Manage Citations with Mendeley and Zotero: Home

Citation Management Tools are bibliographic tools that help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share resources.

This guide will help you choose a citation management tool and get started with your account and installation.

Compare Mendeley and Zotero:

• Summary
• The Basics
• How to Create an Account & Install
• Technical Compatibility & Requirements
• Sharing & Collaborating

Take a live online Zotero workshop:

• Register for Zotero: Create a bibliography the easy way

Create a quick citation or bibliography:

• ZoteroBib
• Citation Builder

Both Mendeley & Zotero:

• store references in your account  
• format bibliographies and in-text citations in many citation styles
• add notes about resources
• insert citations into MS Word documents
• save PDFs to your account
• organize your references in folders or using tags
• sync across devices
• can be used after you leave the university (Use a non-SUNY Empire email address to register)

Create an account:

Mendeley:

1. Click Create a free account on the website.
2. Provide your contact details and create a password.
   • Do not select "Sign in via your institution." It doesn't work for SUNY Empire.
3. You will receive an email confirmation from Elsevier, the owner of Mendeley. 

Zotero:

1. Register for a free account
2. Fill out the registration form and security CAPTCHA. 
3. You will receive an email confirmation from Zotero. 

Install:

Mendeley:

• Download Reference Manager for Desktop
• Install Web Importer for your web browser
• Install Mendeley Cite for MS Word

Zotero:

• Download Zotero on your computer
  • View directions for each operating system
• Install Zotero Connector for your web browser
• Install Mobile apps (optional)
• Installation of Zotero word processor plugin should be automatic when you first start Zotero on your computer

Mendeley:

• Works on Mac, Windows 7 or later, Linux (64-bit)
• Uses Web Importer for all major web browsers
• Mendeley Cite Add-on for Microsoft Word
• Only 3rd party apps are available for iOS and Android.
• Support & Help Information

Zotero:

• Works on Mac, Windows, & Linux (32-bit and 64-bit)
• Zotero Connector add-on works with Firefox, Google Chrome, Edge, and Safari. 
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android are available.
• The word processor plugins are bundled with Zotero and should be installed automatically for each supported word processor on your computer when you first start Zotero.
• Zotero's Help Documentation

Mendeley Groups:

Zotero Shared Libraries: