Calling all librarians...

June 11, 2014 4:00 PM

I am looking for a reference manager that can integrate with MS Word, can attach pdfs to the references, and can be accessible maybe over the web to my colleagues in different countries. Basically EndNote, but with cloud storage and remote access. Does this exist?

EndNote is what we have now, and we use it both as a reference manager and as a pdf library. It works awesome. However, I have a lot of colleagues around the world (50-100) that want to browse our library and download pdfs without having to install EndNote, and hopefully without having to connect to our department servers. (It is very slow, remote connection to the department servers.) If there were a reference manager that could still integrate with Word, could still attach pdfs to references, and could be accessed freely by permitted users over the internet, that would be perfect. Being able to easily import our 7000+ references from EndNote to the new program/service would be a huge plus.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

posted by pH Indicating Socks to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Best answer: Zotero can do this. I think Mendeley might be even better, though, as you wouldn't have to set up a shared synced library for your colleagues, but rather just a group on Mendeley that they can join.
posted by lollusc at 4:25 PM on June 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Wikipedia has this massive comparison of reference managers page with tables comparing features and export/import file formats. It looks like Zotero, Mendeley, Papers, and a couple others can import from EndNote.
posted by clavicle at 4:59 PM on June 11, 2014

My university has a license for RefWorks. I've been pretty pleased with how it integrates with databases and Word, and have found its organizational tools to be way better than Endnote. Switching my ~1000 references over from Endnote was no problem. Librarian husband says that PDFs can be attached but he's not sure if the process can be automated. I'm not sure about relative prices but apparently there's a "light" version.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:07 PM on June 11, 2014

I tepidly recommend Mendeley for all the remote/cloud type sharing, as it's light years better than endnote, free and only slightly hinky. It's still not my favorite, but it swallowed a massive endnote library in one bite and synced it across three machines without complaint. (My complaints are more on the word processor interaction side).
posted by Cold Lurkey at 6:05 PM on June 11, 2014

damnit, i feel like jessamyn would totally have a handle on this question. *sigh*
posted by ovenmitt at 7:08 PM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

damnit, i feel like jessamyn would totally have a handle on this question. *sigh*

She's not dead, she's just not a moderator!
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:22 PM on June 11, 2014

What version of Endnote do you all have? If you have version X5 or higher, you should be able to do all this with Endnote Web (which you automatically have access to if you have the Endnote desktop software...you just need to create an account.)

You can transfer references back and forth between the two environments; the transfer happens on the Endnote side. You can also share "groups" of references with colleagues who also have Endnote Web, anywhere in the world. Or, download a file a references and share with people who don't use this software. Earlier versions of Endnote (X4 and earlier) do not let you have an Endnote Web account that lets you attach PDFs.

(I used to work for the company that owned these products and I provided training on them both for many years. I could recite this stuff in my sleep. It's been nearly a couple of years since I left, though, so my memories of reference software are fading fast...)
posted by medeine at 8:55 PM on June 11, 2014

Yes, Endnote web will do everything you need.
posted by tinkletown at 1:19 AM on June 12, 2014

Best answer: If you share references in EndNote Web it doesn't share the file attachments, just the reference information.
posted by kbuxton at 10:48 PM on June 13, 2014

Response by poster: I tried out Zotero and Mendeley, and both can do everything I wanted, and both are much better than EndNote.

Mendeley I thought was a little easier to use -- importing from Endnote was easier, and importing ref info from pdfs was easier -- but Mendeley wants $349 a MONTH for a 30-person group, while Zotero allows unlimited group membership. The only charge in Zotero is for online file storage, and my 7,046-item library (about 7,000 pdfs) comes to $60 a year. Clear winner: Zotero. I made a PowerPoint about how to install and use Zotero, and if anybody wants to see it, shoot me a memail.

Thanks for all your help, everyone!
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 11:02 PM on July 5, 2014