Quicklinks

EndNote & Refworks — Personal Bibliographic Management (PBM) tools

What are PBM tools and how can these tools facilitate your research?

A personal bibliographic management tool may be either a software package or an Internet based service that provides you with the capability to electronically collect and manage bibliographic resources from hundreds of databases and to output these resources into formatted bibliographies, footnotes and in-text citations. Most PBM tools include the following features:

Electronic collection of bibliographic resources from most commercial research literature databases, e.g. Art Abstracts, BIOSIS, ERIC, MLA, PsycINFO, etc.
Electronic collection of bibliographic resources from most pubic catalogs, e.g. NLM (PubMed), LC, OhioLINK, UCLID, etc.
Creation of formatted (all major styles) bibliographies, footnotes and in-text citations
Convenient linking to full-text resources saved on a PC or on the Internet
Management and organization of bibliographic resources in one or multiple databases
Detection and management of duplicate bibliographic resources
Browsing and searching of your own bibliographic databases

How do I select the PBM tool most appropriate for my needs?

The answer to this question really depends on your personal situation, environment and preferences. Both PBM tools supported by UC (EndNote and RefWorks) are excellent products. Both EndNote and RefWorks would likely satisfy most, if not all, of your requirements. However, you are encouraged to review the next section, "Links to PBM Tools Comparison Charts" to compare features of EndNote, RefWorks and other BPM tools.

Links to PBM tools comparison charts

Some of the following links contain some local institutional information. However, most of the information provided is generic and will help you compare the features and functionality of EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero and other PBM tools/services.

Adept Scientific (2009) EndNote, Reference Manager and ProCite comparison chart. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from http://www.adeptscience.co.uk/products/refman/reference/chart.html.

Citation and bibliographic management tools. Retrieved September 15, 2009 from http://www.law.yale.edu/library/research/10988.asp .

This site includes Zotero (the Firefox based PBM), EndNote and RefWorks and additional links to other comparative sites.

Citation managers comparison - UW Madison Libraries. Retrieved September 16, 2009 from http://www.library.wisc.edu/citation-managers/comparison.html . This site compares EndNote (desktop version), EndNote Web, RefWorks and Zotero (the Firefox based PBM).

Compare RefWorks with EndNote & Reference Manager (2008). Retrieved March 4, 2009 from http://www.hsl.unc.edu/Services/guides/citationmanager_comparison.cfm

Comparison of bibliographic software at MIT. Retrieved September 15, 2009 from http://libraries.mit.edu/help/bibliography/comparison.html .

This site includes Zotero (the Firefox based PBM), EndNote and RefWorks.

Dell'Orso, F. (2009). Personal bibliographic management software: Analysis and comparison of some packages. Retrieved March 5, 2009 from http://www.burioni.it/forum/dellorso/bms-dasp/text/index.html .

Dell'Orso provides an extremely detailed evaluative comparison of the following products: EndNote, EndNote Web, RefWorks, ProCite and Reference Manager. To access the comparison data from Dell'Orso's home page, either select "3. Comparison Grid" from the bottom of the page to access the table of contents of the grid or click on any of the aforementioned PBM tools to access the first page of the grid.

Endnote or refworks? / A comparison chart. (2008). Retrieved March 4, 2009 from http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/support/refworks/comparison.html .

Last Modified: September 15, 2009

Web site content: Randall Roberts