- Comparison of reference management software
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The following tables compare reference management software.
Contents
General
In the "notes" section, there is a difference between:
- web-based, referring to applications that may be installed on a web server (usually requiring MySQL or another database and PHP, Perl, Python, or some other language for web applications)
- centrally-hosted website
Software Developer First public release Latest stable version Cost (USD) Open source License Notes Aigaion Aigaion developers 2005-01 2009-03-12 (2.1.2) Free Yes GPL web-based Bebop ALaRI Institute 2007-11-08 2009-11-10 (1.1) Free Yes BSD web-based BibTeX front-end BibDesk BibDesk developers 2002-04 2011-05 (1.5.4) Free Yes BSD BibTeX front-end + repository Biblioscape CG Information 1998 2009-05-09 (8.01) US$79-299[1] No proprietary ODBC; web access in Pro ed; optional client/server BibSonomy University of Kassel 2006-01 ? Free No proprietary centrally-hosted website Bibus Bibus developers 2004-06-03 2009–10 (1.5.0) Free Yes GPL Bookends Sonny Software 1988 (Mac) / 1983 (Apple II+) 2009-1-15 (10.4.3) US$99[1] No proprietary integrated web search, pdf download, auto-completion Citavi Swiss Academic Software 2006-02-13 2011-09-29 (3.0.15) US$111-231 / Free for projects up to 100 references No proprietary CiteULike Oversity Limited 2004-11 ? Free No proprietary[2] centrally-hosted website Connotea Nature Publishing Group 2004-12 2006-02-01 (1.7.1) Free Yes GPL centrally-hosted website, web-based EndNote Thomson Reuters 1988 2011 (X5) US$299.95[1] No proprietary Includes EndNote Web account JabRef JabRef developers 2003-11-29 2011-08-09 (2.7) Free Yes GPL Java BibTeX manager Jumper 2.0 Jumper Networks 2009-3 2009-3-26 (2.0.1.1) Free Yes GPL web-based KBibTeX KBibTeX developers 2005-08 2011-06-02 (0.3.0) Free Yes GPL BibTeX font-end, using the KDE Software Compilation Mendeley Mendeley 2008-08 July 28, 2011 (1.0) US$4.99-9.99 per month[1] / Free "Earth" account No (proprietary OS API clients exist) Desktop & Web components, iPhone and iPad Papers Mekentosj 2007 2011-03-08 (2.0.0) US$79[1] No proprietary search repositories from interface; supports plug-ins, Universal iOS app PDF Stacks PDF Stacks 2010 2010 US$39[1] No proprietary Search PDF's and repositories from interface; supports Windows & MAC Pybliographer pybliographer developers 0.2 (1998-10-30) 2010-10-14 (1.2.14) Free Yes GPL Python/GTK2 Qiqqa Qiqqa 2010 2011 Free No proprietary Desktop; centrally hosted website refbase refbase developers 2003-06-03 2008-11-19 (0.9.5) Free Yes GPL web-based for institutional repositories/self-archiving[3] RefDB refdb developers 2001-04-25 2007-11-05 (0.9.9) Free Yes GPL network-transparent; XML/SGML bibliographies Reference Manager Thomson Reuters 1984 12.0.3 US$239.95[1] No proprietary network version available; built-in web publishing tool Referencer Referencer developers ? 2009-08-02 (1.1.6) Free Yes GPL BibTeX front-end RefWorks RefWorks 2001 2010-05 US$100 per year No proprietary centrally-hosted website Scholar's Aid Scholar's Aid, Inc. 1998 2008-4-1 (4.1) US$149[1] / Free Lite version No proprietary Sente Third Street Software, Inc. 2004 2009 (6.0.26) US$129.95[1] No proprietary Wikindx Mark Grimshaw 2004-02 2008-02-06 (3.8.2) Free Yes GPL web-based WizFolio WizPatent 2008-06 2010-07-05 (DragonBall) US$25 / Free Basic version No proprietary centrally-hosted website Zotero Center for History and New Media at GMU 2006-10-05 2.1.10 (September 4, 2011) free (100 MB storage) / Additional storage space available ($20/year -> 1 GB) Yes AGPL Firefox extension; v3.01b released August 2011 as stand-alone version with connectors for Chrome and Safari. Operating system support
In the case of web applications, this describes the server OS. For centrally-hosted websites that are proprietary, this is not applicable. Any client OS can connect to a web service unless stated otherwise in a footnote.
