Research Guides: EndNote: Basic Use (2024)

EndNote has a few options for adding references, organizing and accessing references within EndNote, and citing references in Wordand if one discovers a particular methodthrough trial and error, it's easy to settle on a process that may not be best, though I could not say that the following method is the bestmethod.

As I understand at present it is often not possibleto obtain both the reference data and the full text at the same time (in the same request).

The method that does at times get both the reference data and the full text in the same request is importing PDFs. However, there are limitations to this method. Some of these limitations are: the PDFshave to be text searchable (not a scanned or graphical copy; the text has to be highlightable); the PDFhas to have a DOI number appearing early in the PDF (an example DOI is10.1080/02763869.2012.641841). Original copies of articles from before 2000 will not have DOIs; sometimes DOIs might be assigned years after an item is published, however, the DOI would not appear on the original copy and EndNote would not be able to find the reference without seeing the DOI in the PDF. EndNote does not identify the reference data from the PDF; it searches Crossrefand Pubmed for the DOI to obtain the reference data. If the reference cannot be found by the DOI search, EndNote creates a new record for the PDFin the EndNote library with the name of the PDFin angle brackets in the title field with the pdf attached to the record. It has not yet been possible to directly move that pdf to another record (though one could copy the pdf out of the record and then attach it to another reference) or could add the reference data to that record. If the item does have a DOI (perhaps for the case when the pdf is not text searchable, so EndNote could not read the DOI), if you input the DOI in the DOI field of the reference, you can do a Reference Update and EndNotewill be able to search for the reference data (on the PC, select the item in the library (highlight it), click the References menu, then Find Reference Updates).

It would be nice if EndNote could get both the reference data and the pdf at the same time. Maybe this will be possible some day. In order to import a pdf, if the pdfs were obtained by library database searches, then the reference data could have likely been obtained at the time of locating the pdfs. It would still be two steps, getting the reference data and then adding the pdf.

From the perspective of working in the library, direct export seems like the most thorough option--thinking about this from the library perspective. Here one searches library databases (though also Google Scholar and journal websites often have options for exporting references), then exports the references to EndNote. PDFs can then be attached to the references. For adding the pdfs, there are three good options: getting the pdf at the time of getting the reference; or later using EndNote's Find Full Text function to add the pdfs (though it will probably not find all pdfs); and then following up with OpenURL Link searches for references not found using Find Full Text. (These options tend to find only journal articles, not e-books, conference papers, and other types of full text publications.) If OpenURL Link does not provide access to the pdf, one could use the OpenURLLink menu screen to request the article through Get It For Me (the library's interlibrary loan) or make the Get It For Me request in some other way (including by filling out the online request form from one's Get It For Me account).

Databases vary in how they allowcopying of references into EndNote. Here are a few examples for different database vendors.

  • TAMU Libraries' Quick search

    (Quick search is the search field on the libraries' home page)--cross-platform search provided by EBSCO--input a search; from the search results click the blue folder at the right of each item to add it to the folder; click the "Folder View" link at the upper right or the folder icon at the top of the screen; select items to export from the folder and then click the Export link at the right; select "Direct Export in RIS Format"; and then click the Save button; (*) using Firefox on a PC, the references may automatically be copied to EndNote; in some circ*mstances (different browsers or on a Mac), it may be necessary to double-click or open the downloaded file of references using the EndNote application. The result should be the references added to your EndNote library.

  • ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window

    input a search; from the search results, click the checkbox at the left of an item; click the Save icon at the top of the screen; select the RIS option; then click the Continue button. Refer to * section above.

  • WorldCat This link opens in a new window

    (the FirstSearch version of WorldCat)--input a search; from the search results, click the checkbox at the left of an item; click the Export icon at the top of the screen; select "Marked records from this search" and make sure EndNote is selected; then click the Export button. Refer to * section above. WorldCat requires selecting the WorldCat (OCLC) import filter when EndNote begins to import the reference. EndNote should prompt for selecting the filter.

