Citation / references

Scrivener
,
21

Personally, I am writing my Ph.D. Thesis in Scrivener and managing the bibliography in Tinderbox. In the Github repository linked below, you can check out how I have things set up, should you feel inclined to do so.

Having said that, here is my take on reference managers.

In case you plan on converting your work using Pandoc, I suggest using Bibdesk. It is plain and simple to use, fast, free, open-source, and Applescriptable. Also, you’ll be working the whole time directly with the BibTeX file. In case something is not at the right place and you can’t or won’t fix it using the app, just open the file and make the change right there. Nothing beats this, IMO.

Zotero doesn’t cut it for me because it doesn’t let me choose and input the cite key directly; for that, we need a plug-in which makes it very slow (Better Bibtex, or something akin). (It does now, however, have an interesting pdf reading environment in which it is very easy to interconnect notes, but that is another matter).

I have used JabRef several times and found it good for specific purposes, but, in general, it is very cluttered.

Bookends is an overkill if you don’t need integration with other apps such as Mellel or Word. I find it too loaded with features that I don’t need and somewhat slow for browsing. I keep it installed but don’t use it very often. (Also, updating the app is a pain. Every single time you have to go over to the website, find the link, download, and so on).

Endnote is very expensive and I personally can’t find any reasons to justify the cost. I also find that most of the other options are easier to use.

2 Likes
22

Regarding updating, I have mine set on auto update and it get updated regularly. In fact it updates a bit too often for me so I sometimes delay updating if I am in a project. So may want to check your update settings.

2 Likes
23

…unless it is provided by the university you are at.

1 Like
24

Thank you everyone. I think I’ll reach out to support as well to hear what they recommend. They aren’t responsible for all the third party elements but might have a view.

1 Like
25

@zhdevon - I did ask Mendeley directly recently about support for writing workflows other than Microsoft, and got back a corporate canned reply, “we value our users feedback blah blah blah but at this time” probably written by a bot… Mendeley is Corporate software, designed by a committee of “designers” who have never used bibliography software, pushed by the megalith that is Elsevier to try to catch ‘mindshare’ or whatever marketing lingo drives their purpose. It is the antithesis of carefully crafted software like Scrivener, Tinderbox or Bookends. Good luck!

@bernardo_vasconcelos - Bookends can be auto-updated without effort if you install it with homebrew…

2 Likes
26

@michaelhendrsn - It is probably still costly software, even if the university is footing the bill. (But, hey, great if it works for you).

@Orpheus, @nontroppo - Thanks, I didn’t know this was possible. I haven’t used the app much this past year, so I wonder if this is something recent. Be it as it may, Bookends is good software. It is not my cup of tea right now, but I might come back to it later. One never knows.

It seems I overlooked the fact that the OP is using Windows. Forget everything I said :rofl: Bibdesk, Tinderbox, and Bookends are all macOS apps. In Windows, I would probably use JabRef or Zotero.

27

It is 100% possible to use Zotero with scrivener in Windows. I’m wrapping up my dissertation with 100s of citations at the moment. I even have it set up to pull up the picker directly from Scrivener: no need to drag and drop.

Here is my workflow (including scripts to get it running). It’s a bit of hassle to set up the first time, but after that, it just works. Advantage of my method is that you get live citations at the end in word. Not sure about Mendeley however - for that I wish you luck!

3 Likes
28

Glad you were able to get Zotero working for you. It was driving me mad back in 2017 trying to get it to work on a Mac. It never did.

It does seem to be a major hassle. With BookEnds, it was just plug and play. No muss no fuss.

But at least you got it working. Good luck on your dissertation.

29

A camel, is a “horse” designed by a committee. :rofl:

1 Like
30

If you want to stay on the Windows platform then I would suggest that you try nontroppo’s advice.

31

Interesting !

Vvvvvbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

Apparently I need to write 20 chars

32

If you really want to try something different switch to Mac and use Bookends.

1 Like
33

In general, the recommendation I make to my students is that building up your bibliographic references and notes on academic papers or books that will define your studies is critical to your development, and more than justifies a small financial investment. I know as a student one may feel buying a tool is hard to justify when free “good-enough” options exist, but curating knowledge is hard, and adding more bumps on the road has a price…

Word, a tool that depends on a format monopoly, does not help in any way to curate knowledge or develop long-form work, and imposes significant distractions. It was designed for “shallow” office work. Mendeley is a free corporate tool which (apart from the benefits of integration in the Elsevier walled garden) is devolving its citation system to this minimum denominator, Word. This is a fragile and impoverished environment in which to build an academic project…

5 Likes
34

It is easy to export references from Mendeley to a format that can be imported directly into a decent reference manager. See this web page: https://www.mendeley.com/guides/mendeley-reference-manager/08.-exporting-references.

I would get my material out of Mendeley as fast as possible, and start using something worth having.

35

Time, after all, is money. And the time (and aggravation) that you save by spending the money and getting the right tools will more than pay for itself.

36

You may want to try Nota Bene. I have never used it so don’t know much about it. But it is cross platform and has a built in citation manager and other tools.

37

I tried it once out of curiosity, using cross-over, but I couldn’t get past the Windows 98 GUI and just put it aside.

38

It is a bit long in the tooth. But I still use a pre-windows DOS program that I run off of WIn XP on a VM. It looks antediluvian but it does the job like no other.

1 Like
39

Just for another data-point: I wrote my diss in Scrivener (finished about 5 years ago, so previous version), and then compiled with Latex. BibDesk worked great for a reference manager.
I still use this setup for my academic writing. Scrivener → Latex → compile (in Atom or from the command line, with pdfatex/xelatex + biblatex).
BibDesk is Mac only, but I have heard similarly good things about JabRef.

Latex is indeed a learning curve, but I think people sometimes make it sound more complicated than it really is, at least for the basics. I wrote my first term paper in it after playing around with it for a weekend or so – it probably wasn’t particularly pretty, but it was fine. There is a super good user community for it (referenced above), so basically, whatever question you have, you can be almost sure that someone has an answer to it.

40

The OP’s university may even have a standard LaTeX template set up for their dissertations.