Software Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix Aigaion Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Bebop Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes BibDesk No Yes No No No Biblioscape Yes No No No No BibSonomy N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Bibus Yes Experimental Yes Yes Yes Bookends No Yes No No No Citavi Yes No No No No CiteULike N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Connotea Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes EndNote Yes Yes No No No JabRef Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Jumper 2.0 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes KBibTeX Experimental Experimental Yes Yes Yes Mendeley Yes Yes Yes No No Papers No Yes No No No PDF Stacks Yes Yes No No No Pybliographer Partial[4] Partial[4] Yes Yes Yes Qiqqa Yes No No No No refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes RefDB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Reference Manager Yes[5] No No No No Referencer No No Yes No No RefWorks[6] Yes Yes N/A N/A N/A Scholar's Aid Yes No No No No Sente No Yes No No No Wikindx Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes WizFolio Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Zotero Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Export file formats
This table lists the machine-readable file formats that can be exported from reference managers. These are typically used to share data with other reference managers or with other people who use a reference manager. To exchange data from one program to another, the first program must be able to export to a format that the second program may import. Import file formats are in a table below this one.
Software BibTeX Endnote/Refer/BibIX Medline MODS XML RIS Other Aigaion Yes No No No Yes none Bebop Yes No No No No unAPI BibDesk Yes No Yes Yes Yes Endnote XML, user customizable Biblioscape Yes Yes Yes No Yes none BibSonomy Yes Yes No No Yes various [4] Bibus Yes Yes Yes No Yes SQLite Bookends Yes Yes Yes No Yes various user-customizable Citavi Yes Yes No No Yes various CiteULike Yes No No No Yes COinS, Delicious Connotea Yes Yes No Yes Yes RDF EndNote Yes Yes Yes No Yes various [5] JabRef Yes Yes No Yes Depends[6] BibTeXML, DocBook, OpenDocument for OO.o, SQL database, user-customizable Jumper 2.0 Yes Yes No Yes Yes various [7], user-customizable KBibTeX Yes Yes No Depends[7] Yes PDF, PostScript, HTML, XML, RTF Mendeley Yes Yes No No Yes Endnote XML Papers Yes Yes No No Yes Bookends, CSV, Endnote XML, PDF Pybliographer Yes Yes Yes No No Ovid Qiqqa Yes No No No No none refbase Yes Yes No Yes Yes COinS, OpenDocument for OO.o, SRW XML via SRU, unAPI, Word XML RefDB Yes Yes No Yes Yes SRW XML via SRU web service, DocBook, TEI Reference Manager No No No No Yes MEDLARS, TSV, CSV, Reference Manager XML, user-customizable Referencer Yes ? ? ? ? ? RefWorks Yes No No No Yes various [8] Scholar's Aid No ? No No No user-customizable Sente Yes Yes No No Yes user-customizable Wikindx Yes Yes No No Yes COinS WizFolio No No No No Yes No Zotero Yes Yes No Yes Yes RDF, Wikipedia citation templates Import file formats
This table lists the file formats which may be manually imported into the reference managers without needing to connect to one particular database. Many of these database companies use the same name for their file format as they do for their database (including Copac, CSA, ISI, Medline, Ovid, PubMed, and SciFinder). For the ability to retrieve citations from the particular databases (rather than the file format), please refer to the database connectivity table that is below this table.
