Storing and organizing your research sources can be a breeze with all the different reference management tools available today, but finding the one that will suit your needs can be challenging. Here is a brief overview of three popular options:

• CiteULike
• Connotea
• Zotero

Both CiteULike and Connotea are web based services that have similar features:

• Browser buttons easily allow you to save references
• Bibliographic information from the web page is automatically recognized
• Allows you to add tags to your own or other entries
• User interface allows you to view, search, and discover other users’ libraries
• No installation of software needed

Connotea appears to offer stronger community features whereas CiteULike is better at obtaining bibliographic information.

Zotero is another reference management option that allows you to easily store and tag references, but also offers these features:

• Integrated with Microsoft Word and OpenOffice
• Allows you to annotate entries with notes
• Stores a local copy of references in your library, enabling you to work offline
• Formatted citation export

The key difference is that Zotero is a downloadable extension for the open source web browser, Firefox. While Zotero’s ability to capture citation information outperforms the other two tools, it lacks social capabilities so you can’t share your library with others (at least not yet).

For a more thorough look at these tools and a host of others, read the comparison of reference management software article in Wikipedia.

Which reference management tool do you enjoy using (or can’t stand)? Share your experience in the comments below.