create the bibliographie reference in one click (you can chose the style of the reference according a specific journal type). --> Easy, quick and time saving. Also no need to have an internet connection for that.
- It can be synchronised with your computer and find automaticaly the pdf files that you have on it and add them to your Mendeley software. --> Really nice when you use the first time Mendeley, no need to add them manually one by one even if it is possible to do it of course.
- Of course you can create several folder to manage your library.
You have a personal web space of 2 GB and a shared web space of 100 MB
- Other stuff which i didn't use yet is that you can invite a contact/collegue (which has also Mendeley) to share paper.
All of this is really user friendly and intuitive. I even didn't think about looking for other software as this one fit perfectly for me.
I know only Mendeley which i used and save me a lot of time.
Of course i can't compare to other software as i know just this one but here some info about it:
- Software can be installed in different devices in same time. So no problem of portability. --> I just try to use it in same time in my laptop and desktop and no problem, you can use it in same time in different device.
- There is a browser plugin which work with Firefox and Google Chrome, so a simple "bookmark" from the wanted page of pubmed/scopus/etc and it saves it on your Mendely library. --> 1 click to bockmark and 1 click to save it on the wanted folder. Easy, quick and intuitive.
- There is a Word plugin which allow you to add refecence inside the text ("add reference" and then start to write author / keyword / name of the paper, this plugin will automaticaly detecte paper that you have on your library and list them) and it allows you to create the bibliographie reference in one click (you can chose the style of the reference according a specific journal type). --> Easy, quick and time saving. Also no need to have an internet connection for that.
- It can be synchronised with your computer and find automaticaly the pdf files that you have on it and add them to your Mendeley software. --> Really nice when you use the first time Mendeley, no need to add them manually one by one even if it is possible to do it of course.
- Of course you can create several folder to manage your library.
You have a personal web space of 2 GB and a shared web space of 100 MB
- Other stuff which i didn't use yet is that you can invite a contact/collegue (which has also Mendeley) to share paper.
All of this is really user friendly and intuitive. I even didn't think about looking for other software as this one fit perfectly for me.
EndNote allows you to search databases (eg Pubmed etc) and cite sources in MS Word. It has both online and offline options, ability to edit output styles based on Journal requirements, and allows the user to attach pdfs to references. In my experience, the social networking features are limited, but otherwise I have had extremely positive experiences working with Endnote.
Thanks Nora for such a nice explanation of Mendeley's features. I also had same software but I had no experience of it. I was just using it for research paper collection or maximum for searching at the time of my PhD. Now I will surely try it. Again thanks a lot and regards.
@Smita the EndNote is paid software. If you have any idea about any free software then kindly share your experience. I will download its trial version and will try its features.
I use Zotero (http://www.zotero.org/) that is open-source and free. It is comparable to Mendeley and works as a plugin to your web browser thus allowing one-click import of the references. It also has social features (shared bibliographies) and can import bibtex and export to various word processing softwares (LaTeX, MS Word, Open/Libre Office).
Not sure about the best one but there is a long list and quite helpful tables comparing various features of many reference manager programs on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software.
Papers is a nice program, can sync with a smart phone. Nicer UI and easier to use than Endnote and just as powerful.
I use Mendeley, with the facility of automatically scanning my pdf files, sync with zotero and citeulike. I also like that it can integrate with Open Office/Libre Office and Lynx. I have no experience with OneNote or Papers, though.
I tried reference Manager and Endnote. I use now Endnote because it is easy to handle!
I use Citavi. It is easy to handle and is able to sort all the things you will need in your research(references, notes, tasks). Its integration in most common writing software makes it easy to get your manuskript done in a short time.
I use endnote and find it easy to handle and very well integrated with Word.
After getting recommendation for Docear from this forum, I downloaded it 2 days ago. At first it is not easy to understand it as it has a unique way of handling all of your references. I found it not just a reference manager, but also a composer of all research work and very good for drafting your new paper by automatically including all of your comments in pdf files in your word file. I think it is a future of our research.
Papers is my favorite as it is very easy to fill with PDFs and bibliographic data easily added. It is integrated well to work with Word for Mac. I used EndNote a lot, but Papers is much easier to handle in the daily work. In addition, Papers is available for the iPhone/iPad, which offers the opportunity to carry all your references with you in your smartphone.
I agree with Eik that this software is fantastic from the description , it helps you keep track of everything you need for your studies: texts, PDF files, websites, images, films, quotations, your own ideas, and task notes....I need to use it in my research to test its effectiveness. You can watch this YouTube http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1ppO8B6Dqrs&feature=youtu.be&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1ppO8B6Dqrs%26feature%3Dyoutu.be
In my view, Mendeley satisfies all your criteria. Also, they allow online storage.
