All offer an extensive list of citation styles and the ability to edit existing styles and create new ones. Users can import references from a variety of databases, create in-text citations and bibliographies, and import bibliographic information from web pages. It also serves as an academic research network, offering a variety of social networking features.Īll four products share a core set of features that allow users to import, organize, and manage citations and associated full text. First released in 2008, Mendeley is a free cloud-based citation manager with desktop and online versions. It is now available as a standalone application. The product is currently transitioning to a new interface, referred to by the vendor as “new RefWorks.” Zotero’s free, open source citation manager was initially introduced in 2006 as an extension for the Firefox web browser. RefWorks, first released in 2001, is an entirely web-based application marketed to libraries as an institution-wide tool, though a vendor representative indicated that individual accounts used to be available and will be offered again.

A basic online version is free, but it has limited features and functionality. įirst released in 1988, EndNote is a commercial product that is primarily marketed via sales of its desktop application (currently version X8). This review will cover the first four F1000 Workspace was reviewed in the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) in 2017. Popular tools include RefWorks, EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, and F1000 Workspace. There are now many bibliographic management packages available and many factors to consider when choosing the product that best meets the needs of the individual user or institution.

Over the years, users’ needs have changed, technology has advanced, and many new features have been added, including options for social networking and portable document format file (PDF) management. Citation management software was introduced in the 1980s and used primarily to organize references, search databases for articles on a particular topic, and generate bibliographies. Years ago, references were manually organized on index cards, an awkward and time-consuming process. Citation management has not always been as easy as it is today.

What are endnote citations