Citation Tool Feature Comparison Chart

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Category

Product Development

Mendeley Zotero
Ran by private for-profit company, Elsevier. Ran by an independent, non-profit organization.

Usability & Product Offerings

Mendeley

  • Easy to use reference management tool.
  • Includes a Desktop version and a web version compatible with all major web browsers.

Zotero

  • Easy to use reference management tool.
  • Works as a Firefox extension or as a standalone version with a connector to Chrome, Safari, Firefox and/or Opera.

Operating System

Mendeley Zotero
Macintosh, Windows, Linux Macintosh, Windows, Linux, anywhere Firefox can run

Browser Compatibility

Mendeley

Compatible with:

  • Internet Explorer 8-11
  • Firefox 6 and newer
  • Chrome 14 and newer
  • Safari 5 and newer

Need to have Javascript and cookies enabled.

Zotero

Can use Zotero for Firefox (uses a Firefox extension), or

Can install a Zotero Standalone browser extension for use with Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Opera.

Cost

Mendeley

  • Basic software is free.
  • Charges for adding cloud storage space.
  • Charges for collaborating with larger groups.

Zotero

  • Basic software is free.
  • Charges for adding cloud storage space.

Free Cloud Storage

Mendeley Zotero
2GB of cloud storage. About 700 articles. 300MB of cloud storage. About 100 articles.

Requires Installation

Mendeley

Yes.

Provides instructions & YouTube video tutorials for the installation and use of Mendeley.

Installation Process:

Zotero

Yes.

Includes a guide on how to install and use Zotero. User generated YouTube tutorials are available.

Installation Process:

Cite As You Write (In-Text Citations Notes, & Bibliographies in Microsoft Word)

Mendeley

Yes

  • There are free plugins for Word, LibreOffice, and BibTeX.
  • After downloading Mendeley, you can install the plugins from within the program.

Zotero

Yes

  • The free plugin for Word and LibreOffice is included in the Zotero Standalone version.

Zotero for Firefox version: Guide for installing free Word (Mac & Windows) and LibreOffice Plugins .

Import and Export in BibTex and RIS format

Mendeley Zotero
Yes Yes

Citation-Styles

Mendeley

Both Mendeley and Zotero use Citation Style Language , which offers over 7,000 free CSL citation styles.

  • Additional styles can be installed from within the desktop client.

Instructions: Editing a citation style in Mendeley .

Zotero

Both Mendeley and Zotero use Citation Style Language , which offers over 7,000 free CSL citation styles.

Instructions: Editing a citation style in Zotero .

Saving Citations while Browsing Databases

Mendeley Zotero
You can save citation information for major databases after installing the web importer bookmarklet . You can save citation information from databases using the Zotero icon .

Saving .PDF Files to Personal Library

Mendeley

Yes

  • You can drag and drop .PDF files or folders of .PDF files into your library.
  • You can also import .PDFs from other citation management software.

Zotero

Yes

  • You can drag and drop .PDF files or folders of .PDF files into your library.
  • Can be set to automatically grab .PDFs and citation information from websites.

More info on adding documents in Zotero .

Automatically Extracts .PDF Data

Mendeley Zotero
When you drag and drop PDFs or folders of PDFs, Mendeley will extract metadata such as the authors, title of the paper, and publication year. More info (Mendeley) When you drag and drop PDFs or folders of PDFs, Zotero will extract metadata such as the authors, title of the paper, and publication year. More info (Zotero) .

Directly Annotate and Highlight .PDFs

Mendeley

Yes

Includes a built-in .PDF reader that allows users to directly highlight and annotate .pdf documents.

Zotero

No

Need to use a .pdf reader application on personal device to add annotations to .PDFs. The Zotfile plugin can be used to sync .PDFs from device to your Zotero library.

Organizational Features

Mendeley

  • You can create unlimited folders (called collections).
  • You can add tags to items and search using tags.

More info on Mendeley organizational features .

Zotero

  • You can create unlimited folders (called collections).
  • You can add tags to items and search using tags.

More info on Zotero organizational features .

Add Snapshots of Webpages

Mendeley

Yes

  • You can use the “Import to Mendeley” bookmark in your browser to save the web page link and a “snapshot” of the web page to your Mendeley library.

More info on importing into Mendeley .

Zotero

Yes

More info: Scroll down to section “Saving Web Pages (Zotero)

Add Tags and Notes to Items

Mendeley Zotero
Tags, notes, and annotations can be added to items. More annotation info (Mendeley) Tags and notes can be added to items. More annotation info (Zotero)

Internal Search Capabilities

Mendeley

  • Able to quick search all content in your personal library (searchable metadata fields such as author, title, and your notes).
  • Can use advanced search operators.
  • Includes a literature search feature that allows users to search the Mendeley Catalog and add open-access content to their library. If content is not open-access, the citation can be saved to library.

Zotero

  • Able to quick search all content in your personal library (searchable metadata fields such as author, title, and item tags).

More search info (Zotero) .

  • Can use and save advanced searches
  • Includes option to enable full-text .pdf indexing that allows users to search the text of .pdf documents using either the quick search or advanced search option.

More advanced search info (Zotero) .

Group Collaboration Features

Mendeley

Users can create 1 private group or 1 invite-only public group with a 3 member limit with the free account.

  • Private groups: Users can share documents and citations. More info on private groups in Mendeley .
  • Public Invite-only groups: Users can share citations. Non-members of the group cannot add to group resources, but can follow the group, participate in group discussions and view group references.
  • Public groups: No limit to the amount of public groups that can be created. Share references only.

More info on groups in Mendeley .

Zotero

There is no limit to the amount and types of groups created in Zotero.

  • Private groups: Users can share documents and citations.
  • Public Invite-only groups: Users can share documents and citations.
  • Public groups: can share citations, but not documents.

Security

Mendeley

  • Mandatory cloud storage
  • Cloud data is stored on U.S. servers.

Zotero

  • Optional cloud storage. Can use Zotero without having to sync, however it is mandatory for collaboration with others.
  • Cloud data is stored on U.S. servers.

Mobile Apps

  • Completely browser-based.

Mendeley

Yes

  • Free Mendeley Apps for iOS and Android.

Mendeley download page .

Zotero

Yes (third-party apps)

  • The mobile version allows users to access and edit their Zotero libraries on a tablet or mobile phone.
  • No Zotero apps. There are third party apps for Apple and Android devices available at different prices.

More info on Zotero apps .

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