I use Zotero too and I really like it! Like Ayyaz said, it is open source, gives you nice integration into different browsers / systems and is really easy to use. You can download a lot of journal styles, import styles from endnote and create also your own.
Word integration works quite well. This little program saved me a lot of time!
But "the best" reference management system does not exist. It depends on your personal taste and the size of your wallet. You will get your work done with most of the programs on the market.
I have been using end note for so many years now and have found it very easy to use.
I use Wizfolio, it integrates wit the web browser and word processing software. I have found the web browser integration very useful as all I have to do is click to add a page as a reference. Ii is also operating system independent. If you use word press it integrates with it also. And you can share references easily between researchers.
Considering the different systems used by all the above, there probably is no single one better than all others. I use Reference Manager, which has easy search function directly from PubMed, easy reference citation style methods, and is fully integrated in Word.
The best one is about the availability and the COST. I prefer Zotero because its an open software, sometime back had chances of using the EndNote. EndNote is good, however costly. Best one is whichever you have access to and the one which is comfortable to use (for yourself).
I just started looking at Zotero, It seems to be pretty good. It works well with Libreoffice, firefox, and chrome. The only shortcoming I see in it is it does not work with Wordpress where I start writing a lot of my papers, there is a Wordpress wiget for Zotero but it still needs some work.
I just started using Zotero, but I soon found out that it doesn't have the citation style of my journal of interest in its database. Is it possible to get around this problem somehow? Maybe I could find a similar citation style and do some minor corrections then? Any suggestions?
EndNotes have several advantages and I used it for several years. Updating and finding templates could be sometime cumbersome, though.
Dear Qaim Mehdi Rizvi,
EndNote, RefWorks jointly as the best. This is because Both have Proprietary, Operating system support, Export file formats, Citation styles, Word processor integration. As far as Database connectivity is concerned EndNote has but RefWorks don't have. EndNote is not supported for Import file formats but RefWorks has this support. Reference list file formats is available with both EndNote and RefWorks, however, RefWorks has partial support.
I work in mixed group of experimentalists and computational biologists and many of us use Paperpile (http://paperpile.com). It is especially helpful when it comes to working collaboratively on a manuscript in Google Docs and also doing the references in Google docs and not down-grading to MS Word. Paperpile stores the PDF files of the papers in Google Drive, which makes them easily accessible on all devices, also smart-phones.
if your work / reference article involves lots of sciences works, dont go for mendeley as it does not have an option to edit to special character in the title such as subscript and superscript character (for example, number 2 in H2O needs to be small subscript which cannot be done in it). Its a shame for such a friendly reference manager (and free too), but it cant support subscript and superscript to be permanently edited in the software.
I also use Zotero. Personally I find it the one with less issues so far.
I used Refworks for my dissertation because it was free and online. But it doesn't store copies of articles (at least my version didn't then). I've been using Zotero and Mendeley both for the past few years. They have major trade-offs with each other (Z does one thing great that M does horribly and vice versa). Luckily you can one-way sync from Z into M.
Has anyone figured out ways to speed up Zotero? One of the things I hate about it is how long it takes to process PDFs when I drag them into Zotero from Windows Explorer. Thanks in advance.
Have any of you tried www.pasteref.com. It is designet for fast and easy lookup of scientific references.
http://www.pasteref.com
@pasteref: Even the example reference they provide on their homepage is not looked up correctly. Authors are truncated.
OK I am sold on Mendely but I have a follow up question: Is it better to save citations on the Mendely Library on your desktop library or on the Mendely web site?
I have been using Mendeley for a couple of years, but I would like to try Zotero. Is there an easy way to migrate taking all my references with me from the Mendeley Library to Zotero?
Sheila, I'm in Zot more than M, so I forget their terminology. If you're using more than one computer and want your PDF articles on every computer (and accessible via the website), then you'll want them to sync and not just be on your machine. I hope that helps.
Juan, you can one-way sync from Zot to Mendely, but there's nothing to auto-sync in the other direction that I know of. You could do it manually, but that seems like a pain. While I like Mendeley better, I run everything through Z first so it's in both places. The translation into M isn't "one-for-one"...your folder structure in Z becomes a tag in M, so you can still organize, but it's not like it organizes right into M's folder structure. But it's handy in case you're undecided. One other point of caution...Mendeley seems better for moving loads of PDFs around (hundreds or thousands). Zotero support is good though. Mendeley is, too, but it's grown a lot and it's hard to get ahold of them sometimes. The stories I read (all online in their groups) is that they lost some support when they sold the company to Elsevier. Some folks had a hard time with an "open science" tool being owned by for-profit publishing company. I haven't felt anything on that dimension, but who knows what will happen in the future. Zotero is academic-based, so if you want true open source, go with them (or I guess something in the bibtex/latex world). I use mine all in Word.
