When conducting literature-based research, you can sometimes end up with an unwieldy amount of references to keep track of. Citation management tools are programs that help you collect, store, and organize those references, making the process of researching and writing easier and more efficient.
With citation management tools, you can:
There are a variety of citation managers to choose from. These are some of the more popular:
Available free to OSU users :
Available free to all users:
Fee-based:
With such a variety of programs available, you may be wondering how to select a tool to use. Features vary across the tools.
Use the chart below to help you determine which citation management tool best suits your needs:
| EndNote Basic | New RefWorks* | Zotero | EndNote Desktop | |
| Cost | Free for OSU users | Free for OSU users | Free | $94.95 (OSU TechHub) |
| Offline Access | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Online Storage | 50,000 references/2 GB attachments | Unlimited | 300MB free (unlimited desktop storage) | Unlimited |
| Can I keep my account if I leave OSU? | Yes, with some limited functionality | No (you would need to export your content) | Yes | Yes |
| Download and store PDFs of full-text | Manually | Manually | Automatically | Automatically |
| Share with collaborators | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OSU's Find It! button integrated | Yes | No | No | No |
| View and annotate attached PDFs | No | Yes | Uses browser plugin for viewing; 3rd party options exist for annotations | Yes |
| Mobile app | $3.99; iPad only | No | No | $3.99; iPad only |
| Write and cite plugin for Microsoft Word | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Write and cite plugin for other word processing software | Pages | Google Docs | LibreOffice/ OpenOffice/ NeoOffice | Pages |
| Citation output styles | Installs with 500; over 6000 available for download | Over 4000 styles | Installs with 12 styles; more available for download | Over 7000 available for download |
*See the RefWorks section of this guide to learn more about the different versions of RefWorks
