T To write an academic paper, you must include references as a final section which is hard to manage their format and make them in the right order. To handle this issue, some software has been introduced to make it convenient for authors.
EndNote and Mendeley are two popular software used for managing references and citations.
Although they are designed for the same purpose, they are different in some features.
If you want to figure out which is better, EndNote or Mendeley, you are in the right place. This article explores the difference between the EndNote and Mendeley tools.
Join us to learn more about them.
What is the reference software?
The reference tools make authors convenient when gathering, editing, managing, saving, and sharing references.
This comes in handy when you are an author and publish many articles; it helps you save time and manage references in the format according to the journal’s guidelines or your preference.
Which one is better, EndNote or Mendeley?
EndNote and Mendeley offer the same features for managing references and citations, with some differences.
Here is the list of differences between both EndNote and Mendeley that you need to consider before using this software:
- Cost
Although the cost of EndNote and Mendeley may be a minor factor for those who use them in academic institutes, we are exploring it to provide you with comprehensive information about these software options. These programs are not freely available, and you must pay to use them.
The cost of using EndNote varies for students and researchers. As a student, you must pay $115, while as a researcher, you must pay around $250. The upgraded version of EndNote requires an additional $100.
The pricing for Mendeley is evaluated differently. You can use it for free with up to 2 GB of storage. However, for 5 GB to 10 GB of online storage, you must pay $5 to $15.
- Formatting references
When you use EndNote for managing references, you can easily edit the style of references. But for Mendeley users, it is more challenging than EndNote.
You need to apply some extra steps and use a web application that can make styles differently by downloading styles online.
Using EndNote, your citation list will appear automatically at the end of your document while using Mendeley, you need to input the citation list manually.
- PDFs
The cool thing about both software is that you can attach PDFs of articles to references in the library.
While in the Mendeley software, you can open the PDF file in Mendeley and annotate, share with others, and comment.
EndNote software lacks these features and does not offer features related to PDF files like the ones you can find in Mendeley.
- Cite while you write features.
Using EndNote for writing references, you can search for precise keywords and choose the ideal references to import.
This feature is mainly beneficial when you have a keyword relevant to all the papers you want to cite collectively.
However, a disadvantage is that the in-textual content citations are automatically generated once the references are decided on.
Regrettably, there’s no option to include additional references beneath a one-of-a-kind keyword without repeating the citation manner and eventually merging each list of citations.
Using Mendeley, you could look for precise authors or key phrases and add each reference to a collection of citations.
This approach is easy to use compared to Endnote, as no single keyword regularly encompasses all the references in a group.
Typically, we add references by considering the paper title, writer, and keywords, which is faster than Endnote.
- Collaboration
Several authors can create a research paper; each one writes the parts related to their specialty, making it harder to pursue the same format and sorted citations.
You can manage it easily using EndNote or Mendeley, which apply different methods.
In EndNote, you will see a “Travelling Library” section attached to the MS Word file. Sending your file to other authors; while they open the file, they can import their references directly to EndNote.
Mendeley acts differently and has no option like “Travelling Library”. Authors must extract their references from Mendeley and send them to their collaboration.
After receiving the file, they can import their references into the same file.
It could be more challenging compared to EndNote, but with upgrading software, you can benefit from its premium version allowing you to share references through the groups.
Read More: Future work in research paper example
Summing up
Finally, which is better endnote or mendeley?
EndNote and Mendeley are excellent tools for managing and sorting references and citations.
By using these tools, you can simplify the often-challenging process of managing references for papers.
However, it’s important to note that these tools have distinct differences.
In this article, we explore these differences to help you decide which is better, EndNote or Mendeley.
Reading this article will help you make your choice. Please share your preference and reasons in the comment section.
What features are most important to you when choosing a citation management tool: PDF management, citation formatting, collaboration, or integration with other tools?
