Biology Literature Searching: Citation Software

If you’re on a Windows computer and you encounter a product key prompt, this likely means you missed a step in the process of extracting the downloaded installation file. This is easy to do, as Windows opens multiple dialogue boxes during the extraction process and the important one that actually extracts the file often gets covered by the others.

On the Install EndNote page in this guide, take a close look at the yellow highlighted note for PC users, then uninstall the trial version before trying again to install the full version of the desktop application. If you still encounter problems, please email library.endnote@uleth.ca with details of what is happening on your computer.

To use CWYW (Cite-While-You-Write) in Microsoft Word online, you first need to have a current EndNote 21 online account. To do so, install the EndNote 21 desktop app and create your EndNote library by adding/importing references (and full-text if you wish). You can then activate your EndNote 21 account by syncing your library to a new or pre-existing EndNote online account. Syncing backs up your desktop library and allows you to access your library online.

The second thing you need to do is activate the Office add-in for EndNote 21 in Word (if it's not already activated). For U Lethbridge employees (faculty, staff), here's how to activate the Office add-in:

• in Word online, go to the Home tab and choose ". . ." (More Options) at the far right side of the menu
• choose Add-ins, and then More Add-ins
• in the Office Add-ins dialogue box, search for "endnote"
• click Add to add the EndNote 21 add-in
  

For U Lethbridge students, the first step is the same as described above for employees (install the EndNote 21 desktop app and create and sync your EndNote library) Next, in Microsoft Word online, activate the EndNote 21 add-in, as described above for employees. Please note:

• if you see the following error message, contact the U Lethbridge Solutions Centre (403-329-2490 or help@uleth.ca) to ask for Office-Add-ins be activated in your account
  

If a 'Retractions' folder suddenly appears in the Groups Panel (left-hand menu) of your EndNote library, this means that EndNote has detected that a reference in your library matches an alert for a retracted article in the Retraction Watch database. To learn why the article was retracted, double-click the retracted reference in your EndNote library to open the Tabs Panel, and then select the 'Read More' link.

To find out more about how to ensure that retracted articles in your EndNote library will be automatically flagged, see the EndNote knowledge base article: Introducing Retraction Alerts.

Due to a recent (April 2022) Firefox update, when you try to export a Google Scholar citation to your EndNote library, you may be prompted to Save the citation without the usual option to "open" the citation using your EndNote desktop app. Here's how to solve this problem:

1. Find the Google Scholar citation you need

2. Save the citation to your Downloads folder

3. Right-click the downloaded "scholar.enw" citation file and then select Open with...

4. From the list of apps, choose EndNote and check the tick-box for "Always use this app to open .enw files"

5. In the upper right corner of your browser page

• click the Download icon
• right-click the "scholar.enw" file
• choose "Always Open Similar Files"

The next time you export a citation from Google Scholar, Firefox should immediately send the citation to your EndNote Library without the need to save it to your Downloads folder.

If you installed EndNote in November 2019 or earlier and have not updated the software since, you will likely be missing the APA 7th output style, as it only became available in early December 2019. Follow these steps tin install the APA 7th output style:

• go to this page and click the Download Style button at the bottom of the page
• save the file (APA 7th.ens) to your desktop
• double-click APA 7th.ens - the file should open in EndNote
• go to File | Save As and remove the word "Copy" from the style name
• click OK

Have a look at this article to learn about some limitations of the APA 7th output style and some changes in formatting citations that were introduced in APA 7th.

In general, libraries created with previous versions of EndNote should be compatible with the current version of the EndNote desktop app. If you created your EndNote library using a version earlier than EndNote X9, you may see a notification that your library will first be converted to a new file format that is compatible with the current desktop app.

CAUTION: Once you convert your library to the current file format used by the EndNote desktop app, do not edit it with versions older than EndNote X2, as doing may corrupt your library.  Although it is likely that your library will be recovered the next time you open it with the current desktop app, the possibility exists that your EndNote library will not be recoverable.  As with any software application, it's generally best to work consistently with one version of EndNote - preferably the most current version.

No, you should never store your EndNote working library on any cloud service, networked drive, external hard drive or flash drive.  The reason is that an EndNote library comprises a set of files that must always be updated by EndNote in a strict sequence to avoid corruption of the library.  In cloud-based and networked server environments and on external hard drives and flash drives, the strict sequence of file updating required by EndNote libraries cannot always be ensured. 

Essentially EndNote is designed to allow you to build and maintain a working EndNote library that is stored on the internal hard drive of the computer you use to run the desktop application. For more information, see the "The care and feeding of healthy EndNote libraries" section in the Clarivate EndNote guide.

You should be able to use your browser of choice to export saved citations into EndNote, but some browsers like Chrome and Safari may require you to do so in two steps:

1. first download the citations, and then
2. double-click the downloaded file in order to import them into EndNote (you should open the program beforehand).

