REFERENCE MANAGERS | Everything you need to know about Endnote, Mendeley, and Zotero

Reference managers, everything you've always wanted to know about Endnote, Mendeley, and Zotero! Which one did you choose?
Get Endnote: endnote.com/
Get Mendeley: www.mendeley.com/
Get Zotero: www.zotero.org/
🎞How to survive the lockdown as a PhD student? bit.ly/2WE1Hbb
🔴Subscribe for more PhD related content: bit.ly/2YPO1ej
A very in depth overview of the three biggest reference managers right now: Endnote, Mendeley, and Zotero. Why do you need a reference manager? What are the differences between them? And which reference manager suits YOUR needs? Let me know if this video was valuable to you in the comments!
Timestamps:
01:15 - Why you need a reference manager
02:31 - Price
04:01 - Organization
06:57 - Annotation, notetaking, and tags
09:56 - Citations
11:49 - Multi device
12:47 - Collaborations
13:26 - Browser plug-ins
13:56 - Plug-ins for Word, LaTeX, and Google Docs
15:47 - What suits your needs?
🎶music: Epidemic Sound: bit.ly/35OQYgJ (affiliate link)
🐦twitter: fglhelmink

[@FleurGLHelmink]

Five MORE reference managers as alternatives to the three main reference managers: - Citavi - Not only a reference manager, but also for knowledge organization. Besides references, you can analyze texts, save ideas, and create outlines for drafts. It is an all in one package! - Paperpile - Paperpile was made for Google Drive and Google Docs. If you are collaborating via those platforms, I would highly recommend checking this one out! - Papers app - Papers app is another reference manager that has actually an app, hence the name. This reference manager looks aestatically very pleasing, so if that's important to you, this might be yours! - Jabref - Jabref is another open source reference manager. Its native file format is BibTeX, which makes it actually very appealing to those using LaTeX. - RefWorks - RefWorks storages all references online, which means it is accessible from every computer with an internet connection. Many institutions have licenses to this one, so it is worth checking it out if your institute offers RefWorks.

[@drhasanalmgotir1796]

Hi Fleur "Zotero" & "Mendeley" do NOT link between in-text citation and its bibliography, in contrast to "Endnote" which can. Does any one of the above apps have such a capability?

[@MinieMinarelli]

Absolutely perfect! The video editing, the structure of the review, the clear info, the attitude. Thank you so much!

[@CandiceNance]

Thank you for the technical breakdown of the differences between the three reference manager programs. Much appreciated!

[@gracemoraa3451]

This has been amazingly helpful Fleur. I’m just starting out with academic writing and you explained everything so clearly, lovely voice to listen to. Thank you for taking time to put this together.. great background music too

[@alliejean100]

Thanks! Your comparison of these three was really comprehensive and just what I needed to know so I can decide what to use.

[@TheTnaidu]

Wonderful and clear vlog and much needed in a PHD ... I use zotero and that works quite well.

[@nattynoodlenutkin]

Such a clear, informative and helpful video. Thank you so much! ❤️

[@mikebaker4531]

So glad I found this video. You are a good teacher of the craft. Thank you!

[@kennypryce4617]

Thank you so much. Really appreciate you taking the time out to do this review

[@demetricebaskerville9974]

Thank you! Reviewed this video as a part of my research sequence. That's a follow! Looking forward to reviewing your other videos!

[@laure189]

Thank you so much, this is super helpful, and I absolutely love your intro!! :D

[@lyndseybrennan2223]

Thank you so much, Fleur! This helped me decide which one to use.

[@Kate.Nkechi.O]

So helpful! I'm just starting my program and trying to settle on one. Thanks so much for this information!

[@dumilendlela1212]

Wonderful,this is exactly what I needed !Well explained.

[@ernicanoel]

This video has been super helpful. Thank you!

[@hameedhaqqani2586]

very informative Fleur, thanks a ton. I am a new bee on this, and it made clear where to go.

[@ta5607]

Love your content! Hope you keep doing videos :)

[@birdieh1716]

This is very clear. Thank you. I would love to see a video about using reference managers that work with Scrivener. Thanks.

[@jatorov16]

Nice video Fleur! Thank you, it was very useful for me.

[@danielyamoah642]

Thanks for this video. Really useful and informative. I particularly loved the background music and your presentation style too. Great work!

[@FleurGLHelmink]

Thank you so much for leaving a comment, Daniel! Glad you liked it. 🤗

[@jamesscurry]

Thanks so much, this was amazingly helpful!!

[@johndoyle8582]

very clear and well presented, thank you

[@albertastillero1085]

Hi Ms. Fleur, this is very helpful information and you explained it well. Subscribed!

[@danielchukwu524]

Best intro ever ✨

[@ambj07]

This was very helpful. Thank you.

[@Biomeducated]

OK, applause here! GREAT opening scene! Love the editing! I use EndNote (by default by my Uni, costs me nothing :))

[@ferguskane8094]

Costs your university a lot though! Why not encourage them to abandon it and have a party instead?! ;-)

[@kennyglenaan2609]

Fleur, that was very helpful. I think Zotero is the one for me.

[@Chervenushka]

Thanks for making this video Fleur! I love the funny and catchy beginning! I am curious. How much storage do I need for a bachelor's thesis do you think? Will 300MB get me through?

[@tejindersharma5691]

Very informative and explained in nice manner.

[@tausifzaman5719]

I was using all 3 of them to figure out the best one for me & suddenly came across with your video. Loved it. Keep uploading videos like this. Best of luck for your channel.

[@priyankadas8737]

Which one did you choose finally?

[@tausifzaman5719]

@@priyankadas8737 zotero

[@putriestimandasari8904]

Thank you .. Your video is very helpful in helping me making decision

[@jonathanjaquez2190]

I like the video. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[@rezapramaaa]

Thanks! Great explanation!

[@richardwebster9867]

Really informative

[@SandyYouTube374]

Really helpful vid - thanks so much :)

[@michaelklunk599]

Great video, super helpful! (:

[@rd2135Vet]

Thank you. I feel less ignorant about reference managers 💡

[@rainsdiary1849]

The best video I have seen it ever for comparison between all the reference manger

[@mannas46]

great video thanks! the reason i’m using Mendeley is its the only one that has a plugin for word on ipad (i dont use a mac anymore)

[@imranhakimi1202]

Thank you for the video and information. I am going to start with my Bachelor thesis which one is recommendable.

[@matthewtull]

Thank you. That was very helpful.

[@carolinacastellobranco9207]

Thank you for this video!

[@regalsmartie11]

Hi, for EndNote do we have to manually put in all the references to start or can we just add a pdf file of say an article and it will create the reference for me? or extract all the citations from the article?

[@ferguskane8094]

Very nice review. I chose Zotero because of how bad Endnote was when I started reference managing. And avoided Mendeley because it is owned by Elsevier.

[@FleurGLHelmink]

Thank you so much! Yes, I definitely get why you are using Zotero. Hope it's helping you to keep those references nicely organized and referenced! :)

[@JohnMcCreery]

A very nice explanation. One unanswered question for me is the ability to handle non-European languages, in my case Chinese and Japanese. Any thoughts?

[@RobertoFernandezLarsson]

Good video Fleur! Thank you.

[@andresreyes313]

Great, great video, just what I was looking for. Any advice for privacy settings? Google Docs has this EasyBib citation manager plug-in, but privacy permission includes access to personal information with no reasonable security standards. Should I be worried about this with Mendeley or Zotero? Thanks a lot

[@michaelkaplan9874]

I literally never post on you tube. Ever. But this was so helpful and so excellent, thank you so much for this.

[@luckymphelo795]

Like the background music, nice.

