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Citation Management Software

This page provides links to guides on citation management software that is supported by the MSU Libraries.

What is citation management software?

Citation management software allows you to create your own personal database of references. These references can be imported from research databases or manually entered. When you are writing a paper, you can then get citations from the reference management software and format them in hundreds of different citation styles.

Which citation management programs are supported by the MSU Libraries?

Comparison of Citation Management Software

Feature Mendeley
(Institutional)
Mendeley
(Standard)
Zotero EndNote 20
Desktop
EndNote Basic
Cost Free for current MSU faculty, staff, and students Free Free See Barnes & Noble’s ThinkEDU.com for latest prices. A free 30 day trial also available. Free
Access Options Desktop and Web Desktop and Web Desktop and Web Desktop and Web Web
Personal
Storage Allocation
100GB 2 GB 300 MB Unlimited 50,000 references; 2 GB attachments
Total Shared Storage 100 GB 100 MB Based on group owner storage Unlimited 2 GB
Additional Storage Available for a Charge N/A Only for Personal Storage, Not Shared Storage Click here for details. Yes. Click here to see plans and rates. N/A N/A
Private Groups Unlimited 5 Unlimited 1 N/A
Maximum Group Members 100 25 Unlimited 100 N/A
Allows annotations of PDFs Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Desktop Version Required to Work with Word Processors Yes Yes Yes ? No
Microsoft Word Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
LibreOffice Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Allows reference list for each chapter No No No Yes No
Citation Styles 8,500+ 8,500+ 8,500+ 6,000+ 21
Operating Systems for Desktop Version Windows, Mac, Linux Windows, Mac, Linux Windows, Mac, Linux Windows, Mac Windows, Mac
Mobile App Available
(Allows managing citations, but not working in Word)
Not available after March 15, 2021 Not available after March 15, 2021 No iPad iPad