Citation Software Recommendations?

[Eigen]

And if, say, I am using EndNote X3 and I want update it to X5 - do I have to pay for that or it's only this one sum (around $100, you wrote earler) that I pay when I buy any version that is out there, and then all updates are free?..

Just like any program (MS Office, Adobe Illustrator, etc) you have to pay to upgrade to a more recent version (Office 2000 to 2003 to 2007, etc). You usually can get the upgrade cheaper than the base price of the new program, however.

You'll discover the advantages of having it stored online once you have a hard drive randomly fail and you lose a year's worth of references.

As for exporting, you can export your EndNote library to Zotero or vice versa. Same with Mendeley. So, it's not like you're stuck with one program, unless you really want to be.

Exactly. My Endnote library currently "lives" in Dropbox, and I also back it up several other places. Losing it would be horrible! Its one of the reasons I'm so happy about Endnote Web now including syncing for all attached documents, and not just the citations.

Edited July 26, 2011 by Eigen

[Strangefox]

Question for people using Mendeley or Zotero: is there a way to add fields to the entry type templates? Like in the case of a translation of a book, and the original, in one entry (which neither of the two supports, as-is), or the series and series number of a book (which Zotero includes by default but Mendeley doesn't).

Not sure I understand you correctly... You mean more notes where you can type in info for one reference? If you click on the name of a book/article in the middle section and choose "Add note" you can add as many notes to one book/article as you wish.

[Sparky]

Not sure I understand you correctly... You mean more notes where you can type in info for one reference? If you click on the name of a book/article in the middle section and choose "Add note" you can add as many notes to one book/article as you wish.

Hmm...yeah, I've been using the 'notes' section to store the extra info (in Zotero, b/c it has space for series and series #, which Mendeley doesn't seem to have). But since at least some of the point of citation software is saving yourself the trouble of formatting when you actually end up referencing the work in question, I'm just being all lazy-like and wanting the program to do all the work for me.

[Eigen]

I think the question revolves around adding an actual custom field/reference type, such that you can code automatic citations to take advantage of it.

Sadly, I'm not familiar enough with either program to help- I know how to do it in Endnote, but not the others.