RefWorks or EndNote?
Both RefWorks and EndNote will help you manage your citations and both will
help you write and format your paper or manuscript. Which tool you choose
will depend on the scale of your project and the amount of collaboration
involved. EndNote allows greater flexibility and more sophisticated writing
tools. RefWorks is easy to use, is available anywhere through the Web, and
is perfect for collaborative projects. Since citations are easily exchanged
between the two applications EndNote users can take advantage of RefWorks’
portability and sharing tools. RefWorks is free for authorized Harvard users;
EndNote must be purchased by individuals or departments.
The charts below illustrate how the features of the two programs stack
up. New filters, citations styles, and program features are continuously
being added to both bibliographic managers, so please visit their web
sites (RefWorks | EndNote)
for the most recent product updates. The comparison data provided below
is current as of 08/25/2006.
| Writing |
RefWorks |
EndNote |
| Format citations and bibliographies |
Yes |
Yes |
| Word Processor Compatibility |
Write-N-Cite works with MS Word; Can format
RTF, HTML, and OpenOffice .odt documents with manual citation
insertion. |
MS Word; Word Perfect; RTF |
| Instant formatting in Word documents |
No |
Yes |
| Manuscript templates |
No |
Yes |
| Manage figures and charts |
No |
Yes |
| Special Characters |
Yes; Unicode compliant |
Yes; Unicode compliant |
| Number of journal styles |
> 700; can create custom styles |
> 2000; can create custom styles |
| Editing and creating styles |
Yes |
Yes |
| Sharing & Collaboration |
RefWorks |
EndNote |
| Share citations through the Web |
Yes. RefShare allows a user to make read-only RefWorks folders
available through a publicly accessible URL. |
No |
| Store citations on the Web |
Yes |
No |
| Share data between EndNote and RefWorks |
Yes. Must use RIS format to export to EndNote. |
Yes |
| Database Features |
RefWorks |
EndNote |
| Number of references |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
| Maximum reference size |
Notes, abstract, user definable fields can contain up to 1 Gigabyte. |
Each field can contain up to 64 KB of text. 1 image file in
the image field (which is stored outside the library). |
| Number of fields |
Varies with reference type; ‘journal’ has 47, including 5 user
customizable fields. |
52 fields, including 7 customizable fields. |
| Number of reference types |
31; Includes types for both audio and sound recording, more electronic
forms, and scores. |
41, including 3 user-defined types; accommodates government publications,
richer collection of online types. |
| Journal title abbreviations |
As imported; must edit manually |
Manage automatically with term lists |
| Linking to PDF documents |
Yes. Open URL with Find It @ Harvard links |
Yes. Open URL |
| Spell check |
No |
Yes |
| Importing references |
RefWorks |
EndNote |
| Direct Export from databases |
Yes. Direct export is available with databases from EBSCO, OVID,
CSA, and others. |
Yes. Direct export is available with databases from EBSCO, Web
of Science, OVID and others. |
| Number of database filters |
> 870 |
> 580 |
| Editing and creating filters |
No |
Yes |
| Search database or catalog from within program |
Yes. PubMed, HOLLIS and other library catalogs |
Yes. PubMed, HOLLIS, other library catalogs. Others with individually
purchased accounts. |
|
Thanks to Paul Bain, Reference and Education Services Librarian at Countway
Library of Medicine for contributing this section of the guide.