[@dudubiologico]

Great video! Thank you!🙂

[@ineuron]

I personally prefer Zotera because of free webdav sync option ( for example, 15 G storage using 4shared webdav service).

[@richardwasserman810]

Which one is best for book references? Your video (unless I missed something) is paper based.

[@pauljohnson3317]

Amazing intro!

[@ayandanxusani3336]

Thank you so much for this video Fleur, so timely as I am preparing to submit my Masters dissertation in December. I noticed you're also using a Mac book, did the Mendeley Web importer extension require you to change your safari preferences? I have that pop up but it says "this extension can read and alter web pages you visit and see your browsing history on all websites. This includes sensitive information from web pages, including passwords, phone numbers and credit cards" - have you faced this issue?

[@EarthTraveller1992]

Hi! Love this vid! Does anyone experience plugin problems between Mendeley and Word?

[@bbbb000]

Hi Fleur! This is very helpful for a total noob like me. Could you share/demo your workflow with these apps? (Or point me to it if there's already one. Sorry if I missed it. New subscriber here 😁) Much appreciated. Thanks! Looking forward to more contents. Cheers!

[@jamesheseltine2011]

Hello, do you find that they always work? Or do they reference incorrectly sometimes?

[@charlottefrida4650]

Great summary, thank you!! Do you have any experience with auto-populating your reference manager, e.g. through RSS or Newsletters?

[@FleurGLHelmink]

Hi Charlotte! Thank you for your comment! That’s a great question. I recently added RSS feeds from my favourite journals to my Zotero and am loving it thus far. It keeps me up to date. 🤗 Do you have any questions about how to set it up? Or more related to my personal experience with it? :)

[@kenjones7719]

In my comment of the 20 version of EndNote, I forgot to mention that Clarivate advises not to minimize the screen to the dock or it will cause "problems". I saw comments on the EndNote users group complaining that the viewing area on a laptop gets eaten up because you can't make the window too small or "problems".

[@FleurGLHelmink]

Hi Ken! Thanks for leaving a comment. 🙌🏻 Pretty weird that you can’t even minimize the screen or dock it. Any idea how that’s possible? And any idea if Clarivate is working on a solution?

[@kenjones7719]

@@FleurGLHelmink In a more recent instructional video from Clarivate, they specifically warn that when running searches and downloading documents in EndNote 20, minimizing or docking the program will cause problems. I have no idea when that problem will be fixed. And there are more. Contrary to what instructional videos claim, one cannot import folders and have their names transfer to group names in EN 20. And although one would think that renaming "pdfs" would be possible at more than one at a time, as they claim, one can not. I heard from the lead developer that the last two problems will be addressed. As for the others, I can't say.

[@graceg1030]

Thank you. I need to help my sister but her field isn’t the same as mine so it helped to hear about LaTeX!!!

[@Skye-db5df]

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[@Keon-je8pi]

Impressive, indeed! We own a horse ranch in New Mexico, managing a commission-based fee structure on profits accrued on our account, making it an affordable option.

[@Ivany314]

Appreciate the information! I effortlessly found Loretta Wilkinson's website by copying and pasting her full name into my browser. I've tried reaching out and received some feedback; I hope to connect with her on the phone soon.

[@gnostie]

Personally, I think annotations and things like that are much better done in Obsidian and close reading in LiquidText. As for managing citations, I'm pretty fed up with the busyness of these so-called reference managers and increasingly find that an Excel spreadsheet does a better job for me personally.

[@naziyabegum3875]

sooper well explained

[@drhasanalmgotir1796]

"Zotero" & "Mendeley" do NOT link between in-text citation and its bibliography, in contrast to "Endnote" which can.

[@IbraheemsContemplations]

absolutely LOVED the intro

[@jfjoubertquebec]

Thank you Fleur. I read a lot using Kindle... I also have a lot of references I typed inn the past. Can I import them??

