Reference Managers that Support Collaborative Research: Dreaming of the Perfect Fit

Abstract

Reference or citation managers aid in capturing and managing citations and associated full text, tracking references and citing them properly in manuscripts, and creating bibliographies. With more features than ever, selecting the most appropriate reference manager can be overwhelming for users and librarians. One common situation in which librarians are asked for advice involves building shared libraries of references to support collaborative group work. This project developed a structured evaluation for comparison of several common citation managers and prototypical use cases to help match features with user needs, preferences, and workflows. As products evolve and needs change, is there a “perfect fit”?

KEYWORDS:

• Bibliographic management
• bibliographic software
• citation managers
• comparison
• EndNote
• F1000 Workspace
• library users
• Mendeley
• reference managers
• reference management software
• reference management systems
• user services

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Kathleen McGraw (retired, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Erica Brody (Virginia Commonwealth University) who were part of the original team that analyzed these products for two earlier poster presentations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lauren Murphree

Lauren Murphree, BA, MSLS ([email protected]) is Graduate Research Assistant, Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 335 S. Columbia Street, Campus Box 7585, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7585.

Mary White

Mary White, MSLS, MSHI, AHIP ([email protected]) is Global Public Health Librarian, Health Sciences Library, and Adjunct at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 335 S. Columbia Street, Campus Box 7585, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7585.

Barbara Rochen Renner

Barbara Rochen Renner, PhD ([email protected]) is Library Services Evaluation Specialist and Liaison, Allied Health Sciences, Health Sciences Library and Adjunct Professor Allied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 335 S. Columbia Street, Campus Box 7585, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7585.