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EndNote, Zotero and Other Reference Managers

Our subscription to RefWorks ended on 6/30/20

RefWorks

UCSF Library's long time subscription to RefWorks ended on 6/30/2020. For RefWorks users we suggest changing to EndNote or Zotero as alternatives. Please contact evans.whitaker@ucsf.edu for questions.​

Moving your RefWorks library to Zotero or Endnote is a simple process:

This document shows detailed steps: https://ucsf.box.com/s/dy5vhy2rqy0v75yrb7085jg480vwvrdg

This video walks you through the same steps:  https://media.ucsf.edu/media/RefWorks+Migration/0_bua3l0ew

What are they? What do they do?

In essence all reference managers do the same three things:

1. Store information about books, articles, websites, etc. in one place.

2. Organize this information in a useful way and make it searchable.

3. Use the information in your reference manager to add in-text citations and a reference list to a document you are writing, or to create a bibliography.

They vary in many details.

We will focus on 2 (EndNote, Zotero). These are the two products we will support and teach in the future (written June 2020). There are others available. Relevant alternatives include Sciwheel (previously F1000), Mendeley, PaperPile, Papers (now merged with ReadCube), Citavi, RefWorks, etc. As I write this in June, 2020, UCSF does not provide EndNote, the best price is $114 for students and $219 for faculty and staff. Papers is now a subscription service costing $36/yr for students and $60/yr for academics. Zotero, Mendeley, F1000, and PaperPile work with GoogleDocs. Zotero is free to all unless you need to buy extra cloud storage space, Mendeley costs money if you try to form a group of more than 3 people. You pay a monthly fee for PaperPile. We try to monitor developments in reference managers and will provide information about significant updates in this library guide.

Choosing citation/reference management software: which one is right for me?

These points refer to EndNote, Zotero and Mendeley:

  • If you don’t want to pay for software, consider Zotero.
  • If you want open source software, choose Zotero.
  • If you want software that's easy to learn, Zotero and Mendeley are pretty easy to learn and use.
  • If you want to mainly work off-line on your own computer, EndNote is your best bet.
  • If you want easy online access to your references, consider. Zotero and Mendeley. EndNote Web/Online also permits this, but with fewer features than the desktop version.
  • If you have saved a large collection of PDF files on your computer which you wish to add to your reference manager, Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote are all able to add them in bulk to libraries, and extract the the citation data you will need when writing your manuscript. 
  • If you want a program that will fetch batches of PDFs for you after you have added them to your library, EndNote is the best choice. Zotero is also good at this function.
  • If you are writing a systematic review or performing other research during which you will accumulate a large number of references (5,000-10,000 or more) prefer EndNote.
  • If you have special requirements that will require extensive customizability, prefer EndNote
  • If you're interested in using the software to collaborate with colleagues, Zotero is preferred. EndNote does this adequately. Mendeley charges for groups larger than 3.
  • If you want to sync your library with multiple computers, choose Zotero or Mendeley. 

​This is an attempt to provide a brief overview of five popular citation management software. The right software for you will depend on your work, your collaborators, and your environment.