See Wikipedia’s Comparison of Reference Management Software for extensive comparisons of many citation managers. For an at-a-glance, one-page comparison, see the Citation Managers Handout.
| EndNote Desktop | EndNote Basic | Mendeley | Zotero | |
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| Cost | Requires individual purchase by user, research group or department. Educational discounts available through UW-Bookstore or DoIT | Free to everyone (fewer styles)Free to UW-Madison students, staff and faculty (many more styles) – See comparison chart. Click box next to I Have Web of Knowledge. | Free to everyone (costs for upgraded storage, costs for private groups – one private group of 3 members free) | Free to everyone (costs for upgraded storage) |
| Operating System | Macintosh, Windows | Web-based (operating system-independent) | Macintosh, Windows, Linux | Macintosh, Windows, Linux |
| Share data among other citation management programs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Global edit | Yes, can globally add/replace terms | No | No | No |
| Duplicate detection | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic journal abbreviation lists | 12 lists supplied, including National Library of Medicine, American Chemical Society, Modern Language Association. Can import others. | None | Version 1.10 and later automatically abbreviates journal titles according to citation style, and allows for editing of abbreviations. | Version 4.0 and later can automatically abbreviate journal titles in Index Medicus (MEDLINE) format |
| Link to PDFs or other materials |
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| Retrieve PDF citation data | Queries DOI and PubMed (EnX5 update). Mixed success. | No | Queries PubMed database for matches. Mixed success. | Queries CrossRef, WorldCat and/or Google Scholar. Mixed success. |
| Add notes to references | Yes, in “notes” field | Yes, in “notes” field | Yes, via “notes” tab in desktop | Yes, notes can stand alone or be attached to references |
| Annotate PDFs | Yes (X5 and newer) | No | Yes | No, but will sync PDFs annotated with 3rd party software |
| Full Text PDF search | Yes (X4 and newer) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Direct Search of Online Catalogs/Databases | Yes: List | Yes | Automatic capture | Automatic capture |
| Direct Export (from databases) | Yes: List | Yes, with specific databases | Yes, via web importer | Yes, via translators |
| Filters for importing from online databases | Yes (List) | Yes | Imports wikis, websites, and databases via web importer.Web snapshot retains the presentation of a particular web page. | Imports wikis, websites, and databases via translators.Web snapshot retains the presentation of a particular web page. |
| Creates formatted bibliographies, in-text citations, and footnotes in word processor | Yes | Yes (MS Word only) | Yes | Yes |
| Edit or create styles | Yes | No | Yes | Yes, via Citation Style Editor |
| Create a Subject Bibliography (Create a list of references grouped by subject or other data field) | Yes. You may generate a bibliography grouped by any field (e.g. subject, author). | No | No | No |
| Read-only capability | 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) |
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| Mobile Device Application | iPad app, browser interface | No | iPad, iPhone, 3rd party Android apps, web interface | 3rd party iOS and Android apps, web interface |
| Access citations remotely | Yes (X6 and newer) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Store PDFs in personal citation database | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Screen capture web page content (blogs, streaming video, etc.) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Storage/Maximum number of records | Versions 8 – X3: 330,000. X4 and later: 999,999 |
10,000 | Unlimited on desktop (restricted by local storage capacity); 2 GB free web space | Unlimited on desktop (restricted by local storage capacity); 300 MB free web storage |
| Maximum number of reference types (e.g. journal, book) |
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| Search and Replace | Yes | No | No | No |
| 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 |
| Sort capabilites | Any field | Author, title or year | Any information categories | Any information categories |
| Field Search | Yes, by any field | Yes, by author | Yes, by author, title, publication names, year & notes | Yes, by any field |
| Advanced Search | Yes. Includes truncation and date range searching | No | No | Yes. All fields |
| Edit or create filters | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Create a bibliography as a file within citation manager |
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| Export | Export records to:
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| RSS Feeds | No | No | Yes | Yes |