Dr Sujit Kumar Basak, IJRIT-209
International Journal of Research in Information Technology
(IJRIT)
www.ijrit.com ISSN 2001-5569
A Comparison of Reference Management Software: BibTeX and Mendeley
Dr Sujit Kumar Basak
Lecturer, Department of Information Technology, Durban University of Technology Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Abstract
This paper aimed to present a comparison of reference management software between BibTex and Mendeley. This aim is achieved by comparing two software. The main results of this paper were concluded by comparing two software based on the experiment. The novelty of this paper is the comparison of reference management software and it has shown that Mendeley reference management software can import more fields from the Google scholar for the researchers. This finding could help to know researchers to use the reference management software.
Keywords: Reference Management Software, Researchers, Comparison.
1. Introduction
The Reference Management Software is used by scholars, scientists, and authors, etc. to keep their records and utilize the bibliographic citation. According to [18], reference management software, also known as citation management software, bibliographic software, personal bibliographic file managers. Bibliographic software helps researchers to construct the customized databases of literature references, insertion of new citations into the documents a seamless operation [17]. [23] Stated that using bibliographic management software individuals or research groups can compile their ongoing record of the relevant research on a topic and they can also combine with the information about the personal or the group publications. [9] Conclude that bibliographic management software is well established among researchers and students to write their academic papers at a time saving tool. [24] Indicated that the purpose of the citation management software is to store, organize, and format references within the manuscript and it has existed since 1980s. According to [10], using reference management tools researchers easily can track of scientific literature which they read and facilitate to edit for scientific paper they write.
2. Problem Statement
According to [15], the accurate reference is very important for researchers when a computer search is needed because incorrect journal title abbreviation or misspelling of the author’s name can cause major obstacles to retrieve information from the computer because the computer cannot recognize any inaccuracies. [1] Indicated based on the 60 reference articles which published in the Internet Journal of Medical Update and found that 10% reference were inaccurate. [19] Assessed 4,851 references from the 93 articles which were published in 1998 and indicated that out of the 93 journals a total of 12 journals were from business and economic journal and researchers concluded that an average of 41.7% of references
Dr Sujit Kumar Basak, IJRIT-210 having at least one error where the majority of the errors pertaining to authors’ names, followed by errors pagination, errors in the article or in the chapter titles. According to [25], in the medical journals 36% of a median prevalence of the citation errors and 20% of median prevalence of quotation errors. [6] Indicated after experimenting the five psychology journals and found that errors in the article title (15%), authors (12%), page numbers (6%), volume numbers (3%), and the journal title (2%). [4] Examined in two radiology journals and indicated that a vast error rate of 2% and a minor error rate of 45% of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), with the radiology have got a major error rate of 2% and the minor error rate of 23%.
3. Aim and Objectives
The aim of this paper is to compare the reference management software between BibTeX and Mendeley to see which software produces systematic review with more accuracy for researchers. This aim is achieved through the specific objectives: to identify which software is more accurate in terms of importing more fields information in terms of citations, reference, and the ease of use.
3. Literature Review
The aim of this section is to present existing literature on a systematic review for the reference management software through electronic database searching, duplicate records, identification, elimination, etc. [16]
Conducted a survey based study on 78 researchers and they concluded that 79.5% had used the reference management software to make their review. [22], [11-12], [5], and [13] Indicated that reference management software is a very important tool to manage reference.
3.1 BibTeX (Product Information)
BibTeX was created by Oren Patashnik in 1988 [21]. BibTeX is a mystery to researchers who are outside of mathematics and science and it can also be converted to a bibliography of any format, using the third- party converter [20]. According to [3], the BibTeX brings the logical markup to the bibliographies because of the external bibliographic database which contain only bibliographic data and it is the first step to separate the content from the style. According to [7], BibTeX is a tool that used to automate the list of references. It can automate the tedious tasks and can apply generic markup to the bibliographic data.
Furthermore, [7] also stated that BibTeX take care in terms of sorting bibliographic entries either alphabetically or as they appear in the text.
3.2 Mendeley (Product Information)
Mendeley is a web-social-oriented software and it is available online for users. It came out in the market in 2008 [10]. [2] and [8] Indicated that Mendeley provides desktop version as well as the web version. [14]
Concluded that Mendeley can import PDF metadata, automatic naming and filing of documents, opening of the multiple PDF’s in a single application which are navigable by the tab, ability to highlight and finally annotate PDF’s within the application.
4. Methodology
The keywords used Academic Workload and Quality in this study is to import references from the Google scholar. At first, articles were picked up and used both reference management software such BibTeX and Mendeley. Using two software, the first article from the Google scholar was imported. The article name was Academic Workload and Quality. Both the software were downloaded and installed on the desktop PC and the data was imported from the Google scholar based on the same article.
Dr Sujit Kumar Basak, IJRIT-211
4. Results
Table 1 shows that the reference management software such as BibTeX and Mendeley are very similar in most cases in relation with importing data from the Google scholar, but in some cases are different such as Publisher, URL, and DOI. Results show that BibTeX can import more fields than Mendeley. However, it is noted that this two software BibTeX and Mendeley downloaded and installed in the PC for the experiment to import references from the Google scholar without customizing or changing any application or selecting any options of the software. This is summarized as below in Table 1:
Table1. Imported and Non-imported Fields from the Google Scholar
Fields BibTeX Mendeley
Author 1 1
Title 1 1
Year 1 1
Journal name 1 1
Volume no. 1 1
Issue no. 1 1
Pages 1 1
Publisher 1 0
ISSN no. 0 0
URL 1 0
DOI 1 0
1= Imported Fields from the Google Scholar 0= Not Imported Fields from the Google Scholar
Fig. 1 Comparison of the two reference managemnet software
Figure 1 shows the graphical presentation of the comparison of the two reference management software.
Dr Sujit Kumar Basak, IJRIT-212 Fig. 2 Fields imported using BibTeX reference managemnet software
The figure 2 shows that the reference management software BibTeX did not import one field from the Google scholar which is ISSN number. On the other hand it has imported Author, Title, Year, Journal name, Volume no., Issue no., Pages, Publisher, URL, and DOI.
Fig. 3 Fields imported usign Mendeley reference management software
The figure 3 shows that the Mendeley reference management software did not import Publisher, ISSN no., URL, and the DOI. However, on the other hand, the Mendely software imported the following fileds:
Author, Title, Year, Journal name, Volume no., Issue no., and Pages.
Dr Sujit Kumar Basak, IJRIT-213
5. Conclusion and Recommendation
This study has revealed that the reference management software tool is widely used by researchers and BibTeX can import more fields from the Google scholar. Furthermore, it also shows that it can make more accurate referencing and citation than manual systems among researchers because the quality of systematic review usually enhances the reference management tool usage. Lastly, this study, however, recommends the researchers should use the reference management tool in terms of referencing and citation.
References
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