Software BibTeX Copac CSA Endnote/Refer/BibIX ISI Medline MODS XML Ovid PubMed RIS SciFinder Other Aigaion Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No none Bebop Yes No No No No No No No No No No none BibDesk Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes MARC, JSTOR, Reference Miner Biblioscape Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? BibSonomy Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No Firefox bookmarks Bibus Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No none Bookends Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes various [9]; user-customizable Citavi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes various CiteULike Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No none Connotea Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No Firefox bookmarks EndNote No[8] No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes various [10] JabRef Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes BibTexML, Biblioscape, Biomail, Inspec, JSTOR, MSBib, PDF widh XMP annotations, REPEC (NEP), SilverPlatter, SixPack Jumper 2.0 Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Firefox bookmarks KBibTeX Yes No No Yes No No Depends[7] No Yes Yes No none Mendeley Yes No No Yes No No No No No Yes No Browser bookmarks Papers Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No Endnote ENW, Endnote XML, CHM eBook, PDF Pybliographer Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No none Qiqqa Yes No No Yes No No No No Yes No No none refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes RefWorks RefDB Yes Yes[7] No Yes[7] Yes[7] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes[7] MARC, risx Reference Manager Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes various [11]; user-customizable Referencer Yes No No Yes No No Yes No No Yes No none RefWorks Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes various [12] Scholar's Aid[9] No No No Yes ? Yes No No Yes ? No ? Sente Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Dublin Core, Marc21 SUTRS, JSTOR, SilverPlatter Wikindx Yes Depends[7] No Yes[citation needed] Depends[7] No Depends[7] No Yes[citation needed] Yes[citation needed] No User plug-ins[citation needed] WizFolio No No No No No No No No No Yes No Internet Browser bookmarks [13] Zotero Yes No[10] No[10] Yes Yes[11] No Yes Partial[12] Yes Yes No COinS, MARC, RDF, unAPI, Browser bookmarks Citation styles
Software APA Chicago/Turabian Harvard MLA Other Extension method Aigaion Yes Yes Yes Yes BMJ, IEEE OSBIB Bebop No No No No none none BibDesk Yes No No No various BibDesk export templates Biblioscape Yes Yes Yes Yes 2000+ styles[citation needed] GUI style editor BibSonomy Yes No Yes No none none Bibus Yes No No No user-contributed bibus format (through GUI) Bookends Yes Yes Yes Yes various[citation needed] ? Citavi Yes Yes Yes Yes 1000+ styles Citavi format (through GUI) CiteULike Yes Yes Yes Yes various[citation needed] none Connotea ? ? ? ? ? ? EndNote Yes Yes Yes Yes various EndNote format (through GUI) JabRef Yes Yes Yes Yes any BibTeX style BibTeX Jumper 2.0 No No No No none none KBibTeX Yes Yes Yes Yes any BibTeX style BibTeX Mendeley Yes Yes Yes Yes 1600+ styles CSL Papers Yes Yes Yes Yes 1600+ styles CSL Pybliographer Yes No No No none Pybliographer XML Qiqqa Yes Yes Yes Yes any BibTeX style and 1600+ styles BibTeX and CSL refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes various polar & marine journals PHP RefDB Yes Yes Yes Yes Various biomedical & law journals XML (citestylex.dtd), interactive script Reference Manager Yes Yes Yes Yes various Template:GUI style editor Referencer ? ? ? ? ? ? RefWorks Yes Yes Yes Yes various RefWorks format through GUI Scholar's Aid Yes Yes Yes Yes MHRA SA format through GUI Sente Yes Yes Yes Yes various[citation needed] Sente format through GUI Wikindx Yes Yes Yes Yes BMJ, IEEE OSBIB WizFolio Yes Yes Yes Yes various WizFolio format (through GUI) Zotero Yes Yes Yes Yes 1600+ styles CSL Reference list file formats
Software HTML LaTeX[13] RTF Plain text RSS Other Aigaion Yes No Yes Yes ? No Bebop Yes No No No Yes unAPI BibDesk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Atom, DOC, PDF, XML, Biblioscape Yes No Yes Yes No No BibSonomy Yes No Yes Yes Yes OpenOffice-CSV Bibus Yes No No No No No Bookends Yes No Yes Yes No clipboard Citavi Yes Yes Yes Yes No clipboard, DOC, ODT, PDF CiteULike Yes No Yes Yes Yes PDF Connotea N/A N/A N/A N/A Yes N/A EndNote Yes No Yes Yes No clipboard, XML JabRef Yes ? Depends Yes No clipboard Jumper 2.0 Yes No Yes Yes Yes XML, PDF KBibTeX Yes No Yes No No PDF, PS Mendeley Yes No Yes Yes Yes clipboard, embeddable HTML widget, RSS Papers ? ? ? ? ? ? Pybliographer Yes ? No Yes No No refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Markdown, PDF, unAPI RefDB Yes ? Yes Yes No DocBook, TEI Reference Manager Yes No Yes Yes No clipboard Referencer ? ? ? ? ? ? RefWorks Partial[14] No Yes Yes Yes DOC, ODT Scholar's Aid No No Yes Yes No clipboard Sente Yes No Yes Yes No clipboard Wikindx Yes No Yes No Yes No WizFolio Yes No Yes Yes No clipboard, DOC Zotero Yes No Yes No Yes clipboard Word processor integration
Most reference management software supports copy/paste or drag-and-drop of references into any editor. Some reference management software includes further support for automatic embedding and (re)formatting of references in some programs. This table lists support for the latter for Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org Writer and the LaTeX editors Kile and LyX. Other programs are able to scan RTF or other textual formats to insert references.