[@os2171]

Get an iPad. I also started (on 2013) with a Kindle; Kindle is for books. Not for PDFs and specially No for reference management. (Also, an iPad is a better option for reading books)

[@marambka]

Thank you so much.

[@kenjones7719]

Wait till you try Endnote 20. Problems? You bet. At least one university (U of Kentucky) Medical Center advised not to use it for searches in databases and instead to conduct them outside and import references to EndNote 20. Clarivate advises not to make the program full screen and not to reduce the size too much or it will cause "problems" but that they don't specify in instructional videos. For MAC, the best reference mgr. may well be Bookends, but if you work in collaboration with PC users, it could be a bit of a hassle. Zotero has probably come a long way since it's early development when I made suggestions to its developers to allow for more academic formatting. From the comments below, it appears Mendeley is still fraught the bugs it had 10 years ago.

[@radiosirilo]

Thanks for the video, i was really happy with mendeley but now its killing the mobile apps... and its word plugin is not working on Big Sur... i think i'll try zotero

[@TamarMonteiro97]

Hi. Please may you help me on this? I want to know if Mendeley works well on Big Sur atualization of OS? Thanks for the help, I´ll be waiting for your preciouse help.

[@mirosoares]

Hi Fleur, Great video. Congratulations! I am a visual artists and professor for Brazil. I am an user of Mendeley for a long time, since 2008. In general I am very enthusiastic about it. I really enjoy having a very extensive library organised there, including the PDF files with the highlight and notes of each one. But I am also regularly comparing it with other reference managers since there are some specificities I am not completely satisfied in Mendeley. I also know Zotero quite well. But I didn't had the opportunity to see much of EndNote. So thank you for not only sharing, but also for pointing out interesting points like the customisation. I would like to know if you are familiar with some new note-taking softwares that came out few months ago, mainly Roam Research and Osidian. There is a fuzz about it. The intent with these apps it to allow users to create their knowledge base from notes that can be connected. They also offer a graph view on the knowledge network you create. Anyway, I am personally starting to use Obsidian and I am enjoying the experience. Now was looking for a way to import my notes from Mendeley (that's how I ended up here in you video by the way). I would like to find a way to export my highlights and notes from Mendeley. Theoretically Mendeley has a feature to export the pdf with or without annotations, but I have tried that several times and it just doesn't work. I am looking for a way to extent my experience with the reference manager to Obsidian. Do you use Roam or Obsidian? Or still about Mendeley, did you figured out a way to export your highlight and / or notes? I would be glad to hear any thoughts you would have about it. All the best.

[@FleurGLHelmink]

Hi Miro, Thank you for your comment. I am currently trying out Roam Research (will make a video about it when I'm more familiar with it ;)), but have never heard about Obsidian. I'll definitely check it out, thanks for the tip. Regarding the export from Mendeley: are you looking to export the highlights and notes in a text-based format? I don't think that's how Mendeley works with it's annotations. I think it saves the annotations to the pdf, without having the option to extract the annotations in a text-based format and separate them from the pdf. As I looked into it, the export with/without annotations option in Mendeley is just the pdf with the highlight/notes or the "clean" pdf. I am sorry I can't help you with this. I am currently trying to work with Scrivener as an alternative to Word. This application does not have a plug-in for reference managers, and I assume that would be the same for Roam and Obsidian. I've tried some things with different reference managers, but they all sucked and there was way too many friction to use on a daily base. I will keep looking into this, and will focus on this while trying out Roam and Obsidian. I'll let you know if I find something useful. ;) Thank you again!

