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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.