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University of Iowa

University Libraries

Citing Sources: Citation Management Software

Citation format instruction for technical & scientific writing.
Citation Software

Citation management software is a tool designed to make your work easier!

There are many great features:

  • save and organize your references
  • insert and format citations within your paper
  • create a bibliography
  • search library databases
  • collaborate with others online
  • discover the latest research

This guide discusses three options:

  • EndNote - the industry standard software tool for publishing and managing bibliographies, citations and references
  • Mendeley - a citation manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research
  • Zotero - an open source tool that can help you collect, organize, cite, and share research

EndNote

  • You don’t have to pay for it because University Libraries has subscription. EndNote Basic (web-based version) is freely available to UI affiliates and EndNote Desktop is freely available to faculty, staff and graduate students.
  • If you need to handle thousands of references, EndNote is probably the best tool.
  • If you work a lot with Web of Science, EndNote is probably the best tool since it can directly import references from Web of Science.
  • If you need access to many different citation styles, EndNote supports thousands of citation styles and continues providing new citation styles upon request.
  • You can also edit existing citation styles or create your own in EndNote.
  • Where to get?

 

 
EndNote Desktop
Endnote Basics
Pricing Free for faculty, staff and graduate students
but $113.95 for undergraduate students		 Free for faculty, staff and all students
Reference Storage Unlimited 50,000
Attachment Storage Unlimited 2 GB
Bibliographic Formatting Styles 7,000+ 4,200+
Reference Sharing Yes Yes
Send references directly from online databases 500+ 500+
Search Online Resources within EndNote 6,000+ 1,800+
Formatting in Microsoft Word Yes Yes
One-click "Find Full Text" Yes No
Automatic Reference Updating Yes No
Advanced Reference Organization Yes No
  • Open EndNote library (version 20 or 21), and select the references that you would like to export to BibTeX. 
  • On the bottom right corner, expand the citation style box, click Select Another Style... And in the list that appears, choose BibTeX Export. 
  • From the toolbar dropdown menu, go to File and select Export, rename file name as needed, save the file as Text File, and then select the output style of BibTeX Export.  
  • When the output file is generated, make sure change the file extension of .txt to .bib 

Mendeley

  • Free but there are costs for upgraded storage. 
  • If you have a huge number of PDF files in your computer that you want to import into a citation manager, Mendeley works the most smoothly for this purpose. Mendeley’s file organizer can automatically rename your PDFs and file them in a clear folder structure.
  • If you work a lot with Science Direct, Scopus and Compendex, Mendeley is probably the best tool, since it can directly import references from these databases.
  • The Mendeley interface is probably the most intuitive out of the three citation managers.
  • Mendeley has social media features that enable you to share your research with a network of people, find out what citations other people are compiling in their libraries, or search Web Catalog which is Mendeley’s crowd-sourced research catalog with millions of papers.
  • Where to get? Mendeley website
  • Overleaf (online LaTeX editor) integrates with Mendeley. Check out How to link your Overleaf account to Mendeley
  • If you are using other LaTeX editors rather than Overleaf, you would need to manually export citations in BibTeX:
    • Select reference records you wish to export to BibTeX.
    • From the toolbar dropdown menu, go to File and then click Export.
    • On the pop-up window, choose file type BibTeX(*.bib), rename file name and save it.

Zotero

  • Free but there are costs for upgraded storage. 
  • If you are a Firefox user, Zotero works best as a Firefox extension.
  • If you want to archive webpages, Zotero allows you to capture a snapshot of the webpage as well as other data about the webpage.
  • Where to get? Zotero website 
  • Overleaf (online LaTeX editor) integrates with Zotero. Check out How to link your Overleaf account to Zotero
  • If you are using other LaTeX editors rather than Overleaf, you would need to manually export citations in BibTeX
    • Select the library you wish to export to BibTeX.
    • From the toolbar dropdown menu, go to File and then select Export Library.
    • On the pop-up window, choose format BibTeX, and then click OK.
    • Navigate to the folder where you would like to save the file, rename it and save it as BibTeX.

Feature Comparison Chart

 

EndNote 

Mendeley 

Zotero 

Availability 

Desktop version for Mac and Windows available to download for free through ITS;

EndNote Basic (web-based version) also available  

Mendeley Reference Manager, Mendeley Cite, Web Importer available to download for free;

Premium plans for more storage are purchasable.  

Web browser, desktop available to download for free for Mac, Windows, Linus and iOS;

Storage plans are purchasable. 

Word processor compatibility 
  • Microsoft Word
  • Office 365 (locally installed desktop version only) 
  • Apache OpenOffice
  • LibreOffice  
  • Apple Pages 
  • Wolfram Mathematica 8
  • Microsoft Word 
  • Office 365 

 
  • Microsoft Word 
  • LibreOffice 
  • Google Docs 

Citation plugin 

Auto install when installing desktop version 

Require installing Mendeley Cite 

Require installing word processor plugin 

Capture citation information from PDFs and webpages 

Yes, but webpages require plugin called EndNote Click.

Yes, but require plugin called Web Importer. It allows import papers, web pages and other documents directly into your reference library from search engines and academic databases.

Yes, but require plugin called Zotero Connector. It allows you to add bibliographic information with a single click.

Citation/bibliography styles 

7,000+ predefined; plus modify and create your own

nearly 7,000 predefined; plus modify and create your own

10,000+ predefined; plus modify and crate your own

Sharing references 

Yes, you can share references in groups or the entire library. Check out How to share a library

Yes, you can share groups. Check out How to share a group

Yes, you can share groups. Check out How to share a group
Subjects: Engineering