Zotero Rocks! I have just started to embrace opensource and I am using it currently!
What do you think of Google Scholar? It works with (multiple) labels and you can export the citations in different formats (Chicago, APA etc.).
https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html#library
I also use the Microsoft word Reference manager, it is already with the word program (2007 and above). Of course, it is free as long as you have the Microsoft Office. It is easy to use and as long as you at the first time cited your references, then you can click to change to many other styles of references.
I'm using mendeley for few years now. Saved me great amount of time. It has every thing I need. My advice is "go and test few of them", as I did and finally I settled on Mendeley. Its free with 2 GB of cloud storage, has plugins for MS Word and some other word processors, web importer plugin and contain citation style for a large number of journals out there. You can even create your own citation style and load it to the program. There is also mobile companion apps for IOS and Android.
Hi, I have been involved in developing a new cloud based reference manager F1000Workspace (http://f1000.com/work/). I know I am biased but I think it is a nice set of tools that make it easier to save articles directly from the web (via browser extensions), annotate articles, and share articles with colleagues. The plugins for Word (mac and windows) do their job with the added bonus of suggesting citations based on the text in the document and the ability to search PubMed directly from Word.
Anyone can try it for free during 30 days
Hi, after using Zotero, and Reference Manager, I tried Mendeley and fell in love with its simplicity and ease of use.
One can import one's own library or already downloaded PDFs (which I have 100s if not 1000s). The cite as you write function is super easy to use, as well as final bibliography creation and formatting! And, last but not least, it's free!
I highly recommend Mendeley!
My vote is for Colwiz. Much more storage space than Zotero. Works about the same as Mendeley, but I have had more bugs with the latter. You can access your library online or from a dekstop. Extensive list of citation styles.
I have tried several managers over the years. When I wrote my Thesis using LaTeX, I enjoyed very much JabRef, which is very flexible, bibtex friendly, but without many easy options to import refs directly from the web. After several options I tried Zotero and then migrated for some time to Mendeley, hoping it would be faster with my growing ~10K references database, many of them with full text. This was not the case and the unbeatable easiness for getting new references directly from the web and the extra functionality created by using plugins such as ZotFile, brought me back to Zotero. I haven't changed to (or tried) another reference manager ever since.
Zotero is my choice.
I use Mendeley. I used others and this is so seem less I really recommend it.
I use microsoft reference manager. I have never realized to use other software for reference management.
Word 2016 is not currently compatible with Endnote. Is not possible to make a citation.
Word 2016 is not currently compatible with Endnote. Is not possible to make a citation.
Word 2016 is not currently compatible with Endnote. Is not possible to make a citation.
I used Endnote and Mendeley and I switched to Mendeley because of its benefits such as web storage, mobile and tablet client and word citation plug in.
I think qiqqa is another good app although I dont use it yet
I have worked with the Reference manager in Microsoft Word, it is almost excellent and easy to use beside it is free if one has license to the Microsoft Office.
there are many youtuve tutorials which can be viewd in 15 minutes to learn how to use it in a smooth way.
Regards
can one import from google scholar to zotero directly. without having to even open or access the journal paper?
Ismaila, If you are using the browser based Zotero, there is a Google Scholar Search function in the drop down menu (upper right of browser window) so I would assume that the answer is yes, although I haven't had the need to exercise that in my activities so far. I am aligned with the others who are using Zotero. I was using Mendeley but have found Zotero more effective for my work.
ReadCube is becaming an important tool. Personally I have been using Mendeley and EndNote, both of them are really well organized. Have a try with both of them.
SP
Zotero is also available on line and I found it good and it saves lots of time.
A word of caution about Mendeley. It has a lot of great functions but it is not compatible with pdfs saved in a cloud (I use dropbox to access the pdfs from different computers and this leads to duplicate entries) and annotations made in external pdf readers. I am currently trying to recover my literature base after "organizing" it with Mendeley and it is quite painful. So you have to be careful how to use it, especially if you want to use watch-folder settings.
