Citation Management Tools

This guide includes information about citation management tools, or applications used to organize your references, generate bibliographies, and collaborate with others.

About citation management tools

What are citation managers and generators?

Citation managers save and organize your references more efficiently, especially for longer projects. Use a citation manager to automatically create citations or lists of references (bibliographies) in different citation styles, insert citations into your paper, share your research, and collaborate in groups. You should always check all citation elements for missing or erroneous parts.

ASU Library supports three citation managers:

By contrast, citation generators create or generate individual citations in a specific style such as MLA or APA for immediate use.

Compare citation managers

	Zotero	Mendeley	EndNote
Versions	One version	One version	Two versions: EndNote Basic EndNote Desktop (gives access to EndNote Online)
Cost	Zotero is free.	Mendeley is free.	EndNote Basic is free. Students can get EndNote Desktop for a discounted price of $115.95.
How to Get It	Create an account and then download Zotero.	Sign in to Mendeley to create an account.	Sign in for EndNote Basic. This link will take you to a page to buy EndNote Desktop. Students can register for a discounted version.
Storage Space	300 MB (additional storage can be purchased)	2 GB	2 GB with EndNote Basic; unlimited with EndNote Desktop
Citation Styles	Thousands	Thousands	21 with EndNote Basic; thousands with EndNote Desktop
Cloud/Desktop	Both	Both	EndNote Basic is online only; EndNote Desktop/Online is both
Platform	PC, Mac, and Linux	PC, Mac, and Linux	PC; works for Mac but has some issues; no Linux
Technical Support	User community support	User community support and limited technical support from Mendeley	Professional technical support from Clarivate Analytics for EndNote Desktop
Collaboration	References can be shared through public or private group libraries.	References can be shared through public or private group libraries.	EndNote Basic: References can be shared in private group libraries. EndNote Desktop: References can be shared with or without PDFs.
Mobile Options	Various options	Apps for iOS and Android	iPad app
PDFs and Files	PDFs can be added to citations along with notes and other attachments, citation data can be retrieved from PDFs	PDFs can be organized and annotated, citation data can be retrieved from PDFs, PDFs can be shared in private groups	EndNote Basic: PDFs cannot be added. EndNote Desktop: PDFs can be embedded with citations.
After You Leave ASU	No change	No change	No change