Website

https://www.endnote.com

https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager/

https://www.zotero.org

Reasons for use

Offers more features than Mendeley or Zotero

May be suitable for SA Health staff who desire reference management software on a personal device

May be suitable for SA Health staff who desire reference management software on a personal device

Cost

None for SA Health staff: you can request installation from Digital Health SA

Freemium model: software is free to use, costs apply for online storage over 2GB

Freemium model: software is free to use, costs apply for online storage over 300MB

Storage

Unlimited reference storage locally and in Endnote Online

A mendeley.com account provides 2GB of free online storage for your references. Use of Mendeley’s online storage is required for the product to function properly. 

A zotero.com account provides 300MB of free online storage for your references. No limit or cost for references stored locally, but if you choose not to sync with a zotero.com account for online storage, you are limited to using Zotero on one computer. Once you sync to Zotero’s servers, cloud storage limitations will activate.

Can be installed on

Digital Health SA can install on SA Health computers only, not personal devices

Any computer. Installation on an SA Health computer requires permission from Digital Health SA.

Any computer. Installation on an SA Health computer requires permission from Digital Health SA.

Operating systems

Windows, MacOS

Windows, MacOS, Linux

Windows, MacOS, Linux

Online components

EndNote online can be used as an adjunct to the desktop product. An online account with limited functionality is available for free (EndNote Basic).

Need to sync with an online account at mendeley.com

Can sync with an online account at zotero.com

Apps

iPad app available

iPhone and iPad apps available

Third party apps available

Word processor compatibility

MS Word, OpenOffice, LibreOffice

Ms Word, LibreOffice

Ms Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice

Citation plug-in for word processor

‘Cite While You Write’ plug-in

‘Mendeley Cite’ or ‘Citation Plug-In’

Plug-ins are bundled with Zotero and should be automatically installed on your supported Word Processor

Citation styles 

Over 7000 styles available

Over 7000 free styles available

Over 9000 free styles available

Ability to import references from bibliographic databases 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Ability to capture citation information from webpages

Yes, with ‘Capture Reference’ browser extension

Yes, with ‘Mendeley Web Importer’ browser extension

Yes, with the ‘Zotero Connector’ browser extension

File attachment options

Files can be attached to references (most commonly, PDFs)

Files can be attached to references (most commonly, PDFs)

Files can be attached to references (most commonly, PDFs)

Ability to annotate and highlight PDFs

Yes

Yes: contains an integrated PDF viewer

Yes: Zotero will open PDFs in your computer’s default PDF viewer

Organisation options

Users can create groups and group sets for their references

Users can create folders to organise their references

Users can create folders to organise their references

Collaboration options

Can share reference groups/libraries with EndNote online

Ability to create public groups

Ability to create public groups