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Comparison of reference management software

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The following tables compare notable reference management software. The comparison includes older applications that may no longer be supported, as well as actively-maintained software.

General

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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), and;
  • a centrally hosted website.
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Operating system support

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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.

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Export file formats

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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.

More information Software, BibTeX ...
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Import file formats

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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.

As of January 2021, CSL YAML is not supported by any reference management system.[15]

More information Software, BibTeX ...

Citation styles

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Reference list file formats

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EndNote is incompatible with LaTeX. Among other things, it does not provide for robust citation keys.

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Word processor integration

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Some reference management software include support for automatic embedding and (re)formatting of references in Word processor programs. This table lists this type of support for Microsoft Word, Pages, Apache OpenOffice / LibreOffice Writer, the LaTeX editors Kile and LyX, and Google Docs. Other programs are able to scan RTF or other textual formats for inserted placeholders which are subsequently formatted. Most reference management programs support copy/paste or drag-and-drop of references into any editor, but this is not meant here.

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Database connectivity

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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.

More information Software, ArXiv ...

Password "protection" and network versions

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Some reference managers provide network functionality (N/A, not available, means the product has no networking, while "No" indicates it does but lacks an implemented feature). The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network.[48]

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Discontinued software

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Notes

  1. 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.
  2. Price depends on affiliation (discounted price for students and members of academic, governmental, and nonprofit organizations), edition (Citavi for Windows for single users and teams with cloud storage, Citavi for DBServer for teams with intranet storage, Citavi Web with cloud storage), and, in the case of DBServer, on the license type (per seat license vs. concurrent license): "Products". www.citavi.com. Archived from the original on 2015-04-27.
  3. The GUI requires gnome-python, which isn't available for Windows or macOS.
  4. Supported through the bibutils plugin.
  5. Zotero can import references directly from the database after which this format is named, although it cannot read the format itself.
  6. 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.[27]
  7. Database can be exported as a whole in BibTeX format. Text (i.e. thoughts, comments, and quotations) can be fed into a number of TeX editors in LaTeX code or UTF-8.
  8. Database can be exported as a whole in BibTeX format.Insert citations via citation key generated by Mendeley.
  9. Can reformat references in a properly saved RTF document, allowing limited use in OpenOffice.org Writer, StarOffice, FrameMaker, Microsoft Works, WordPad, WordPerfect, Google Docs and others.
  10. Requires the Mendeley Reference Manager desktop app for Mac open to choose references.
  11. Includes all the other databases and open access repositories.
  12. 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.
  13. Storage in Citavi cloud or, with special license, in Microsoft SQL Server in intranet.
  14. via EndNote basic (cloud based)
  15. via Mendeley Web.
  16. Uses Google Account.
  17. via zotero.org.
  18. A developer kit is available. The community is invited to create plugins to access data off databases.

References

Further reading

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