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Comparison Chart

Due to significant changes in EndNote 20 and Mendeley Reference Manager, this chart’s accuracy may lag behind each individual product’s website. We are updating the chart with information for each product as it becomes available.

This table provides a comparison of major features for some of the tools we support. See Wikipedia’s Comparison of Reference Management Software for extensive comparisons of many other citation managers.

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  EndNote Desktop EndNote Basic Mendeley Zotero
Cost Requires purchase of an individual license Free; UW-Madison users have more citation styles available in accounts which use their @wisc.edu email Free; option to pay for additional cloud storage or additional private groups Free; option to pay for additional cloud storage
Operating System Requirements (for most recent version) Windows and Mac Web-based Windows; Mac; Linux Windows; Mac; Linux
Export data between citation managers Yes Yes Yes Yes
Global find/replace editing Yes Yes No No
Duplicate detection Yes Yes Yes Yes
Journal abbreviation lists 12 lists supplied but must be installed for each library None Abbreviations based on citation style selected; can be edited Version 4.0 and later can automatically abbreviate journal titles in Index Medicus/MEDLINE format
Attachment limits Max of 45 attachments per citation; no limit on file size or total cloud storage No limit on attachments per citation;
no limit on file size; total attachment storage limited to 2GB		 No limit on attachments per citation;
Attachment file size limited to 250MB; total (free) attachment cloud storage limited to 2GB		 No limit on attachments per citation;
no limit on file size; total (free) attachment cloud storage limited to 300MB
Retrieve citation information from PDF Yes- uses DOI or PubMed ID fields No Yes- PDF text analyzed for information, DOI, Arxiv, PubMed, Crossref ids all used; Mendeley also uses it's own database to check citations Yes - uses DOI or other extracted information from PDF; matches in Google Scholar
Add notes to references Yes, in “notes” field Yes, in “notes” field Yes, via “notes” tab in desktop version Yes, notes can stand alone or be attached to references
Annotate PDFs Yes No Yes No, but will sync PDFs annotated with 3rd party software
Full-text PDF search Yes No Yes Yes
Direct search of online databases Yes, if UW-Madison libraries subscribe to them Yes: Web of Science, PubMed, UW Library Catalog Can search the Mendeley database (papers in the libraries of other users) No
Direct export from online datbases Yes: List (Connection files) or EndNote Click Yes, via EndNote Click Yes, via web importer Yes, via web translators
Filters for importing from online databases Yes - list of over 500 Yes Import from supported websites and databases via web importer. Imports wikis, websites, and databases via translators. Web snapshot retains the presentation of a particular web page.
Creates formatted bibliographies and in-text citations in a word processor Yes Yes Yes Yes
Edit or create citation styles Yes No Yes, via the Mendeley CSL Yes, via Citation Style Editor
Collaboration and sharing Free sharing of citations and attachments with up to 200 EndNote users
  • Share EndNote Web account with other EndNote Web users (cannot share file attachments)

  • Create shared groups that all users can edit
  • Create public and private groups

  • Automatic synchronization of collections among multiple computers

  • One private group of 3 members free (costs for private groups)
  • Create public and private groups

  • Automatic synchronization of collections among multiple computers
Read-only sharing Yes (Set library to read-only or locked status) Yes (Read-only share “group” with anyone who has an EndNote Web account) Yes (By “follow” option through web interface) Yes (Via member settings within groups)
Mobile device applications iOS app No iOS app, Android app 3rd party iOS and Android apps
Screen capture webpages No No No Yes
Storage in cloud and maximum number of records
  • Unlimited cloud storage

  • Version X4-present: Unlimited records/library
  • 2GB cloud storage

  • 10,000 records/library
  • 2GB cloud storage

  • Unlimited records/library
  • 300MB cloud storage

  • Unlimited records/library
Number of reference types 50 pre-defined(customizable); 3 user-created 51 pre-defined 20 pre-defined 38 pre-defined
Auto-complete data entry Yes, for author(s), keyword(s), and journal title No Yes, for journal title, tags, keywords Yes, for author(s), journal title, tags
Spell check Yes No No No
Sorting capabilities Any field Author, title, year, and more Any field Any field
Field searching Yes, any field No - searches entire record only Yes, by author, title, publication names, year & notes Yes, any field
RSS feeds No No Yes Yes
Google Docs integration No No No Yes, through the Zotero Connector browser extension