Literature management: 5 alternatives to Citavi
Related Videos: Personal Knowledgebase I - Comparing Mendeley, Zotero, Evernote & Citavi (March 2024).
Citavi is probably the best known software for literature management. However, there are also strong alternatives on the market. We'll tell you what these are in this practical tip.
1. Citavi alternative: Zotero - the entry-level program for literature management
The literature software Zotero is extremely intuitive to use and therefore particularly suitable for beginners - no matter in which subject they research.
- Especially if you work with a comparatively small collection of literature, Zotero is recommended.
- You can work with Zotero on all common operating systems. There are even solutions for mobile use - for example "PaperShip".
- Zotero is free to use.
- Via a browser extension, literature data can be imported directly into the program from the Internet. This is particularly practical since database research from within the program itself is not possible.
- Disadvantage: If you have saved PDFs in the program, you cannot edit them. You have to make your notes in a separate program.
2. Mendeley - the cloud-based quote all-rounder
- With the free Mendeley package, you get 2 GB of storage space in the cloud. Should it be something more, Mendeley Ltd. offers Storage packages that you can purchase.
- Mendeley also supports all common operating systems. You can also access your literature on the go via an iOS app.
- Mendeley not only synchronizes metadata via the cloud, but entire documents. However, please note that the free version only has 2 GB of storage space.
- Disadvantage: Different literature works cannot be linked with each other via Mendeley. Searches cannot be saved either.
3. Colwiz - literature software for all types of users
The literature management software Colwiz is offered by an Oxford spin-off. It is interesting for all user groups:
- Colwiz can be used on all platforms, whereby the operation is aimed at Mac users. The user guidance is very intuitive. There are also apps for iOS and Android
- Cooperation tools are offered to you within the program. For example, you can maintain a calendar, use shared memory, discuss in groups or create your own profile.
- Colwiz is free, but you can store a maximum of 5000 references. A maximum of 2 GB of your data is stored on the web. It is not possible to expand your quota as part of a subscription.
- Colwiz's system performance appears to be comparatively unstable. The software tends to crash and there are occasional serving overloads.
- Colwiz also does not check whether you have duplicates in your literature database. It can happen that you have saved the same document several times in your database and possibly annotated it differently.
4. Endnote - powerful literature management from Thomson-Reuters
Endnote is a commercial literature management system from the information service provider Thomson-Reuters. If you choose this, you will need a relatively long training period. The application thanks you, however, with functions such as automatic PDF import.
- The free version of Endnote is limited to 50, 000 data records and 2 GB of cloud storage. In addition, there are only 20 citation styles to choose from and the program can only be searched from 6 databases.
- The Thomson Reuters software is not available for Linux systems. However, there is an iOS app.
- Endnote's user guidance is not very intuitive. First time users need a lot of time to familiarize themselves with the many functionalities of the program.
- Disadvantage: With Endnote you can share bibliographic data with other users, but not documents. You will not find any other communication options with other users in the software.
5. JabRef - the LaTeX specialist among bibliography applications
JabRef is a free, open source literature management. It is particularly suitable for LaTeX fans. This software also has a free web service.
- JabRef is platform independent, meaning that it can be used on all common computer operating systems. However, the literature management is not optimized for use on mobile devices. It can only be used with Windows 8 tablets.
- The open source code has the advantage that many developers can work on the software. This is not least reflected in the variety of languages that JabRef uses.
- With JabRef you can neither share your documents with others nor edit them together. It is also not intended that you communicate with other researchers within the software.
- The search function only searches through the stored reference data, but not the texts of the uploaded PDFs. A full text search is therefore not possible.