Mendeley vs. refbase vs. Zotero

Mendeley Desktop used to be a decent software, and comparatively one of the best among Reference Managers. The new online version is beyond expectations

Zotero is well suited for any researcher, student or writer that wants to easily cite sources for web platforms that do not have easy citing tools integrated within the website. There are many browser plug-ins built for Zotero that allow users to click a button directly from the source into the main software and from there can be more organized for citation export. Zotero doesn't work well if you open an external PDF from a website as it cannot pull author information correctly from a PDF source.

Incentivized

• Easy to use interface
• The use of font size and style makes information easily discoverable within the article previews
• Drag-and-drop functions make article indexing particularly simple

Incentivized

• Zotero, when paired with the Zotfile plugin, makes it incredibly easy to index sources and documents on a project-by-project basis. Users can store document files locally in a Zotero project filesystem, or merely store links to files stored elsewhere.
• Zotero plays extremely nicely with PDF documents, thanks again to the Zotfile plugin: I can highlight sections of a PDF article's text and Zotero indexes these "pull quotes" in a searchable and well-organized manner for easy extraction when it comes time to synthesize my sources into a new paper.
• Zotero automates the production of properly-formatted references (including APA, MLA, Chicago, and others), making it a breeze to create accurate and complete bibliographies.
• Zotero's library system provides a straightforward graphical user interface to manage multiple research projects and associated files, including the ability to easily add items to a project by ISBN, DOI, PMID, and arXiv IDs.

Incentivized

• In my opinion, terrible web-based function in the new version
• Very difficult to annotate and search in PDF's
• New version removed many previous functions

• Libre office integration was iffy
• Using different word processors (i.e, Word, then Google Docs on the same file) can "break" embedded citations.

Incentivized

Zotero is a fantastic software for researchers. We do pay for 6 GB of storage for each user, so their libraries can be backed to the cloud beyond the 300 MB of allowed free storage. It's low-cost, or can be free if you don't opt into that version. No other citation manager comes even close to Zotero in its capabilities, user-friendly nature, and cost, nor do they innovate their features constantly like Zotero and have open source support online

Incentivized

once you adapt to the interface, which could feel a bit outdated and old school, its incredible intuitive. An aesthetic improvement could make it reach a whole other level, just if it does not lose any of its usability features. Its quite intuitive and the learning curve is very short.

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Always available. I have it downloaded on my desktop and it opens quickly/immediately, holds open the articles I was reading on the page I was at, and is always ready-to-go for something like Word integration for adding citations

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Everything loads shockingly quickly. PDFs open much faster in Zotero than they do in Adobe Acrobat, all changes to PDFs are saved, the citation manager opens relatively quickly in Word, the tool updates with the online Zotero interface and automatically syncs seamlessly

Incentivized

There are a lot of references that do a good job troubleshooting, although I am not sure there is a direct number to an actual person.

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I have never used Zotero support. I can answer the questions I need to from googling or finding others who have asked my same question in the Zotero support community forums

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I was not involved with the implementation

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Microsoft EndNote. Mendeley has better user interface and is able to store, sort and organize a large number of articles effectively. Also can import and extract information from citations from articles online without the entire full text pdf availability. Can be used and accessed from portable devices such as iPads and mobile phones as well.

Incentivized

Zotero is much less prone to glitches than Mendeley, and has much easier to use web extensions and word processor plugins. I found Zotero easy and intuitive to use

Incentivized

All features of Zotero have always worked just fine to me. In my many years using it, I've never run into issues. And when I do want to maximize my use of some feature or learn more, the product support communities are helpful. It's an extremely consistent, reliable software

Incentivized

Skipping - did not work with their professional services for my purchase

Incentivized

• It is great that for instance, you download the paper you need once, and share it with your entire team.
• You can present your annotation with the team!

Incentivized

• More Credibility on Our Online Posts that is Informational
• Less Chances of Potential Legal Issues When Writing
• Less Time Spent Grabbing Sources from Browser History When Researching

Incentivized