Software Microsoft Word OpenOffice.org Writer Kile/LyX RTF scan[15] Other Aigaion No No No No none Bebop No No No No none BibDesk No No Yes ? ? Biblioscape Yes No No ? WordPerfect BibSonomy No No No No none Bibus Yes Yes No ? none Bookends Yes No No Yes Mellel, Nisus Citavi Yes Yes Yes Yes OpenDocument Text scan, LEd, TeXnicCenter, TeXMaker, WinEdt, WinShell, WinTeX CiteULike No No No No none Connotea No No No No none EndNote Yes Yes No Yes Apple Pages '09 JabRef Depends[16] Yes Yes ? Emacs, Vim, WinEdt Jumper 2.0 Yes Yes No ? WordPerfect KBibTeX No No Yes ? none Mendeley Yes Yes No ? NeoOffice Papers Yes Yes ? ? Pages, Mellel, TextEdit; HTML Pybliographer No Yes Yes ? none Qiqqa Yes No Yes No none refbase No Yes[17] No Yes PIRA, MediaWiki, SPIP RefDB No No No No none Reference Manager Yes No No ? none Referencer ? ? ? ? ? RefWorks Yes No No Yes none Scholar's Aid Yes Yes No ? WordPro, WordPerfect, HWP Sente Yes No No Yes Pages, Mellel, Nisus, TextEdit; HTML and plain text scan Wikindx No No No Yes Integrated WYSIWYG word processor WizFolio Yes Yes No ? Google Docs, Zoho Writer Zotero Yes Yes (with LyZ)[18] Yes NeoOffice, LibreOffice Database connectivity
This table lists the academic databases and search engines which reference managers can import from. In some cases, a search and retrieval can be conducted directly in the reference manager. In others, a bookmarklet or Firefox extension will allow a site to be scraped.
Software ArXiv CiteSeer IEEE Xplore PubMed Other Aigaion No No No No none Bebop No No No No No BibDesk Yes Yes No Yes Web of Science, any Z39.50 or Entrez Biblioscape No No No Yes Import from integrated web browser BibSonomy Yes Yes Yes Yes various [14] Bibus No No No Yes none Bookends Yes No No Yes Web of Science, Amazon, Google Scholar, Z39.50 Citavi No No Yes Yes WorldCat/OCLC, Ovid, EBSCO, ProQuest, Web of Science, Z39.50 (4000+ online resources) CiteULike Yes Yes Yes Yes various [15] Connotea Yes Yes No Yes various [16] EndNote Yes No Yes Yes various [17] any Z39.50 JabRef Yes Yes Yes Yes ACM portal, Jstor, Spires Jumper 2.0 Yes Yes Yes Yes various [18] KBibTeX Yes Yes Yes Yes BibSonomy, CiteBase, CSB, DBLP, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, SPIRES, Z MATH, Z39.50 Mendeley Yes Yes Yes Yes various [19] Papers Yes Yes Yes Yes ACM, ADS, Google Books, Google Scholar, JSTOR, MathSciNet, Project Muse, Scopus, Web of Science Pybliographer No No No Yes none Qiqqa Yes No Yes Yes GoogleScholar, JSTOR refbase Yes No No Yes DOI lookup RefDB Yes No No Yes any Z39.50 Reference Manager No No No Yes various [20] Referencer ? ? ? ? ? RefWorks No No No Yes various Scholar's Aid No No No Yes Z39.50 Sente No No No Yes Z39.50, SRU, Web of Knowledge Wikindx No No No Yes none WizFolio Yes No Yes Yes various [21] Zotero Yes Yes Yes Yes various [22] Password "protection" and network versions
Some reference managers provide network functionality. (N/A means the product has no networking, while "no" indicates it does (but lacks an implemented feature).)
