by Imed Bouchrika, Phd
Reference management software are powerful tools used to create, organize, store, and share references for manuscripts. These provide a complete set of tools that enables the researcher to focus on delivering a cohesive and fully-referenced research paper. As such, it is important to find the best reference management software to ensure that no source is overlooked.
In 2020, the American Psychological Association (APA) reported an average of 75% rejection rate for all its journals (APA, 2021). One of the reasons for rejection is poor referencing, including discrepancies in author entries and institutes. Using reference management software lets you automatically generate accurate citations and bibliographies. Aside from allowing the researcher to acknowledge the contribution of other scholars, proper referencing provides evidence to support assertions.
This document provides a list of the best reference management software as used by academic researchers and higher education institutions today. While reference management software tends to have standard features in terms of collecting and exporting references, organizing libraries, and importing PDF files, some offer more tools for organizing sources and facilitating collaboration. The features and capabilities of each software are included, as well as the pricing models offered.
Reference management is a critical element of both scientific and academic writing. As conducting and writing a research manuscript entails the use of hundreds of references and data sources, it is very easy to lose track of important sources.
The best reference manager software maintains a database of references and automatically generates custom bibliographies. Usually used by technologists, scientists, researchers, and authors, reference management software provides important support in ensuring that all references are stored in one database and can be accessed at any point of the research writing process.
Today, reference management software not only offers the essential tools but also functionalities that increase efficiency such as the mind mapping tool that allows researchers to attach PDF files and images to mind map nodes. Some also facilitate collaboration among researchers, while others can even integrate with social media platforms.
Source: Rangaswamy and Rajendra (2021), Journal of Library Philosophy and Practice
While most universities provide reference management systems to students, one study found that 60% of postgraduates are not aware of the availability of this tool in the university, just as they are not aware of the business name generator software (Nitsos, Mallari, and Chamouroudi, 2021). Another quantitative study identified the user effort required to use four widely used reference management tools and found that different platforms require different levels of effort.
For 28% of researchers, accurate export of bibliography is an important feature while 31% of researchers consider the ability to sync with other cloud apps as a significant deciding factor. The way the tools are organized, also known as the user interface, plays a major role in the usability of reference management software as identified by 26% of respondents, while for 24% of researchers, accurate auto-completion of citations and bibliography is a more important capability (Cai et al., 2021).
For reference management software users, the best reference manager software should have an automatic indexing feature and should be able to extract accurate information from PDFs. Research on how much workload reference management software takes away from researchers found that current apps take an average of one to two minutes to add a new citation as observed by 58% of users. While export speed is prioritized by some researchers, 8% of users value accuracy more than efficiency (Cai et al., 2021).
Source: Rangaswamy and Rajendra (2021), Journal of Library Philosophy and Practice
In scientific information circles, the reference is considered crucial information by the reader as it identifies the quality of sources used and gives credibility to the research. In higher education and research institutions, proper reference management and the best citation manager tools are part of scholarly practice. Using a reference management software delivers the following benefits:
However, much like other EdTech like school administration software, classroom management tools, and conferencing platforms, not all reference management software is cut from the same cloth. When choosing one, the essential features to consider are how it imports files, the ability to connect with various types of databases, auto-complete capability, the ability to extract accurate bibliography, and operating system support.
Source: Rangaswamy and Rajendra (2021), Journal of Library Philosophy and Practice
Mendeley Reference Manager lets you manage your references quickly and effectively while collaborating with other researchers online. Aside from automatically generating bibliographies, this is one of the best referencing software that lets you organize, store, share, and cite references and other research data. From other research software, you can easily import papers and also find relevant papers based on the topic you are working on. Mendeley Reference Manager can be used as a desktop client, and you can also access your papers on the fly.
Features:
Price Range:
Free
EndNote is a reference software that lets you focus on your research instead of spending too much time formatting manuscripts. Stay organized with EndNote as it lets you manage, review, annotate, and search for references and PDFs. It also lets you spend more time conducting your research and collaborating across geographic boundaries.
Features:
Price Range:
The cost of an upgrade license is $99.95 while a full license is priced at $249.95. For eligible students, the license is priced at $115.95.
Paperpile is a citation management software for Google Docs that lets you manage your reference library from the web. It has a smart and intuitive interface that lets you work efficiently. Paperpile lets you add citations and bibliographies to Google Docs, and allows you to access your PDFs from any device with a web browser. Paperpile seamlessly works with iOS, Android, and MS Word.
