| EndNote | Zotero | Mendeley | Flow |
|---|---|---|---|
|
MSU has made EndNote available on campus computers. You can set up preferences to search within specific databases and collect citations through a personalized interface, with hundreds of citation styles available. |
Zotero is a free software that you can download and use on Firefox, with plugins for Chrome and Safari. It saves citations and connections to online media, and takes screenshots of your internet research. |
Mendeley is a free software that you can download to your computer or use in-browser. It takes all of your PDF article files and organizes them. It allows for tagging, and has a growing community of scholars. |
ProQuest Flow is a browser-based tool that saves references and allows you to read and annotate PDF articles. It works especially well with ProQuest databases. You can also collaborate with colleagues and link to Dropbox for extra storage |
| LEARNING CURVE | |||
| Takes longer to learn, training recommended. | Quick to learn, especially with training. | Quick to learn, especially with training. | Quick to learn. |
| CONSIDERATIONS FOR USE | |||
| Personal copies of EndNote are available for a fee through the MSU Technology Store, or free on campus computers. Since EndNote is desktop-based, syncing between devices can be challenging, but continues to improve. | Zotero is used with your personal browser – to use it on multiple devices you have to carry your library settings on an external device or sync via Firefox, which is not secure on a public computer. | Mendeley has some difficulty downloading citations and PDF files from library databases. Older PDF files that do not have proper metadata will not give proper citation information to Mendeley. | You cannot use ProQuest Flow offline. It has fewer options for importing and searching for articles than other citation managers. While references can be saved in multiple folders, there is no tagging. |
| STORAGE SPACE | |||
|
EndNote Desktop: your computer's storage capacity. EndNote Web: 2 GB free, unlimited with purchase of EndNote Desktop. |
Zotero Desktop: your computer's storage capacity. Zotero Online: 300 MB free, additional space for a fee. |
Mendeley Desktop: your computer's storage capacity. Mendeley Online: 2 GB free. |
2 GB free with MSU Email |
| LIBRARY HELP GUIDES | |||
| MSU Library's EndNote Guide | MSU Library's Mendeley Guide | None. See Flow guide from Proquest | |
| TRAINING AVAILABLE? | |||
|
YES Please see the Schedule of Library Classes for upcoming sessions |
YES Please see the Schedule of Library Classes for upcoming sessions |
YES Please see the Schedule of Library Classes for upcoming sessions |
NOT CURRENTLY |
Adapted with permission from the University of Illinois Library Citation Manager Comparison Chart.
For more information on which citation manager to use, see the following sites:
Choosing a Citation Manager from the Penn State University Libraries
Zotero vs. Endnote from The Chronicle of Higher Education ProfHacker Blog
Citation Managers: Comparison of Features from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries
Brief overview of software that helps to organize and manage citations.
Direct link to "Citation Management Tools" on MSU Mediaspace
Video credit: Emilia Marcyk (with Deborah Margolis)
