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Citation Management Software

What is citation management software?

A reference manager supports researchers in performing three basic research steps: searching, storing, and writing [...]. It helps researchers find relevant literature, allows them to store papers and their bibliographic metadata in a personal database for later retrieval, and allows researchers to insert citations and references in a chosen citation style when writing a text.

Fenner, Martin, Kaja Scheliga, and Sönke Bartling. ‘Reference Management’. In Opening Science, edited by Sönke Bartling and Sascha Friesike, 125–37. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00026-8_8.

Citation managers can save researchers a lot of time, as well as help to reduce mistakes and avoid plagiarism.

Click here for a comparison of different citation managers.

Comparison of citation management softwareZotero


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Zotero is a popular free and open-source option among researchers that offers many features as well as extensions.

 

Using Zotero: A Sequenced Tutorial


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Mendeley is a proprietary option from Elsevier. BI faculty and staff have free access via our partnership with BAU.

 
SoftwareDeveloperFirst public releaseLatest stable release dateLatest stable versionCost (USD)Free softwareLicenseNotes
BebopALaRI Institute2007-11-082009-11-101.1FreeYesBSDweb-based BibTeX front-end (Apache, PHP, MySQL)
BibBaseChristian Fritz20052013-07v3FreeNoProprietarycentrally hosted website, intended for publication pages
BibDeskBibDesk developers2002-042021-08-151.8.3FreeYesBSDBibTeX front-end + repository; Cocoa-based; integration with Spotlight
BiblioscapeCG Information19972015-06-2210.0.3.6US$79-299[1]NoProprietaryODBC; web access in Pro ed; optional client/server; discontinued?
BibSonomyUniversity of Kassel2006-012019-12-113.9.2FreeYesAGPL, GPL, LGPL[2]centrally hosted website
BibusBibus developers2004-06-032013-05-231.5.1FreeYesGNU GPLdiscontinued?
BookendsSonny Software1988 (Mac) / 1983 (Apple II+)2021-01-2313.5.1[3]US$59.99[1]NoProprietaryDesktop & iOS synced via iCloud, integrated web search, PDF download, auto-completion, Word plugin, BibTex support, PDF annotations stored as notes
CitaviQSR International[4]2006-02-132022-01-056.11.0.0US$89-1947[5]NoProprietarydata can be saved locally on the computer, or, for team access, in the Citavi Cloud or an intranet Microsoft SQL Server;[6] search databases from interface[7]
CiteULikeOversity Limited2004-11Shut down in 2019-03-30[8]
FreeNoproprietary[9]centrally hosted website
colwizcolwiz Ltd20112016-05-09
Free / Online storage free up to 3 GB / Additional storage space availableNoProprietaryNow combined with wizdom.ai
EndNoteClarivate Analytics19882021-11-3020.2.1US$299.95[1]NoProprietaryThe web version EndNote basic (formerly, EndNote Web) is free of charge
JabRefJabRef developers2003-11-292021-07-055.3FreeYesMIT licenseJava BibTeX and BibLaTeX manager
KBibTeXKBibTeX developers2005-082020-04-260.9.2FreeYesGNU GPLBibTeX front-end, using the KDE Software Compilation
MendeleyElsevier2008-0820201.19.8Free / Online storage free up to 2 GB / Additional storage space availableNoproprietary (OS API clients exist)Account required, Desktop & Web components, Windows, Linux, macOS (not macOS 11 Big Sur)
PaperpileStefan Washietl, Gregorgy Jordan, Andreas Gruber2013Continually updated online
US$2.99/month for academics, 9.99/month otherwiseNoProprietaryweb-application, integrates with Google Docs, collaboration & sharing features, currently only on Google Chrome
Pybliographerpybliographer developers1998-10-30 (0.2)2018-04-031.4.0FreeYesGNU GPLPython/GTK2
QiqqaQiqqa2010-042020-10-04v80FreeYesGNU GPLFrom end 2020, Open Source
ReadCube Papers (now Papers)ReadCube2011-102021-03-09v.4.23.3US$ 3/month for students, 5/month academicsNoProprietaryWeb-app, Desktop (MacOS, Windows), Mobile (iOS and Android). Microsoft Word and Google Docs add-in. Browser extension (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari)
refbaserefbase developers2003-06-032014-02-280.9.6FreeYesGNU GPLweb-based for institutional repositories/self-archiving[10]
RefDBrefdb developers2001-04-252007-11-050.9.9FreeYesGNU GPLnetwork-transparent; XML/SGML bibliographies
Reference ManagerThomson Reuters1984201012.0.3Not for sale anymore, sales ceased December 31, 2015NoProprietarynetwork version; built-in web publishing tool; discontinued
ReferencerReferencer developers2008-03-152014-02-271.2.2FreeYesGNU GPLBibTeX front-end
RefMERefME2014Shut down in 2017
FreeNoProprietaryWeb, iOS and Android; Chrome and Safari Extensions available; discontinued
RefWorksEx Libris / ProQuest200120183Institutional subscriptionNoProprietaryweb-based, browser-accessed, Word & Google Docs
SciRefScientific Programs20122020-07-301.6.2US$38.90 / Free trial versionNoProprietary
SenteThird Street Software, Inc.2004Shut down in 20176.7.9US$60–80[1] / Free for libraries up to 100 refsNoProprietaryDesktop and iPad, centralized backup/synching; discontinued
WikindxMark Grimshaw2004-022021-07-076.4.10FreeYesISC licenseweb-based
WizFolioWizPatent2008-06Shut down in 2017AvataraUS$25 / Free Basic versionNoProprietarycentrally hosted website; discontinued
ZoteroRoy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at GMU20062021-01-115.0.95 [11]Free / Online storage free up to 300 MB / Additional storage space availableYesAGPLMulti-platform desktop version with connectors for Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Web-based access to reference library also available through Zotero.org or through a personal cloud-based database folder on a user's computer (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.).

Source: Wikipedia (retrieved 04 Mar 2022)

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