Software for science reference management

It is a common task that can become a struggle for scientists to collect, organise, and cite references. Several pieces of software have been made over the years to help us with those activities. If you know any please share them here with your comments on usability, features, and reliability.

Cross-platform bibliography solutions

• Bibus - opensource bibliography manager similar to EndNote for RefMan (Mac, Win, Linux)
• Zotero - Firefox extension to help collect, manage, and cite references
• CiteULike - online bibliography management (see also Wikipedia entry on CiteULike)

Reference software for the Mac

• BibDesk (BibTex reference database w PubMed download, free)
• Skim - PDF reader and annotation software (free)
• Papers (bibliography software by MekenTosj, shareware)
• Endnote was also ported to the Mac but has been more or less buggy during recent version history; also different library and search windows cause a lot of screen clutter
• add your favorite here with a comment

Reference software for the PC

• Endnote by Thomson Scientific (see wikipedia)
• Reference Manager also by Thomson Scientific (see wikipedia)
• add your favorite here with a comment

Reference software on Linux/UNIX

• LaTeX together with BibTeX
• add your favorite here with a comment

See also

• Computing - categorised list of software
• Biosoftware for Mac
• Searching the literature

External links

Wikipedia related topics

• wikipedia:Comparison of reference management software

External software comparison pages

• very detailed comparison of Library Master, ProCite, EndNote, Reference Manager, Papyrus, Biblioscape, Bookends
• comparison of Endnote, Endnote Web, Reference Manager, and RefWorks