Almost two years ago, I put up a quick mention about how much I enjoy using Endnote as a citation management software. That opinion hasn’t changed at all. If anything, I have increasingly enjoyed being able to use it, as this year, the Thomson-Reuters opted to add major improvements to the latest version of Endnote, rather than releasing a new version. Great for us! We get some new features, without the extra cost. One of my favorite features added was a quick search (it was about stinking time!). You can do simple, fast searches in any reference field. There is even a pretty neat highlighting feature to see where your search terms come up.
It certainly isn’t perfect though- if you edit anything in a reference, the search is cancelled, which is certainly annoying. There are some issues I’ve come across, for example Endnote always seems to think I have references that have not been updated with their servers, so when I close the program, it prompts me to sync each time. Hopefully it will get a pretty thorough working over in the next iteration.
One thing that was a bit strange to me at first was the new “read/unread” feature. I didn’t quite know what to make of it initially, but over time it has become exceedingly useful. I am able to keep track of the many papers I’m using for my dissertation, and it has made it easier to maintain a (mostly) electronic library of journal articles, rather than printing reams upon reams of pages.
As for whether Endnote is still better than the other sofware out there, I am still biased toward Endnote. Admittedly, I haven’t tried out Mendeley or Zotero recently (although the Mendeley social aspect is pretty cool!). I did try Citavi about a year ago- wasn’t a fan. Perhaps the others have gotten better since I last tried them. Mendeley had a really slick UI, but it really struggled with my large library. Zotero too. It is possible that has changed. I suppose after a point, you end up investing so much time and effort getting settled into a program, it makes it difficult to switch, although is that sunk cost fallacy talking?
I still recommend Endnote to lots of people. I have had a great experience working with it, and it certainly saves me a ton of time. I have become the designed “Endnote Guy” at ETSU, since I have given a few seminars on it, and expound on it’s use so often. I think it is worth the time.