With your Endnote library open, click on

  1. The EndNote File (menu) +Import + either File or Folder (File imports one PDF, Folder imports all PDFsin a folder)
  2. In the Import window that opens, select the file or folder to import
  3. Set the Import Option to PDF
  4. Select options for Duplicates and Text Translation; Next to Duplicates select either “Import All” (imports all references without checking for duplicates), “Discard Duplicates” (EndNote compares some data fields including author, year, and title and when "Discard Duplicates" is selected EndNote does not import duplicates), or “Import into Duplicates Library.”
  5. EndNote will search for the full reference data for each PDFusing the DOI from each PDFand will create an item in your library with the PDFattached and will add the reference, if found. In order for Endnote to find the reference from a PDF, the PDFmust be text-based (so that the text can be selected in the PDF) and not a graphic scan, and the DOI number must appear in the first few pages of the PDF.
  6. If EndNote does not find the reference, it will still import the PDF to a new record and it puts the PDF file name in angle brackets in the title field. One strategy to try to complete the reference is tofind a DOI for the journal article, put the DOI in the DOI field of the record, and then do a Reference Update. Click the one-line listing of the item in the EndNote library, then click the EndNote References menu, then click Find Reference Updates.

You can assign a folder on your computer to be your EndNote import folder and then EndNote will import any PDFs placed in that folder (not subfolders of that folderthough). To select this folder on the PC, in EndNote click the Edit menu + Preferences + PDF Handling + check the box for "Enable automatic importing" and select the folder on the computer. There are some limitations with importing PDFs mentioned in the Overview tab of Adding References.

It is also possible if EndNote's search panel is displayed (if not, click "Show Search Panel" at upper right in EndNote) to drag a PDFto a background area in the search panel (not one of the search fields) and EndNote will import the PDF.

With your Endnote library open, click on

  1. The References menu + New Reference.
  2. Use the Reference Type dropdown list to change the reference types, if necessary.
  3. Simply type in the reference information. (For Author, type author names one full name per line. You can input as last, first (with a comma)--this is the recommended format OR as first last)
  4. If typing a corporate author, put a comma at the last of the name (to prevent EndNotefrom treating the corporate author name as a personal name and using the last word as the last name), for example: Department of Energy,
    • EndNote help adds If your corporate author name includes a comma in the name itself, use two commas in place of the first comma: California,, Irvine
  5. When you have finished, close the New Reference window. You will be prompted to save the reference.
  6. The New Reference will appear in your library automatically.

Trying to import references that are available as text (for example, in a citation within a pdf or as text in a Word document perhaps from an earlier document created before using EndNote) is not as simple as exporting a reference from a database or as reliable, however, there are some products that can be found online that may be of help. One free tool is called Citation Finder . The original source database for the project seems to have been Medline, however, the tool does find some non-medical references also.

The website simply prompts for entering citations. Once citations are copied into thefield (the Word citations may need to be formatted so that they each start on a new line), it will display some more options. Click search and the application starts searching for the individual references and displays what it has found. Sometimes it will display a few options for one reference and the highlighted one is counted as selected. If you scroll through the screen the last button is "download all selected citations", and if you've selected the RIS format in step 2, then you could import the RIS file into EndNote or another citation manager.

For the references that the website does not find, the following strategies may work.

For journal articles, you could start with Google Scholar (since it is somewhat universal in its access). If you're off campus, try the library's link to Google Scholar (button on library.tamu.edu)so that you get the benefit of linking to library subscription sources. From on campus, simply accessGoogle Scholar directly (or with the library's link). From on campus eithermethodshouldrecognize on campus access and give access to the library's subscriptions. Google Scholar's reference data is not edited and is not thorough (like subscription databases tend to be). So, linking from Google Scholar for a journal article and going to the subscription database or journal source may give access to a more thorough reference. (This does start being a good bit more work, however, once the process is set, it may be workable.) Sometimes Google Scholar will display "Full text@TAMU" and that will give access to librarysubscriptions. If the library hasthe article from a full text source, very likely that source will have a way to download or export the reference. If "Full text @TAMU" is not displayed, sometimes clicking the "more" link will display a"Full text @TAMU" link. Simply clicking the title of the item in Google Scholar's search results may also work; if that link goes to the article reference, that site may give a way to download the reference (and is a good way to get the reference, perhaps identicalin some cases to using "Full text @ TAMU").

For books, try usingthe quick search on the library website (the search field on library.tamu.edu). If the book is found, click the magnifying glass icon at the right, click "Detailed Record" and then click the link on the resulting screen among the links at the right for Export. On the new screen, make sure Direct Export in RIS Format is selected, and click Save. That should send the reference to EndNote. Another option is usingthe library database WorldCat to get book references, though it may be a little more complicated (not much more complicated).

Research Guides: EndNote: Basic Use (2024)

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