Citation Managers Comparison - UW-Madison Libraries

RefWorks/EndNote/Zotero Features Comparison

Four Citation Managers Compared (pdf), by Bev Phillips

	RefWorks	EndNote Desktop	EndNote Web	Zotero
Cost	Free to UW-Madison students, staff and faculty	Requires individual purchase by user, research group or department. Educational discounts available through UW-Bookstore or DoIT.	Free to UW-Madison students, staff and faculty.	Free to everyone
Operating System	Web based - operating system-independent	Macintosh, Windows	Web based - operating system-independent	Specific versions of Firefox, Netscape Navigator, Flock ; use on a single computer or removable storage device. Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview for automatic synchronization of collections among multiple computers under development.
Database/Record Structure	RefWorks	EndNote Desktop	EndNote Web	Zotero
Share data among other citation management programs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Maximum # of records per library or folder	Unlimited	Unlimited. 100,000 recommended	10,000	?
Maximum record size	Notes and Abstract fields limited to 1 gigabyte	Figure field can contain a single graphic. All other fields can contain up to 64KB	All fields can contain 64KB
Maximum # of fields (e.g. author, title)	Pre-defined: 51 Custom fields: 15	Predefined (customizable): 44 Custom fields: 8	EndNote Web: 50 predefined fields
Maximum # of reference types (e.g. journal, book)	Pre-defined: 31 User-defined: None	Pre-defined (customizable): 45 User-defined: 3	Pre-defined: 47	Pre-defined: 33
Read Only capability	Yes. Unlimited (UW-Madison affiliation required)	Yes. 15 simultaneous users (on same network LAN)	Yes. Read-only share "group" with anyone who has an EndNote Web account.
Editing/Entry of Information	RefWorks	EndNote Desktop	EndNote Web	Zotero
Search and Replace	Yes.	Yes.	No.
Global editing	Can globally add/replace terms	Can globally add/replace terms	No.
Auto completion of data	Yes, for author(s), keyword(s), and journal title(s)	Yes, for author(s), keyword(s), and journal title(s)	No.	Yes, for Author, Tags
Spell Check	No.	Yes.	No.	Yes.
Duplicate detection	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
Authority lists	Yes, authors, keywords, and journal titles automatically generated	Yes, authors, keywords and journal titles automatically generated	No.	Yes, Authors, and Tags automatically generated
Automatic journal abbreviation lists	None.	11 lists supplied , including National Library of Medicine, American Chemical Society, Modern Language Association. Can import others	None.	None.
Support of special characters	Unicode compliant.	Unicode compliant.	Unicode compliant.	Unicode compliant.
Linking to PDFs or other materials	OpenURL compliant. Automatically uses the UW-Madison Libraries Find It links. Attach files to records. Max. 20MB/attachment. Max. attachment storage of 100MB/account. "Links field" for files via manual entry of absolute path.	Open URL compliant. Must configure EndNote to use the UW-Madison Libraries Find It links. Max. 45 files/record. Thumbnail images supplied which point to materials in the data folder for each EndNote library. Max. 1 image/Image field.	OpenURL compliant. Automatically uses the UW-Madison Libraries Find It links. Can enter URLs directly. Can Link to PDF files on the Web	OpenURL compliant. Must configure Zotero to use the UW-Madison Libraries Find It links. Add attachments Web snapshots
Searching	RefWorks	EndNote Desktop	EndNote Web	Zotero
Sort capabilites	Selected fields. Results of a search are automatically ranked by relevance	Any field.	By author, title or year.	Any information category
Boolean AND, OR, NOT	Yes.	Yes.	OR is the default between terms. Use plus sign (+) for AND, and minus sign(-) for NOT.	Is, Is Not, Contains, Does Not Contain.
Field Searching	Yes, by selected fields	Yes, by any field	Yes, by author	Yes, by any field