Zotero is the best, but it has one disadvantage. it allows only for 300 MB of free storage.
same comments for Baraq Ghaleb. I used Zotero it is very easy for use in Win or Linux with Ms word or Liber office . but unfortunately the size is limited and now i need to move another reference manager. not sure which one yet :)
I have been used for several months Mendeley, it is a pretty convenience to reference my work. This kind of tool has a lot of space to storage my bibliography.
Over the past years, I have tried EndNote, Mendeley, Docear and Zotero, and I clearly prefer Zotero.
Regarding Baraq's comment about limited storage space in Zotero: That is true if you want to use the built-in cloud storage that they provide to sync your pdfs between computers. Mendeley also has such a storage limit, if I remember correctly, but it is higher. In both cases, you can pay for more storage space. Unlike Mendeley, however, Zotero allows you to use other ways to sync the pdfs between computers, for example, you can use links to files on dropbox or a network folder (or an external harddisk for that matter). You just define on every computer where the folder is, and Zotero then only syncs your library information (for which storage space is unlimited) and you take care of the pdfs yourself.
Mendeley is maybe a bit easier to start with, but that could be partly because you can customize it less. However, for me Mendeley eventually did not work because it lacked functions that I definitely needed. If you browse through the discussion boards on the Mendeley website, you will see that there are quite some unanswered feature requests.
Zotero is an open-source program that has been around for a while, so there are many plugins that people have developed to solve specific problems and there is a user board where you get quick answers to your questions. You have to look into it a bit to set it up to do exactly what you want (although there are to do's online, even on youtube), but then there are many great features. For example, you can get a plugin to extract the annotations from your pdfs so that you can search them and with a click on the annotation or comment, go to the respective section of the pdf. It can also monitor your download folder and help you rename and organize your files into your literature folder. All very helpful.
I am very outspoken about the advantages of Zotero because I feel that it is much better than its reputation, and knowing about this would have saved me some time trying out other reference managers..
I prefer Mendeley, is user-friendly, very helpful in managing your references, monitoring your citation index and keep you abreast of topical issues in your field.
Salaam
you can go to the nature site and see the results!
http://www.nature.com/news/eight-ways-to-clean-a-digital-library-1.18695
I prefer Mendeley. That's amazing software in the field of managing the digital library and so many benefits.
http://www.nature.com/news/eight-ways-to-clean-a-digital-library-1.18695
I welcome this very curious question! I personally do not know if there is such a software that generally can be answered (reference) for all issues of research, I think the management, primarily! discussion will follow and I like to hear some answers like this fellow up opposite of my experience, as this was very useful for me to further my work!
Hi everyone!
I'm about to make my choice of a reference manager, and googling for it, I stumble on this thread. Any new opinions on the matter?
I have heard about Refworks, Endnote, Mendeley and Zotero, just now trying to figure out the pros and cons.
I welcome any insights.. particularly on the free software, which ones are developing faster?
Dear all,
Thank you for bringing up that topic!
The Technical University of Munich published a comparison of the most common Reference Management Systems. (See file attached)
Is there a particular reference system that is especially suitable for philosophy and social science scholars?
https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1320978/1320978.pdf
Have a look at REF-N-WRITE scientific paper writing tool. This tool allows you to import text from previous papers relevant to the subject area in MS word. While you are writing your paper, you can just search for similar statements from other authors and inherit their vocabulary and language to improve your paper. This tool can also be used to recycle and reuse your past research papers. It also comes with a library of academic phrases that you can readily use to polish your paper.
Here is the link for the site.
http://www.ref-n-write.com
They have some nice tutorials here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf7qyyKtbyQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6hlXzqO3r4
Do you know any system that includes auto-tagging and that is abet to generate an ontology of papers in library?
Best academic research tools referencing and citation..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S89SOtkBMAQ
Best academic research tools referencing and citation..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S89SOtkBMAQ
Best academic research tools referencing and citation..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S89SOtkBMAQ
Best academic research tools referencing and citation..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S89SOtkBMAQ
I will recommend Mendeley, is an open source, user friendly with many other benefits.
Overall, I recommend Mendeley. I have tried out a number of other reference management tools over the years, but i've stuck with Mendeley for a few reasons.
I use Mendeley, mostly for its versatility when it comes to the actual managing of my references (although this takes some getting used to) and that I can use it anywhere very easily.
Another important reason I like Mendeley is its API, which lends itself nicely to being integrated into other software, so you can access your Mendeley Library from another application, like SciFlow.(https:/www.sciflow.net)
Before we founded SciFlow, we decided that we'd like to have our references and documents in the same software, so we made it possible to integrate references and reference managers into our Web App to achieve this goal.
Regards,
Carsten
As many of fellow colleagues do, I would recommend Mendeley as well.
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