Features:
Price Range:
For academic institutions, non-profits, and personal use, the price is $2.99 per month. For business and industry, the price is $9.99 per month, billed annually. Paperpile offers a 30-day free trial.
JabRef is a reference management software created by researchers that lets you stay on top of your literature while conducting research. It lets you collect references, retrieve, and link full-text articles, and import references directly from the web browser using the JabRef browser extension. You can also format your references using the built-in citation styles. For inserting and formatting citations, JabRef provides support for Word, LibreOffice, or OpenOffice.
Features:
Price Range:
Free
Biblioscape is a software for reference management that helps you organize your references and lets you integrate references and notes inside Word. Using this drag-and-drop tool, you can instantly see your citations on your Word file. It has an auto-complete feature where you just need to type the first author name, year published, and a few words in the title. It also integrates with bibliographic database sites, including Google Scholar, ACS Publications, JSTOR, and ScienceDirect, among others.
Features:
Price Range:
The Lite plan for reference management is priced at $79 per license. The Standard plan, which includes tools for managing references, notes, and categories is priced at $139 per license. Biblioscape also offers pricing for professional groups and libraries and provides separate pricing for upgrades, and for the education sector.
Citationsy lets you cite books, websites, papers, and other reference materials, and even lets you archive a snapshot of a webpage when you reference it. Offering more than 10,000 referencing styles, Citationsy lets you create a shareable public short-link to your bibliography while keeping your data private. The Magic Import tool works by pasting your existing references onto the tool and it will take care of converting them to any format you require.
Features:
Price Range:
The single-user price is $9.99 per month while eligible students are given a discounted price of $4.99 per month. Citationsy offers a three-day free trial.
Bookends is a full-featured paper management software, bibliography, reference, and information management system for students and professionals. It has a highly configurable, editable, and interactive interface. Bookends lets you collect, find, organize, annotate, sync, share, and publish your sources. It searches the Internet to retrieve references. It works with Microsoft Word 2011/2016 and later, Mellel (including Live Bibliography), Apple Pages, Nisus Writer Pro, Manuscripts, and LibreOffice.
Features:
Price Range:
The single-user license costs $59.99 with two years of free updates. The cost of upgrade is $39.99.
refbase is a free, web-based, platform-independent, multi-user citation software for managing scientific literature and citations. It is an open-source reference management software that allows you to try the product by providing a demo database. refbase includes powerful search features with auto-completion and flexible display options such as list view, citations view, details view, and print view.
Features:
Price Range:
Free
RefDB is a research management software and bibliography and reference database tool for SGML, XML, and LaTeX/BibTeX documents. It is accessible through a web interface, command-line tools, and text editors like Emacs and Vim. It has an integrated SRU server. RefDB allows users to share databases over a network. Using Perl and PHP libraries, programmers can integrate RefDB functionality into their own projects. RefDB runs on Linux, the BSDs, OS X, Solaris, and Windows/Cygwin and is released under the GNU General Public License.
Features:
Price Range:
Free
One of the best citation software solutions, RedCube Papers is a reference management software that helps you improve the way you collect and curate research material. It assists you in searching across your favorite scholarly search engines and doing single-click downloads. Easily add PDFs and full-text references to your library and be assisted by the personal recommendation engine to ensure that you are able to source all related papers. Across all of your devices, Papers lets you enjoy a powerful set of features that will streamline your research workflow.
Features:
Price Range:
For students, the subscription cost is $3 per month, billed annually. For academic use, the price is $5 per month and corporate pricing is $10 per month. Offers a 30-day trial period.
FlowCite is an all-in-one reference management software in research that helps you seamlessly search for, save, and organize your references and deliver your best work. It lets you import and export your work to other applications. FlowCite has an intuitive and user-friendly interface that allows you to drag-and-drop content between projects. It helps you discover scholarly articles across top academic databases.
Features:
Price Range:
Free for personal projects with up to three collaborators. To upgrade, contact the vendor for pricing.
RefWorks by Proquest is a research management platform that lets you collect and import reference materials and save them in a single click. Using the comprehensive ProQuest databases, you can automatically complete citation data. It allows you to quickly save references from the full text from any web page. It has a robust system for organizing, retrieving, reading, and annotating. RefWorks also lets you share folders and collaborate with other researchers.
