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Comparison of Citation Managers: Chart

Compare... RefWorks EndNote EndNote Basic Mendeley Zotero
URL
Cost
  • Free to Johns Hopkins' affiliates
  • Create account
  • Free
  • Free up to 2GB
  • $5/month for 5GB
  • $10/month for 10GB
  • $15/month for unlimited storage
  • Free up to 300MB
  • $20/year for 2GB
  • $60/year for 6GB
  • $120/year for unlimited storage
Access
  • Web
  • Desktop and Web
  • Web
  • Desktop and Web
  • Desktop and Web
Mobile Access
Collaboration
  • Shared folders
  • Collaboration available with v. X8 and later
  • Can share folders
  • One private group with up to three members, free
  • Group plans start from $49/month for five or more people
  • Assign members to online groups
PDF Markup
  • No
  • Yes
  • No
  • Yes
  • Yes
Export from Databases
  • Choose "RefWorks Direct Export"
  • Choose RIS file type export
  • Yes
  • Choose RIS file type export
  • Choose RIS file type export
Export from Web
  • Save to Refworks
  • N/A
  • No
  • Use Web Importer Chrome plugin
  • Use Zotero Chrome plugin
Word Processing Integration
  • RefWorks Citation Manager add-on available through the Microsoft Store
  • Cite-While-You-Write is part of the EndNote software purchase
  • Cite-While-You-Write  plugin
  • Install MS Word plugin
  • Install MS Word plugin
Strengths
  • Ease of use
  • Collaboration
  • Free to Johns Hopkins affiliates
  • Amount of storage
  • Bulk download of PDFs with institution credentials
  • Strong deduplication capability
  • Ease of use
  • Collaboration
  • Drag and drop functionality
  • Web importer function
  • Single download PDFs
  • Web features
  • Matches metadata to PDFs
  • Interface
Limitations for Large Reviews
  • Can only import small files at a time
  • Limited PDF storage
  • Limited deduplication capability
  • Limited web features
  • No collaboration prior to v. X8
  • Limited storage
  • No sharing of PDFs
  • No bulk downloads
  • Cost for large projects and large teams
  • No bulk download of PDFs
  • Cost for large projects
  • Reference IDs don't export easily
  • Limited deduplication capability
Creative Commons License

Unless otherwise noted, these guides are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License attributable to the Welch Medical Library, Johns Hopkins University. Image and Icon Attributions: Icons8, licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0; WebFont Medical Icons Project, designed by Hablamos Juntos; Font Awesome 4.7