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Citation Managers

An overview of Zotero and Mendeley citation management programs

What is a citation manager?

A citation manager is a tool designed to store citations that you can then organize for your research projects. 

Citation managers allow you to:

  • Save and organize your references.
  • Insert and format citations within your paper.
  • Create a bibliography.
  • Store PDFs.
  • Collaborate with others.

Comparison Chart

  Mendeley Desktop Zotero
Strengths

- Easy to learn

- Drop and drag citations into MS Word to create a bibliography

- Sync with the cloud to make citation library available on other devices and computers

- Easy to learn

- Quick for collecting citations

- User friendly features such as tagging and notes
Where are my citations stored? Local computer with web-based syncing  Local computer with web-based syncing
Word Processor Compatibility  Microsoft Word (Windows, Mac), Office 365, LibreOffice Microsoft Word (Windows, Mac), Google Docs, LibreOffice
Share Resources with Others Yes Yes
Citation Styles All common styles All common styles
Create Bibliography Yes Yes
PDF Storage Yes Yes
Operating System Support Windows, Mac, Linux, iOs app, Android app Windows, Mac, Linux
Storage 2 GB for documents 300 MB for documents