Software Passworded Networking User-specific permissions[19] Simultaneous write access Aigaion Yes Yes Yes Bebop No N/A N/A BibDesk Yes No No Biblioscape Yes Yes Yes BibSonomy Yes Yes Yes Bibus ? ? ? Bookends ? ? ? Citavi No No No CiteULike Yes No Yes Connotea Yes ? Yes EndNote[20] Yes Yes Yes JabRef No N/A N/A Jumper 2.0 Yes Yes Yes KBibTeX No N/A N/A Mendeley Yes[21] Yes Yes Papers ? ? ? Pybliographer ? ? ? Qiqqa Yes Yes Yes refbase Yes Yes Yes RefDB Yes Yes Yes Reference Manager Yes No Yes Referencer ? ? ? RefWorks Yes ? Yes Scholar's Aid No N/A N/A Sente No No No Wikindx Yes Yes Yes WizFolio Yes Yes Yes Zotero Yes[22] Yes Yes References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i MSRP for full version, usually with physical media. Discounted downloads and academic discounts might be available. More expensive workgroup/server/librarian versions may be available.
- ^ A developer kit is available. The community is invited to create plugins to access data off databases
- ^ A centrally-hosted website is available at refbase.net.
- ^ a b The GUI requires gnome-python, which isn't available for Windows or Mac OS X.
- ^ Reference Manager is not compatible with word 2010
- ^ The Write-N-Cite citation tool requires download & installation.[1]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Supported through the bibutils plugin
- ^ Endnote cannot import directly BibTex files, but there are various methods to transform these into the refer format, which may be imported [2]
- ^ The DataRetriever module that imports and exports data is not compatible with Vista.
- ^ a b Zotero can import references directly from the database after which this format is named, although it cannot read the format itself.
- ^ Ticket for ISI import support
- ^ Zotero imports directly from the webpage to the library, so many users find it more convenient than traditional two-step way of saving reference files to the disk and then importing it into the library. Zotero can import references in these formats directly from some databases, but not from files saved on the disk.
- ^ This refers to the direct output of raw LaTeX (often in a format similar to the BibTeX-generated .bbl files). Many programs can export BibTeX (see above table), which can then be processed into LaTeX.
- ^ URLs aren't active links
- ^ Can reformat references in a properly saved RTF document, allowing limited use in OpenOffice.org Writer, StarOffice, FrameMaker, Microsoft Works, WordPad, WordPerfect, and others. Bookends is able to scan files from Pages, Mellel, Nisus Writer Express and Pro Macros.
- ^ JabRef can be integrated in Microsoft Word using bibtex4word.dot.
- ^ Refbase can create a spreadsheet for import into an OO.o database to use the native OO.o bibliography tool. Refbase's MySQL database can additionally be used directly by OO.o [3].
- ^ The LyZ extension integrates Zotero with Lyx/Kile
- ^ Most databases allow one to create different user accounts to store records. Some further allow you to specify permissions (granting and denying some users the rights to edit or read some or all of your records. This column describes the latter.
- ^ Via EndNote Web
- ^ via Mendeley Web
- ^ via zotero.org
External links
- Several users' opinions:[23]
- Bibliographic Software and Standards Information
- Comparison of Free Bibliographic Managers
- Finding the right bibliographic/reference tool
- Open standards and software for bibliographies and cataloging
- Personal Bibliography Management Software: Analysis and Comparison of Some Packages
- Evaluation of Reference Management Software (last updated Apr 2001)
- EndNote, Reference Manager and ProCite comparison chart by Adept Scientific
- Reference Manager Overview by Martin Fenner, version 2.4, 2010-09-19
Reference management software Open source Aigaion · Bebop · BibDesk · Bibus · Connotea · JabRef · KBibTeX · Pybliographer · refbase · refdb · Referencer · Wikindx · ZoteroRetail Web-based Category • ComparisonCategories:- Reference management software
- Software comparisons
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