It appears that I've been living a very sheltered life as far as reference management software goes. My department uses Endnote so I've always just used that if I used software at all! As I've started researching, I've found loads of different reference management systems, and it seems like it's impossible to pick between them.
I've made a list of the reference managers that look useful and I would like to try out. Find them at the bottom of the post.
I've already used Endnote and to be honest, that's what I'm using right now because everyone in the office uses it and I know many other people that use it and can help with any problems.
However, I've looked at Mendeley and I have been very impressed and in many regards, it seems better than Endnote. I will post up some demonstrations soon.
So what do I do, change or stick to what I know?
Now all this choice can seem quite stressful and if you're about to start a project or your in the middle of writing one then you probably need to start straight away without spending hours trialling all of them.
Here are 6 killer tips to help you decide quickly and effectively:
1. Ask the people in your institute what they use. If everyone in your department uses one reference manager, you'll need a very good reason to choose another so if you need to act quickly, it's probably better to just go with the flow.
2. Look for screen shots on the website of the individual reference manager. Don't like what you see? Bin it and use something else. If there are no screen shots or no video tour, this is also a bad sign and may show things are getting a dated!
3. Type the name of the reference manager into You Tube. If there are pages of how-to videos this is a good sign, if there aren't, bin it.
4. Use Google - type the name of your reference software followed by review, or forum and check out the results.
5. Is it compatible with your operating system? This could be a huge help as not all the reference managers are compatible with all the operating systems so this could reduce the field quite quickly.
6. Twitter - Does the site have a twitter page? If so try and start a conversation. Being active on twitter is frequently a sign that they are open and responsive to users.
All in all these tips won't take very long but will give you a great idea of a few that you could try out, if not the exact reference manager you should use.
My Shortlist
Connotea
citeulike
Mendeley
Zotero
Qiqqa
2collab
Biblioscape
Bookends
Citavi
Jab Ref
Refbase
WizFolio
The Links above are all absolutely FREE!! They won't cost you a penny.
There are a few reference managers out there that you do have to pay for...
Endnote
ProCite
RefMan
Papers
pdf Stack
Ref Works
Sente
Lab Meeting
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