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 you may install on your own web server (usually requiring MySQL or another database and PHP, perl, Python, or some other language for webapps)
  • centrally-hosted website
Software Developer First public release Latest stable version Cost (USD) Open source License Notes
2collab Elsevier 2007-11  ? Free No proprietary centrally-hosted website, web-based
Aigaion Aigaion developers 2005-01 2.0.2 (2008-03-11) Free Yes GPL web-based
BibDesk BibDesk developers 2002-04 1.3.18 (2008-07) Free Yes BSD BibTeX front-end + repository
Biblioscape CG Information 1998 7.19 (2007-11-15) US$79-299[1] No Proprietary ODBC; web access in Pro ed; optional client/server
BibSonomy U. Kassel 2006-01  ? Free No proprietary centrally-hosted website
Bibus Bibus developers 2004-06-03 1.4.2 (2008-03) Free Yes GPL integrates with Word and OO.o Writer
CiteULike Richard Cameron 2004-11  ? Free No proprietary centrally-hosted website
Connotea Nature Publishing Group 2004-12 1.7.1 (2006-02-01) Free Yes GPL centrally-hosted website, web-based
EndNote Thomson Corporation 1988 X2 US$299.95[1] No proprietary often used in academia
JabRef JabRef developers 2003-11-29 2.3.1 (2007-11-29) Free Yes GPL Java BibTeX manager
Papers Mekentosj 2007 1.6 (2007-09-06) US$42 No proprietary search repositories from interface; supports plug-ins
ProCite Thomson Corporation 1984 ? 5.0.3 US$299.95[1] No proprietary supports network access
Pybliographer pybliographer developers  ? 1.2.11 (2007-09-25) Free Yes GPL Python/GTK2
refbase refbase developers 2003-06-03 0.9.0 (2006-10-23) Free Yes GPL web-based for institutional repositories/self-archiving[2]
RefDB refdb developers 2001-04-25 0.9.9 (2007-11-05) Free Yes GPL network-transparent; XML/SGML bibliographies
Referencer Referencer developpers  ? 1.1.3 (2008-05-28) Free Yes GPL  ?
Reference Manager Thomson Corporation 1984 11.0.1 US$239.95[1] No proprietary network version available; built-in web publishing tool
RefWorks RefWorks 2001 2007-08 US$100 per year No proprietary centrally-hosted website
Scholar's Aid Scholar's Aid, Inc. 1998 4.1 (2008-4-1) US$149[1] / Free Lite version No proprietary integrates with Word and OpenOffice
Sente Third Street Software, Inc. 2004 5.5 (2008-5) US$129.95[1] No proprietary integrates with Word, Mellel, Pages, and Nisus
Zotero Center for History and New Media 2006-10-05 Beta 1.0.7 (16 July 2008) Free Yes ECL Firefox extension

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
2collab N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Aigaion 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 Yes Yes Yes Yes
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
Papers No Yes No No No
ProCite Yes No No No No
Pybliographer Partial[3] Partial[3] Yes Yes Yes
refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RefDB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Referencer ? ? Yes ? ?
Reference Manager Yes No No No No
RefWorks N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Scholar's Aid Yes No No No No
Sente No Yes No No No
Zotero Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Software Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix

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
2collab Yes No No No Yes CSV [6]
Aigaion Yes No No No Yes none
BibDesk Yes No Yes Yes Yes Endnote XML
Biblioscape Yes Yes Yes No Yes none
BibSonomy Yes Yes No No Yes various [7]
Bibus Yes Yes Yes No Yes SQLite
CiteULike Yes No No No Yes COinS
Connotea Yes Yes No Yes Yes RDF
EndNote Yes Yes Yes No Yes various [8]
JabRef Yes Yes No Yes No BibTeXML, DocBook, OpenDocument for OO.o
Papers Yes Yes No No Yes Bookends, CSV, Endnote XML
ProCite No No No No Yes none
Pybliographer Yes Yes Yes No No Ovid
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 Yes No No No Yes MEDLARS, TSV, CSV, Reference Manager XML, user-customizable
RefWorks Yes No No No Yes various [9]
Scholar's Aid No  ? No No No user-customizable
Sente Yes Yes No No Yes user-customizable
Zotero Yes Yes No Yes Yes RDF, Wikipedia citation templates
Software BibTeX Endnote/Refer/BibIX Medline MODS XML RIS Other

