EndNote Library Management

The basis of reference management in EndNote -- from importing citations to formatting references in a bibliography – is the reference type. Each reference type consists of a collection of labeled fields, which vary based on the reference type. For example, the book type includes fields for publisher and place of publication, two fields that are not available in the journal article type.

Each EndNote reference contains the information needed to cite the reference in a bibliography plus extra fields such as abstracts, notes, keywords, URLs, etc. References can be added manually or imported from a database (see Importing from databases into EndNote). The References menu contains the options for manipulating references, such as creating a new reference, editing or deleting an existing reference, or showing and hiding selected records.

 It is best to select the reference type before entering the bibliographic information in a reference; however, it can be changed at any time using the Reference Type drop-down menu at the top of the reference window.

Customizing reference types

Field labels for all reference types except generic can be modified. To modify field labels for a type:

1. Go to the Preferences option under the Edit menu
2. Click on the Reference Types option
3. click on the Modify Reference Types button
4. Choose the reference type to be modified from the drop-down menu

For any reference type, only those fields with a label are displayed in the reference window. For example, Number of volumes will not be a field option for a journal article.

Modifying field names and adding new fields to a reference type

The left column of the table lists the field names for the generic reference type, which cannot be modified. The column to the right of the generic reference type contains name of the reference type selected and the field names for the selected reference type -- both be edited. There are five fields that are undefined for all reference types - Custom 2 through Custom 7 (Custom 1 is used for a couple of reference types).

Adding new reference types

Three reference types (Unused 1, Unused 2, and Unused 3) are provided specifically for customization. Change the reference type name and label fields as desired. If additional reference types are needed, existing reference types that are not intended to be used (perhaps map or artwork) can be renamed and modified.

Hiding reference types from the drop-down menu in the reference window

To keep the reference types that are not used from being displayed in the drop-down menu, open the reference types table and add a period in front of the name of the type to hide. For example, if the Artwork type is never used, change the name of the type to .Artwork.

Resetting EndNote default settings

To reset the default settings for reference types, click the EndNote defaults button on the Reference type preferences window.

From the References menu, select New reference. . . This calls up a window in which citation data can be entered by hand. Select the appropriate reference type from the drop-down menu, and enter data into fields as described below. Not all fields have to be used. Use the Enter key to begin a new line in the same field; use the Tab key to jump to the next field.

Names: Author and editor names must be listed one name per line. Using the format lastname, firstname is recommended. Use periods after initials, such as Smith, A. A., or a space between initials, Smith, A A

By default, the author field is set to work with the author term list. Subsequent occurrences of a name will automatically be filled in. To accept a suggested name, press the Enter or Tab key. If a name hasn’t already been used in the library, it will be in red text. To disable this feature, go to the Preferences option in the Edit menu.

• For anonymous works, leave the author field blank, unless the author is actually listed as “Anonymous”
• For works with many authors, include as many authors as known. If all authors are not known, enter et al. or and others as the last author name, followed by a comma.
• For corporate authors (such as the U. S. Centers for Disease Control), enter the name followed by a comma. (This prevents EndNote from inverting the name.)  For multi-layered corporate authors, like U. S. Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, enter the name like this: U. S. Centers for Disease Control,,National Center for Health Statistics (that’s two commas between the two levels, none at the end). For three- or more level names, use two commas between the first two levels, one between other levels, none at the end.
• For complex author names, enter names in this format: de Gaulle, Charles and Smith, Alfred, Jr.

Year: Enter the four-digit year (such as 1987) or in press or in preparation, as appropriate.

Titles: Enter titles without a period or any other punctuation at the end. For long titles, do not use the Enter key; just allow the title to wrap around to the next line. It is best to enter the title capitalized as it will appear in the bibliography, as output styles cannot handle more than one type of title capitalization per reference (such as an article title and a journal title).

Journal: Enter the full journal title. By default, the journal title field is set to work with the journal term list. Subsequent occurrences of a title will automatically be filled in. To accept a suggested journal title, press the Tab key.  If desired, enter the journal title abbreviation in the Alternate Journal field.  See the Term List LibGuide for information about the journals term list and importing the NLM medical journal and other types of journal title abbreviations.

Pages: Page ranges can be entered in full (342-346) or condensed (342-6) format. Do not use commas in page numbers in the thousands.

Edition: Enter 1st, 2nd, etc. as appropriate; do not include edition or ed. When EndNote formats a bibliography, it does not reformat the information in this field.

Date: Enter dates as appropriate. When EndNote formats a bibliography, it does not reformat the information in this field.

ID Numbers: EndNote has a number of fields for identifying numbers.  The DOI is for the DOI (digital object identifier) for online articles.  The Accession Number is for numbers identifying references in a database, like the PMID number in MEDLINE and PubMed.

Keywords: Enter keywords associated with the reference, such as subject descriptors, class name, project title, etc. By default, the Keyword field is set to work with the keyword term list. Subsequent occurrences of a keyword will be automatically filled in. To accept a suggested keyword, press the Enter or Tab key.

Notes: Enter personal notes about the work.

Abstract: Enter a brief description of the work. When references are imported from databases, often the abstracts are imported too.

URL: Enter the uniform resource locator (Web address). With a URL in this field, use the Open Link command from the References menu to launch the browser and open that site. For this to work properly, the URL, beginning with http://, must be the only information in this field. This can also be used to link to files on a local computer.

For information on the use of other fields, consult Help in EndNote toolbar.

Importing from databases

This is a quicker and easier method of getting citations into EndNote rather than entering references manually. Depending on the electronic resource you use, there will be different steps to follow in export and import your references.  To export, select the desired references and follow the instructions in the tables from the Endnote Import/Export Guide. To import into EndNote, go to the File menu, then select Import... then follow the instructions listed in the table. Note: Import filters must be saved in the c:\program files\endnotex-\filters. [Note: Replace x- with version of EndNote used]