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Comparison of reference management software

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The following tables compare reference management software.

General

Software Developer First public release Latest stable version Cost (USD) Open source License Notes
Aigaion Aigaion developers 2005-01 1.3.2 (2007-03-05) Free Yes GPL web-based
BibDesk BibDesk developers 2002-08-03 1.3.6 (2007-06-21) Free Yes BSD autofile pdf feature, integrates well with google scholar
BibSonomy Knowledge & Data Engineering Group, Univ. Kassel 2006-01 ? Free Yes[citation needed] ? Centrally hosted website
Bibus Bibus developers 2004-06-03 1.3.0 (2006-12-16) 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 ? X.0.2 (2006-11-02) Non-freeUS$299.95[1] No proprietary Often used in academia
JabRef JabRef developers 2003-11-29 2.2 (2007-01-30) Free Yes GPL Java BibTeX manager
ProCite Thomson Corporation ? 5.0.3 Non-freeUS$299.95[1] No proprietary Supports network access
Pybliographer pybliographer developers ? 1.2.10 (2007-01-22) Free Yes GPL
refbase refbase developers 2003-06-03 0.9.0 (2006-10-23) Free Yes GPL web-based for small institutional repositories/self-archiving
Reference Manager Thomson Corporation ? 11.0.1 Non-freeUS$239.95[1] No proprietary Network version available; built-in web publishing tool
RefWorks RefWorks ? 2006-10 Non-freeUS$100 per year No proprietary Centrally hosted website
Wikindx Mark Grimshaw 2004-02 3.6.1 (2007-04-20) Free Yes GPL web-based
Zotero Center for History and New Media 2006-10-05 Beta 7.0.19[2] Edit this on Wikidata (26 June 2025; 6 days ago (26 June 2025)) [±] Free Yes ECL Firefox extension
Software Developer First public release Latest stable version Cost (USD) Open source License Notes

Operating system support

Software Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix
Aigaion Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BibSonomy — — — — —
Bibus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CiteULike — — — — —
Connotea Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
EndNote Yes Yes No No No
JabRef Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ProCite Yes No No No No
Pybliographer Partial[3] Partial[3] Yes Yes Yes
refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Reference Manager Yes No No No No
RefWorks — — — — —
Wikindx Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Zotero Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Software Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix

Export

Software BibTeX Endnote/Refer/BibIX Medline MODS XML RIS Other
Aigaion Yes No No No Yes none
BibSonomy Yes Yes No No Yes various [4]
Bibus No Yes Yes No Yes none
CiteULike Yes Yes No No No COinS
Connotea Yes Yes No Yes Yes RDF
EndNote Yes Yes Yes No Yes various [5]
JabRef Yes Yes No Yes No BibTeXML, DocBook, OpenDocument for OO.o
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 web service, unAPI
Reference Manager Yes No No No Yes MEDLARS, TSV, CSV, Reference Manager XML, user-customizable
RefWorks Yes No No No Yes various [6]
Wikindx Yes Yes No No Yes none
Zotero Yes Yes No Yes Yes RDF, Wikipedia citation templates
Software BibTeX Endnote/Refer/BibIX Medline MODS XML RIS Other

Import

This table lists the file formats which may be manually imported into the reference managers. This is in contrast to database connectivity, which is listed below.

