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Citation Management at Purdue

This guide highlights the unique features of citation management software, also known as citation managers.

Comparison Chart

  EndNote Basic Zotero
Format Web-based Web-based add-on for Firefox
Browser Internet Explorer, Firefox Firefox only
Library Location Store at EndNote server, not locally Store library locally and on free Zotero server group
Access to Your Library Web-based, can access with any internet connection Local library available locally; group library available with any internet connection
Cost Free to Purdue students, faculty, and staff Free to anyone; open-source program
How to Get It Create a free account at myendnoteweb.com Download Zotero client at zotero.org; Download Word add-in at https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_installation 
Ease of Use Easy Easy
Collaboration Endnote Basic users can share collection of citations with each other.  Have “Read only” or “Read & Write” options. Zotero users can collaborate on shared libraries of citations in “groups” that are 1) open--public can read and edit, 2) closed--public can read but edit limited to specific users), or 3) private--not public, read and edit limited to specific users.
Getting Citations

Easy direct exporting citations from “Web of Knowledge” and other databases hosted by major vendors (EBSCO, ProQuest, etc.) to your Endnote Web Library.

Fairly easy exporting citations from other vendors such as CSA.

Can “capture” bibliographic info of web pages, videos, etc.

Can add citations manually. 

Click on an icon in your browser URL bar to save citations to items on the page or a button in the Zotero window to capture the page itself.

Adding citations for web sites works just like adding citations from databases.

Can add citations manually.
Attach PDFs, Images, or Other Files Can link and store, attachments (PDFs, images, etc.) to your Endnote Basic Library. Can link and store web pages and files (PDFs, images, etc.) to your Zotero collection to use offline.
Finding Duplicates

Function built in:

    Organize – Find Duplicates

 Not currently.
Locate Full Text

Yes.  Click on the “Go to the URL” or “Find it at Purdue” icon.

Note: the “Find it at Purdue” icon is not working at IE currently.

 Yes.  Click the “Locate” button in the Info pane for each citation to locate full text.
Add Citations/Bibliographies to Papers Yes, with the EndNote Basic MS-Word “Cite While You Write” plug-in installed. Yes, with the EndNote Basic MS-Word “Cite While You Write” plug-in installed.