Advanced Search	Yes: includes embedded truncation (excluding Descriptor field terms)	Yes. Includes truncation and date range searching	No.	Yes. All fields
Direct Search of Online Catalogs/Databases	Yes.	Yes: List	Yes.	Automatic capture
Search Across Multiple Folders/Groups	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
Authority list browsing	Author, Keyword, Journal Title	Author, Keyword, Journal Title	No.	Yes. Author, Tags
Save search strategies	No.	Yes.	No.	No.
Importing Data	RefWorks	EndNote Desktop	EndNote Web	Zotero
Filters for importing from online databases	Yes. List of database vendors. Others available on request.	Yes. List	Yes. List of instructions by vendor. Others available on request	Imports wikis, websites, and databases such as Factiva and USPTO Web snapshot retains the presentation of a particular web page
Editing or creating filters	No.	Yes.	No.	No.
Use of Direct Export Feature	Yes. List	Yes: List	Yes	Yes. List
Word Processor Compatibility	RefWorks	EndNote Desktop	EndNote Web	Zotero
Work within a wordprocessor to create formatted bibliographies, in-text citations, and footnotes.	Write N Cite plug-in for MS WORD. See MS WORD and browser compatibility, LaTex through BibTex On-line/Cite View for all platforms, browsers, and word processors.	Cite While You Write plug-in for MS WORD EndNote Add-in for WordPerfect. RTF Document Scan for most other word processors. LaTex through BibTex	Microsoft Word 2000 / XP / 2003 / 2007 and Mac Microsoft Word X/2004	Word, Open Office, Google Docs LaTex through BibTex
Can you insert references manually and then automatically generate formatted bibliographies, in-text citations, and footnotes?	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
Creating Bibliographies	RefWorks	EndNote Desktop	EndNote Web	Zotero
Automatically create a formatted bibliography, footnotes, and in-text citation.	Yes. Styles List	Yes. Styles List	Yes. Styles List	Yes. Styles List
Can you Edit/Create styles?	Yes.	Yes.	No.	Yes, if you know Citation Style Language (CSL)
Create a bibliography as a file within citation manager?	Word for Windows 2000 or later Word for Mac 98 or later HTML Rich Text Format (RTF) Plain Text XML Open Office	HTML Rich Text Format (RTF) XML Plain Text	HTML Rich Text Format (RTF) Plain Text	HTML Rich Text Format (RTF) Open Office Plain text
Create a Subject Bibliography (Create a list of references grouped by subject)	No.	Yes. You may generate a bibliography grouped by any field (e.g. subject, author).	No.	No.
Create a formatted list of figures, charts, etc.	No.	Yes.	No.	No.
Special Features	RefWorks	EndNote Desktop	EndNote Web	Zotero
Collaboration features	RefWorks account: Multi-user access Simultaneous editing of an account Offers read-only access of the same data. RefShare: Share their database (or folders) with members of their own institution and globally with any researcher having Internet access.	Traveling Library within a wordprocessor document, PDFs contained within a library .data subfolder for ease of sharing	Share EndNote Web account with other EndNote Web users	No.
Export	Export records to: Refworks format RIS Backup/Restore feature for sharing library, folders, and custom output styles	Export records to: EndNote format RIS		Export records to: Zotero format RIS BibTeX Refer/BibIX
RSS Feeds	Integrated RSS feed reader Create RSS feeds from a folder or database of references and published via RefShare.	No.	No.	No.
Data Visualization	No.	Can export and send data to RefViz, a data visualization tool available for purchase separately. RefViz analyzes large numbers of references by thematic content and presents an at-a-glance overview of the main topics discussed in the reference set.	No.	Timelines - with technology from MIT's SIMILE Timeline project.
Mobile Device Application	RefMobile - for mobile and smart phones, PDAs	EN X2 includes application for Palm OS® handheld devices Enter references into your EndNote desktop and/or into your handheld device. Synchronize files between your desktop and handheld libraries.