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
2collab No No No No No No No No No Yes No IE and Firefox bookmarks [10]
Aigaion Yes No No No No No No No No Yes 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 variouscitation needed
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
CiteULike Yes No No No No No No No No No No none
Connotea Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No Firefox bookmarks
EndNote Partial[4] No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes various [11]
JabRef Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes BibTexML, Biblioscape, Biomail, Inspec, JSTOR, REPEC (NEP), SilverPlatter, SixPack
ProCite No No Yes  ? Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No various [12]
Pybliographer Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No none
refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes RefWorks
RefDB Yes Yes[5] No Yes[5] Yes[5] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes[5] MARC, risx
Reference Manager Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes various [13]; user-customizable
RefWorks Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? No Yes  ? Yes No variouscitation needed
Scholar's Aid[6] No No No Yes  ? Yes No No Yes  ? No variouscitation needed, user-customizable
Sente Yes No No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Dublin Core, Marc21 SUTRS, JSTOR, SilverPlatter
Zotero Yes No[7] No[7] Yes Partial[8] No Yes Partial[8] Partial[8] Yes No COinS, MARC, RDF, unAPI
Software BibTeX Copac CSA Endnote/Refer/BibIX ISI Medline MODS XML Ovid PubMed RIS SciFinder Other

Citation styles

Software APA Chicago/Turabian Harvard MLA Other Extension method
2collab No No No No No none
Aigaion Yes Yes Yes Yes BMJ, IEEE OSBIB
BibDesk Yes No No No various BibDesk export templates
Biblioscape Yes Yes Yes Yes 2000+ styles GUI style editor
BibSonomy Yes No Yes No none none
Bibus Yes No No No user-contributed bibus format (through GUI)
CiteULike Yes Yes Yes Yes various none
Connotea No No No No none none
EndNote Yes Yes Yes Yes various [14] EndNote format (through GUI)
JabRef No[9] No[9] Yes[9] No[9] none[9] none[9]
ProCite Yes Yes Yes Yes various [15]  ?
Pybliographer Yes No No No none Pybliographer XML
refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes Various polar & marine journals PHP
RefDB Yes Yes Yes Yes Various biomedical & law journals [16] XML (citestylex.dtd), interactive script
Referencer  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Reference Manager Yes Yes Yes Yes various [17]  ?
RefWorks Yes Yes Yes Yes various [18] RefWorks format through GUI
Scholar's Aid Yes Yes Yes Yes MHRA SA format through GUI
Sente Yes Yes Yes Yes various Sente format through GUI
Zotero Yes Yes Yes Yes various [19] CSL
Software APA Chicago/Turabian Harvard MLA Other Extension method

Reference list file formats

Software HTML LaTeX RTF Plain text RSS Other
2collab Yes No No Yes Yes No
Aigaion Yes No Yes Yes  ? No
BibDesk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Biblioscape Yes No Yes Yes No No
BibSonomy Yes No Yes Yes Yes OpenOffice-CSV
Bibus Yes No No No No No
CiteULike No No No No Yes No
Connotea N/A N/A N/A N/A Yes N/A
EndNote Yes No Yes Yes No clipboard,XML
JabRef Yes No No Yes No clipboard
Papers
ProCite Yes No No No No No
Pybliographer Yes Yes No Yes No No
refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Markdown, PDF, unAPI
RefDB Yes Yes Yes Yes No DocBook, TEI
ReferenceManager Yes No No Yes No No
RefWorks Partial[10] No Yes Yes Yes DOC, ODT
Scholar's Aid No No Yes Yes No clipboard
Sente Yes No Yes Yes No clipboard
Zotero Yes No Yes No No clipboard
Software HTML LaTeX RTF Plain text RSS Other