Software BibTeX Copac CSA Endnote/Refer/BibIX ISI Medline MODS XML Ovid PubMed RIS SciFinder Other
Aigaion Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No none
BibSonomy Yes No No No 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 No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes various [7]
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 [8]
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
Reference Manager Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes various [9]; user-customizable
RefWorks Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No various
Wikindx Yes No No Yes No No No No Yes Yes No COPAC, ISI and MODS via BibUtils plug-in
Zotero Yes No No Yes No No Yes No No 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
Aigaion Yes Yes Yes Yes BMJ, IEEE OSBIB
BibSonomy Yes No Yes No none none
Bibus Yes No No No user-contributed bibus format (through GUI)
CiteULike No No No No none none
Connotea No No No No none none
EndNote Yes Yes Yes Yes various [10] EndNote format (through GUI)
JabRef No[4] No[4] Yes[4] No[4] none[4] none[4]
ProCite Yes Yes Yes Yes various [11] ?
Pybliographer Yes No No No none Pybliographer XML
refbase Yes No No Yes Various polar & marine journals PHP
Reference Manager Yes Yes Yes Yes various [12] ?
RefWorks Yes Yes Yes Yes various [13] RefWorks format through GUI
Wikindx Yes Yes Yes Yes BMJ, IEEE OSBIB
Zotero Yes Yes No Yes none CSL
Software APA Chicago/Turabian Harvard MLA Other Extension method

Citation file formats

Software HTML LaTeX RTF Plain text Other
Aigaion Yes No Yes Yes none
BibSonomy Yes No Yes Yes OpenOffice-CSV , RSS
Bibus Yes No No No none
CiteULike — — — — —
Connotea — — — — —
EndNote Yes No Yes Yes clipboard,XML
JabRef Yes No No Yes clipboard
ProCite Yes No No No No
Pybliographer Yes Yes No Yes No
refbase Yes Yes Yes Yes Markdown, PDF, unAPI
ReferenceManager Yes No No Yes No
RefWorks Partial[5] No Yes Yes DOC, ODT
Wikindx Yes No Yes No RSS
Zotero Yes No Yes No clipboard
Software HTML LaTeX RTF Plain text Other

Word processor integration

Software Microsoft Word OpenOffice.org Writer Kile/LyX Other
Aigaion No No No none
BibSonomy No No No none
Bibus Yes Yes No none
CiteULike No No No none
Connotea No No No none
EndNote Yes Partial[6] No Partial[6]
JabRef No Partial[7] Yes Emacs,WinEdt
ProCite Yes ? No WordPerfect
Pybliographer No Yes Yes No
refbase No Yes[7] No Beta PIRA
Reference Manager[8] Yes No No WordPerfect
RefWorks Yes Partial[6] No Partial[6]
Wikindx No No No Integrated WYSIWYG word processor[6]
Zotero Beta No 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
Aigaion No No No No none
BibSonomy Yes Yes Yes Yes various [14]
Bibus No No No Yes none
CiteULike Yes Yes Yes Yes various [15]
Connotea Yes Yes Yes Yes various [16]
EndNote No No No Yes various [17]
JabRef Yes Yes Yes Yes none
ProCite No No No Yes various [18]
Pybliographer No No No Yes none
refbase No No No Yes none
Reference Manager No No No Yes various [19]
RefWorks No No No Yes various
Wikindx No No No Yes none
Zotero Yes Yes Yes Yes various [20]
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
Aigaion Yes Yes Yes
BibSonomy Yes Yes Yes
Bibus ? ? ?
CiteULike Yes No Yes
Connotea Yes ? Yes
EndNote No No No
JabRef No — —
ProCite No No No
Pybliographer ? ? ?
refbase Yes Yes Yes
Reference Manager Yes No No
RefWorks Yes No Yes
Wikindx Yes Yes Yes
Zotero No — —
Software Passworded Networking
User-specific permissions Simultaneous write access

References

  1. ^ a b c MSRP for full version with physical media. Discounted downloads and academic discounts might be available.
  2. ^ "Release 7.0.19 · zotero/zotero". Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  3. ^ a b The GUI requires gnome-python, which isn't available for Windows or OS X.
  4. ^ 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[1].
  5. ^ URLs aren't active links
  6. ^ a b c d e Can reformat references in a properly saved RTF document, allowing limited use in OpenOffice.org Writer, StarOffice, FrameMaker, Microsoft Works, WordPad, WordPerfect, and others.
  7. ^ 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 [2].
  8. ^ From [3]
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