Other browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge give the option of opening the saved citations directly in EndNote instead of saving first and then importing.  The first time you try to export citations directly into EndNote, you may need to choose "Open" or "Open with" and selectResearchSoft Direct Export Helper from the list of applications.  If you don't see ResearchSoft Direct Export Helper in the applications list, browse to your applications folder and choose EndNote X9.  <

In Library EndNote workshops we recommend using Firefox since it handles citation exporting equally well on Windows and Mac computers.

If you see strange data in {curly brackets} instead of in-text citations in your Word document, this likely means Word is displaying EndNote field codes instead of properly formatted citations.  To fix this, try the following:

Quick Fix:

• Windows: Press ALT - F9 to toggle between field code and formatted citation displays
• Mac: Press Option - F9 to toggle between field code and formatted citation displays

If Quick Fix does not work:

• Windows: Go to File | Options | Advanced | Show document content
  • Uncheck "Show field codes instead of their values" and click OK
  • 
• Mac: Go to the Word menu | Preferences | View
  • Uncheck "Field codes instead of values" and click OK (if available)
  • 

For more information see this article on the Clarivate Analytics Support website.

To import citations from Library subscription databases and freely available online resources such as Google Scholar and PubMed:

• save your selected citation(s) to your desktop and note the file name
• sign in to your EndNote online account at https://my.endnote.com
  • go to Collect | Import References
  • select the File containing the citation(s)
  • select the appropriate Import Option (e.g., for Google Scholar, choose "EndNote Import"; for PubMed, choose "PubMed (NLM)"; if you do not see an import option for your specific database or search platform, try "RefMan RIS")
  • select the Group into which the new citation(s) should be imported; choose [Unfiled] if you have not created a group or do not wish to file the citation(s) into any group
  • click Import
• in My References you should see your imported citation(s) in the Group you selected or in [Unfiled]

If you're running macOS High Sierra or macOS Mojave, you may encounter a known issue involving misalignment between where you place your cursor and what is actually highlighted when you use EndNote's built-in PDF annotation tools. You can read about the problem and a suggested work-around in this Clarivate Analytics article.

Each unique Author and Journal is tracked automatically in your EndNote library.  In Cite-While-You-Write (CWYW) or when previewing citations in your EndNote library you may see discrepancies in the cited format for a given Author or Journal.  To fix these, in EndNote:

• go to Tools | Open Term Lists, then choose either Authors Term List or Journals Term List
• search for the problem term which may be listed in several variant forms
  • for Authors, identify the term you wish to use and delete all variants
  • for Journals, identify the term you wish to use, delete all variants, and record up to 3 variants in the fields labeled Abbreviation 1, etc.

In the example below, "Journal of Management Development" and "The Journal of Management Development" occur in different references in an EndNote library but these two titles refer to the same journal from Emerald Publishing. 

Yes. The desktop application remains the only full-featured version of EndNote, but most of EndNote's essential functions are available for the iPad and iPhone.

• You can download the free EndNote app for iPad or iPhone from the App Store.
• To find out how to install and use EndNote on your iPad or iPhone, check out Clarivate's video tutorials here.
• A printed Getting Started Guide for iOS is available here.

You may find this software review useful:

Demetres, M. (2017). EndNote for iPad (version 2.4). Journal of the Medical Library Association, 105(3), 305-306. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2017.191

To ensure compatibility with macOS Catalina released in October 2019, EndNote for the macOS was updated to EndNote X9.3.1. In January 2020, an EndNote X9.3.1 update for Windows was released to ensure EndNote libraries continue to be interoperable on Mac and Windows platforms.

If you have installed the current EndNote desktop app and wish to use a library created in EndNote X9.2 or earlier, see this article on EndNote X9.3 and EndNote 20: Library Conversion and Backward Compatibility.

Yes. If you have created a Change Case list in your desktop EndNote application, you can make a copy to place on another computer or share with another EndNote user. See this article for instructions on how to do this.

Yes. If you have created an Authors or Journals Term List in your desktop EndNote application, you can make a copy to place on another computer or share with another EndNote user. See this article for instructions on how to do this.

If you are using a Windows computer and wish to use Chrome instead of Firefox (the browser we recommend) to export citations into your EndNote library, you can configure Chrome to always open your downloaded citation exports in your desktop library. See this article for instructions.

If the work you are citing has more than one author, place each name on a separate line. If you enter multiple names on a single line, EndNote will treat all of the text on a single line in the Author field as one name.

Note that although you can enter personal author names in direct ("Firstname Lastname") or indirect ("Lastname, Firstname") order, it's best to always use indirect order, as this is the convention used by most indexing tools (e.g., Library databases, PubMed, Google Scholar) when you export citation data from them into your EndNote library.

The EndNote 21 desktop app looks the same as EndNote 20, which represented a major overhaul of the user interface. Here are some sources that highlight different aspects of what's new:

• EndNote 21 New Features
• What's new in EndNote 21 (Clarivate, 3:00)
• Compare EndNote 21 with previous versions (chart)