Features:
For individual users
For Institutions
Price Range:
You may contact the vendor for pricing information.
Zotero is an open-source literature management software that helps you organize your research based on your preferences. It allows you to organize items into collections and tag them with keywords. Zotero also lets you create saved searches that automatically link to relevant materials as you perform your research. This platform is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and iOS.
Features:
Price Range:
Free
Sorc’d is another one of the best reference managers with a suite of tools that seamlessly integrates into your workflow. The web clipper lets you quickly collect relevant pieces of information directly from your web browser. Users can also collaborate by using private or team accounts and discover new information and references together. You can even add snippets from your online repository to your writing. Lastly, Sorc’d integrates with Google Docs, Slides and Sheets, Microsoft Office and Outlook, and innovative cloud services for federal agencies.
Features:
Price Range:
The basic plan is free, the Premium plan costs $14.99 per month, and the Business plan costs $20 per month. New accounts get the first 30 days for free.
Qiqqa is among the free reference managers used by academics, researchers, and businesses. It has a BibTeX sniffer that allows users to unlock and perfect metadata. Using powerful OCR, Qiqqa provides an indexing tool that makes image documents searchable. It also lets you import all your PDFs directly from other programs or from your drive, making it a good accompaniment to some of the best learning management systems.
Features:
Price Range:
Free
Sciwheel reference management software helps you instantly save references from the web, including weblink, full citation data, and PDFs PubMed and Google Scholar. Without leaving your document, you can see your notes and co-author comments on PDFs and web pages. The powerful algorithm of Sciwheel ensures that you will not miss any relevant article. It also lets you search multiple devices while working on Microsoft Word and Google Docs.
Features:
Price Range:
The Basic plan is free while the Premium plan costs $9.95 per month. Student, institutional, and group subscription is available. Offers a 30-day free trial.
Citavi is a reference management tool designed to power up individual researchers and teams towards achieving efficient research management processes. It helps you keep track of all the essential information and sift all your sources. Citavi is the only reference management platform that gives you the option to store your information on your own server for data security.
Features:
Price Range:
Citavi provides pricing upon request.
Bibsonomy software for reference management helps you organize your scientific work by collecting publications and bookmarks and discovering interesting new research for your daily work. It allows you to collaborate with your colleagues and fellow researchers and even create groups for collaboration. Bibsonomy helps you create bibliographies for scientific and other types of research papers. Aside from the full-text search, search field filters also assist in finding relevant papers.
Features:
Price Range:
Free
Zenreader reference management software provides a powerful note-taking engine and a state-of-the-art document reader that makes it easy to view documents and synthesize content. By selecting text and images, you can take notes from your sources and references. Automatically organize and have ready-to-use knowledge by adding tags and comments. Zenreader provides powerful search tools that scan all types of documents with the multi-document search with advanced filters.
Features:
Price Range:
Essentials plan is free with limited features for one workspace. Billed annually, the Premium subscription costs $7.49 per month while Lifetime Premium is currently offered at a discounted price of $39.99 until the release of Zenreader Cloud.
Article Galaxy Enterprise provides the speed and reliability of all the reference management tools you need in one platform. A complete knowledge management solution for global businesses, Article Galaxy Enterprise lets you search, acquire, read, organize, cite, and share your research and references. This platform takes care of checking article-level usage permissions, which ensures that you have the proper re-use rights details in every document. Secure copyright-compliant PDFs easily with the help of Article Galaxy Enterprise.
Features:
Price Range:
Article Galaxy Enterprise is available by quote.
The quality of references reflects the quality of research. A well-organized set of references leads to a well-planned research endeavor. The best reference management software today not only helps the scientific and academic community in generating accurate bibliographies and citations but also elevates the practice of scholarly research. Using reference management software significantly reduces the workload of researchers writing research papers for publications.
Compared to using manual systems, reference management software makes the entire research process efficient and allows your ideas to flow freely as you consult one reference after another. The manual task of recording citations and references is completely eliminated. Instead, you are provided with a database of references from which you can easily generate a bibliography, or cite a source, with one click.
As technological advances continue to be integrated into current research tools, research institutions will definitely benefit as they can focus more on research work, minus the formatting concerns.
References:
by Imed Bouchrika, Phd
by Imed Bouchrika, Phd
