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EndNote & EndNote Web

Getting started with EndNote and EndNote Web

EndNote Web Support

EndNote Support

EndNote Support & Documentation

EndNote is a huge program with many features. This Guide focuses on the basics. EndNote Web has fewer features than EndNote, yet it too is robust and complex. It's likely you may have "how do I..." questions at some point. Each page of this Guide lists numerous links for EndNote and EndNote Web support, training, and detailed documentation direct from the producers of EndNote. Below are some common questions and answers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Help! I'm trying to import references from an index, but they're not showing up in my EndNote! What's happening?

A. Make sure you have your Import Filters set correctly before you try to import the references into EndNote. Import Filters function as a sort of translation that ensures the titles, authors, and other citation elements from your index map correctly to EndNote. From EndNote's top menu bar, follow these steps:

Edit > Import Filters > Open Filter Manager

You should now see an "EndNote Import Filters" pop-up window. In that window, scroll through the long list of databases, indexes & repositories to find the resource from which you're gathering references. Select your database, and close (X out of) the "EndNote Import Filters" window. You're set!

Q. Help! My database is listed multiple times in the "EndNote Import Filters" list, from various "Information Providers" like CSA, EBSCO, OCLC. What does this mean? Which database should I select?

A. Many databases come from different "Information Providers" or database companies, such as OCLC, EBSCO, CSA, etc. Simply choose the one that matches the database and provider you're using. If you're not sure, you should be able to look at the database's "branding" to easily identify the provider.

Alternatively, if you know the provider (for example, you know you're in an EBSCO database) but don't see your specific database listed by name in the EndNote Import Filters list, choose another database from that same provider (e.g., a different EBSCO database), and your citations should map fairly accurately into EndNote.

Once you have selected your database,close (X out of) the "EndNote Import Filters" window. Now your references should import into EndNote with no problem!

Q. Help! I've collected my citations in EndNote but can't get them to export into my paper with the correct style. How do I do this?

A. Check to make sure you're using the correct Output Style. In EndNote via the top menu bar, proceed as follows:

Edit > Output Styles > Open Style Manager

Scroll through the long list of styles / journal names to locate the one you need. Select it, and then close (x out of) the EndNote Styles window. You should now have your preferred style selected as your output style.

Q. Help! My style / journal style is not included in all the styles listed in EndNote's Styles window. What now?

A. Visit Thomson Reuters' long list of styles & specific journal styles on their EndNote support website. Search for your preferred style - note that the list is not in alphabetic order. Your best bet is to type in the name of your style / journal name in the web page's search box. Once you find it, download the file to your computer. Then, follow the steps (outlined on the Output Styles web page) for installing the file into EndNote. (Basically, you will be adding the file to your computer's EndNote directory folder via your computer's Control Panel > Add / Remove Programs function. Mac instructions are also included.)

Q. Help! I found the Output Style file, but I'm using EndNote Web; how do I use it?

A. EndNote Web users cannot edit their list of styles directly. However, the library's EndNote support person also manages our campus account and can add and edit them. If you need to use a style that's not already in the list, just email this page's contact person with the style information.

Q. Help! I'm using a specific style but my professor wants me to tweak that style to include the page number for specific quotes I use in my paper. How can I get EndNote to do this?

A. By design, EndNote follows pre-defined styles and rules. While you can adapt or create your own styles in EndNote, it's not clear whether you can adapt a style that allows you to input individual and fairly random page numbers of your own choosing, particularly if you have more than one quote from the same source. Probably the easiest solution is to use EndNote as designed to export the citations into your Word paper, and then edit the quote citations in Word (not EndNote) to include the specific page numbers you need for the quotes you use in your paper. However, if you only need to add page numbers to the in-text citation (not in the bibliography) you may be able to do so without tweaking anything. Once you've added a citation normally in Word, click on the in-text citation to select it, then click on the Edit & Manage Citations button in the CWYW toolbar. If the citation style allows it, there may be a textbox for "Pages" where you can type the pages you want to add.

Q. I have heard that EndNote has a Find Full Text feature, what is it and how does it work?

A. The Find Full Text tool will attempt to automate the process of finding and attaching a PDF of items in your EndNote library to the associated record. It is not available as part of EndNote Web, only the full EndNote software. It will take information in your EndNote library records and attempts to use that to get to a PDF through the university library's subscriptions. Records for more recent articles (that is, ones that exist in a digital format natively rather than being scanned retroactively) and ones that include a URL or DOI in the item record are more likely to succeed. Failure to find a PDF does not necessarily mean that we don't have access to the PDF through the ISU Library, only that the automated process was insufficient to locate it.

Q. How do I use Find Full Text?

A. You need to do a little set-up for it before it will work. First open the Preferences window in EndNote and click on the Find Full Text section. In the text box for the OpenURL Path, enter: http://iowa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/openurl/01IASU/01IASU_SERVICES? and then click OK. Then you can select one or more item records in your library and run the Find Full Text tool (either through the References menu or by clicking the toolbar button). Progress should be shown on the left side of your EndNote library; with Searching, Found, and Not Found groups as appropriate.

Q. I anticipate that I will want to use Find Full Text while off-campus. Is there anything else I have to do?

A. Yes. An additional address should be entered in the same Preferences window you used to set up Find Full Text in the first place. For the "Authenticate with" URL box, you should enter https://go.openathens.net/redirector/iastate.edu?url= and click OK. This should prompt you to login with the same credentials that many other campus network resources ask you to sign in with when attempting to use the Find Full Text option while you're not on the campus network. It's possible that this step may not be required if you're signed into the campus network over a VPN, but this hasn't been tested extensively.

Q. The citation style I'm using specifies that journal titles should be abbreviated but it's not working, can EndNote or EndNote Web do this?

A. EndNote Web cannot automatically abbreviate titles, unfortunately. One option you would have is to manually edit the journal title information in your EndNote library to be the abbreviated versions - depending on what source you got the reference information from these might already be present in an Alternate Title field that you could copy and paste into the Journal field. The full EndNote software can make the substitutions, but requires some extra setup ahead of time. Open the Tools menu and mouse over the Open Term Lists option and click on Journal Terms List. The first tab has all defined abbreviations, which may be empty the first time you set it up. You can add items to this list manually (the convention used is that the Abbreviation 1 colum includes periods in the abbreviations and Abbreviation 2 lacks them - for example the Journal of Animal Ecology would be J. Anim. Ecol. in the first and J Anim Ecol in the second), but it will save some time to add pre-defined lists. Click onto the Lists tab of the window, make sure that Journals is highlighted, then click the button for Import List. Select the category that most closely matches your field and then click Open. You can then check the Terms tab to see what's been added. You can repeat this Import step for multiple subjects if you want.