Word processor integration

Software Microsoft Word OpenOffice.org Writer Kile/LyX Other
2collab  ?  ?  ?  ?
Aigaion No No No none
BibDesk No No Yes Plugin for any Cocoa text editor
Biblioscape Yes No No WordPerfect
BibSonomy No No No none
Bibus Yes Yes No none
CiteULike No No No none
Connotea No No No none
EndNote Yes (but not 64-bit Windows[11]) Partial[12] No Partial[12]
JabRef Depends[13] Partial[14] Yes Emacs,WinEdt
Papers
ProCite Yes  ? No WordPerfect
Pybliographer No Yes Yes none
refbase No Yes[14] No Beta PIRA
RefDB No No No Emacs, Vim
Reference Manager[15] Yes No No WordPerfect
RefWorks Yes Partial[12] No Partial[12]
Scholar's Aid Yes Yes No WordPro, WordPerfect, HWP
Sente Yes Partial[12] No Pages, Mellel, Nisus, TextEdit; plus RTF, HTML and plain text scan[12]
Zotero Yes Yes No none
Software Microsoft Word OpenOffice.org Writer Kile/LyX Other

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
2collab  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Aigaion No No No No none
BibDesk No No 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 [20]
Bibus No No No Yes none
CiteULike Yes Yes Yes Yes various [21]
Connotea Yes Yes No Yes various [22]
EndNote No No No Yes various [23]
JabRef Yes Yes Yes Yes none
ProCite No No No Yes various [24]
Pybliographer No No No Yes none
refbase No No No Yes none
RefDB No No No Yes any Z39.50
Reference Manager No No No Yes various [25]
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
Zotero Yes Yes Yes Yes various [26]
Software ArXiv CiteSeer IEEE Xplore PubMed Other

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 a feature).)

Software Passworded Networking
User-specific permissions Simultaneous write access
2collab Yes No  ?
Aigaion Yes Yes Yes
BibDesk Yes No No
Biblioscape Yes Yes Yes
BibSonomy Yes Yes Yes
Bibus  ?  ?  ?
CiteULike Yes No Yes
Connotea Yes  ? Yes
EndNote No No No
JabRef No N/A N/A
Papers
ProCite No No No
Pybliographer  ?  ?  ?
refbase Yes Yes Yes
RefDB Yes Yes Yes
Reference Manager Yes No Yes
RefWorks Yes  ? Yes
Scholar's Aid No N/A N/A
Sente No No No
Zotero No N/A N/A
Software Passworded Networking
User-specific permissions Simultaneous write access

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ A centrally-hosted website is available at refbase.org.
  3. ^ a b The GUI requires gnome-python, which isn't available for Windows or OS X.
  4. ^ Endnote cannot import directly BibTex files, but there are various methods to transform these into the refer format, which may be imported [1]
  5. ^ a b c d >Supported through the bibutils plugin
  6. ^ The DataRetriever module that imports and exports data is not compatible with Vista.
  7. ^ a b Zotero can import references directly from the database after which this format is named, although it cannot read the format itself.
  8. ^ a b c Zotero can import references in these formats directly from some databases, but not from files saved on the disk.
  9. ^ a b c d e f JabRef is typically used in conjunction with BibTeX, which handles styling. It does allow an RTF in the Harvard style natively. Numerous BibTeX styles exist and can be created/modified[2].
  10. ^ URLs aren't active links
  11. ^ The Cite While You Write feature for EndNote compatibility with Microsoft Word is not compatible with 64-bit versions of Windows.[3]
  12. ^ a b c d e f Can reformat references in a properly saved RTF document, allowing limited use in OpenOffice.org Writer, StarOffice, FrameMaker, Microsoft Works, WordPad, WordPerfect, and others.
  13. ^ JabRef can be integrated in Microsoft Word using bibtex4word.dot.
  14. ^ a b JabRef and 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 [4].
  15. ^ From [5]

External links

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 2 September 2008, at 15:46.

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