[@mirosoares]

@@FleurGLHelmink Hi Fleur, Thank you for the feedback :-) It is interesting that your are trying Roam. I am quite impressive how this app just came out and a lot of people is talking about it. Just after getting to know Roam I fount out about Obsidian. It is a very similar app, with the advantage of being free. (It also have a maybe little nicer interface). About exporting from Mendeley: yes, it would be great to have a text-base format. But I am actually running to trouble to even get the pdf export right. Mine doesn't work. I will have to run more tests later. If it would work I could at least select all the texts in the pdf and copy. But, as it doesn't work, I have to copy note by note, which it is not an option since they are far too many. I am also using Scrivener, which is a great app. But I am mainly using it to organize ideas for projects and film scripts. When it comes to write papers, I like word better. First, because it is not bad actually. But specially because the connection of Word with Mendeley is essential for me. Anyway, let's keep trying to figure out good ways to collect information, research and write. It was nice to exchange these words. We keep talking. Cheers.

[@krishnamoorthy4629]

❤ from India. Thank you Fleur

[@techtimes1985]

Can you please suggest me how to organise huge pdf files stored on my laptop? Is there any software?

[@gordonjuliankohn3735]

Great Video - Update: Mendeley iPad app is retired.

[@omjeegupta4469]

Do we have plugin for mendeley in pages?

[@malaisamysivakumar6016]

thanks a lot madam

[@xolanivanda185]

This is great staff and found it helpful, thank you very much. The background music is too much. I have to keep rewinding the video clip just to keep up.

[@yanasazalli1694]

I also like mendeley because it has proper android and ios app. However, they have removed the mobile app already! I cry! Mendeley now just available on desktop and web version. Huhu

[@a22258461]

I like the background music

[@crystalk3421]

Anyone know whether EndNote student is truly a once off purchase? I have heard that after about two years you need a software update and in order to get it you have to pay for another license? Can't find precise info about this one their website

[@gold9994]

Ask your school for a new license. They usually send out newest licenses every year.

[@haufaahussain2987]

Hi, Dose any of those programs support tablets, s pen or apple pencil ?

[@FleurGLHelmink]

Hi Haufaa, thanks for your question! Until recently, Mendeley had an mobile app, but they have removed it. Zotero is currently working on their iOS app (it is in beta), and as far as I am aware, you can use Apple Pencil within the app. Hope this helps! Have a great day :)

[@haufaahussain2987]

@@FleurGLHelmink This was very helpful, thanks🌹

[@xcuite5493]

can I ask what is the background music ?

[@abdoulieb.jallow996]

i am using mac now but i find it difficult to upload my PDFs ? Any help

[@nancycherry9745]

How do you actually cite from Mendeley?

[@MisbahSheykh]

Thank you 🌹 I'm from Pakistan... it's really Informative for me

[@bosun4702]

Very nice intro and video. 102 liked and no dislike, good job. The video is a bit TL;DR tho, phd are too busy to follow it all the way. I prefer to just buy Readcube for 3$/month.haha

[@genenezewdu3455]

wow i can't tell you how i had watch attract-fully especially at stating point.

[@suvendroseal1724]

Wish you come back with more videos.

[@Stormbrise]

Mendeley should be your last resort for a citation manager, they just locked me out of my library after 4+ years and 300+ articles that I have collected from their chat support associates. Plus it is buggy as hell with the program not accepting passwords over multiple applications from their desktop application, their mobile apps, and their web browser. These bugs are so old and date back years, which they obviously are too cheap to hire anyone to fix them, nor do they seem to care.

[@jfjoubertquebec]

Google docs work fine for documents under 40 pages. 100 pages... horrendous!

[@justbelit]

thank you for the tips. may I suggest lowering the background music while speaking please.

[@ananthakrishnan1219]

Mendeley just notified that it will be discontinuing the mobile app for both Android and IOS on 15 March 2021

[@AbdullahAlwazan]

Shout out to the ones who felt betrayed by Mendeley IOS app removal

[@billkuo1]

zotero has linux app as well

[@pinakmiku4999]

Mendeley ipad app is gone now. :(

[@justthewayyouare168]

Mendeley is not available for ipad now!!!!

[@antonioliriololi]

Citavi was the Best until it was sold to QSR