Skip to Main Content

EndNote referencing software: ORGANISE & Manage

Software that helps automate your referencing. In this guide find out about EndNote, download EndNote (UWA staff and students only) and complete our EndNote Learning Path

Organise your library

Spending time personalising your library can help you build the knowledge base that will best support your learning. This section covers how to make EndNote work for you so it is more than just a library of references. Organise and manage your library to make it an integral ‘study buddy’.

This section covers how you can use your EndNote library as a place to: 

  • Store PDFs of journal articles, book chapters or web-pages and add annotations and post-in notes to them.
  • Add labels and research notes within the reference record which you can use to search and sort your library.
  • Assign references to Group folders to see a selection of references at a glance 
  • Create custom groups to collect references on a specific topic

Options for adding full text PDFs

Options available to add full text article PDFs to your EndNote Library

As a UWA student or staff member your access to full-text academic articles through the Library OneSearch catalogue allows you to add full-text article PDFs to the references in your EndNote Library.

There are several ways to add full-text PDFs to your EndNote Library: 

  • Method 1: Use Find Full Text so EndNote can search for the full text for you. See "Set up Find Full Text preferences" below. 
  • Method 2: Using the 'OpenURL Link' option to find full-text articles available through OneSearch if the automated method above was not successful.
  • Method 3: Import full text PDFs from folders on your computer where you have saved them, either manually or by setting up auto import.
  • Method 4: Using the EndNote Click browser extension.  See "Add full text from folders" tab for details about UWA plug-ins for finding full-text PDFs while browsing. 

 

Set up Find Full Text Preferences

To use Find Full Text in EndNote you will need to configure some settings in EndNote Preferences so it will work with the Library's new authentication system, OpenAthens.   

Adding these links into your EndNote preferences will help authenticate you as a UWA Student or Staff member. 

  • Here is the link to add to your Find Full Text Preferences: https://libkey.io/libraries/1907/openurl
  • Here is the link to add to your URLs & Links Preferences: https://go.openathens.net/redirector/uwa.edu.au?url=

 

Using the Automated Find Full Text Function in EndNote

Now that you have set up your preferences in EndNote see this video for how to use the Automated Full Text Finder to attach PDFs to references already in your EndNote Library. 

(This is the currently available video)

Using OpenURL Link to find full text within OneSearch

If the automated find full text option was not successful in finding a full text PDF you can try the "OpenURL Link" option. Right-click on the reference and choose OpenURL Link. This will link through to the UWA Library OneSearch catalogue to try locate the full text through our database subscriptions.  

Add full text PDF articles from your folders

If you have PDFs already saved within a document folder it is possible to import them from EndNote.  EndNote will try to construct a reference for the article PDF being imported, but you should check this and manually add any missing details. 

  • You can choose to import one PDF file at a time or import a folder that has a number of PDF files already added to it. 
  • If you set up a 'auto-import' folder, EndNote will add any additional PDFs you add to the folder to your EndNote Library automatically.  

Note:  If you already have a reference for an article in your EndNote library you can easily attach a full-text PDF by dragging and dropping it onto the reference. 

 

Other options for finding full text PDFs while browsing

LibKey Nomad

  • For one click access to full text PDFs when browsing the web, we recommend installing the LibKey Nomad browser extension (in Chrome or Firefox) and select University of Western Australia when prompted.

If full text is available via UWA, a Download PDF button will appear. You are only required to sign in once.

If full text is not available, LibKey will redirect you to OneSearch for further options including the Get It service. 

 

OpenAthens 

  • When accessing some external online search platforms off-campus, some vendor sites (eg JSTOR) allow you to login via OpenAthens. Look for the Institutional Login, Library Login or OpenAthens login options.

If there is more than one entry for UWA, select the one with OpenAthens in the name. Once logged in to OpenAthens, you will not need to do so again with that publisher unless you change device or browser. For more information, please see OpenAthens explained.

These are alternative to finding full text articles using EndNote Click, allowing you to find and save them to a folder independently of EndNote. 

 

 

Installing EndNote Click Browser Plug-in 

This browser plugin for EndNote will help you to more easily locate a full-text PDF of an article via either your University subscriptions or an open-access alternative.   Once located you will be able to add both the reference and the PDF with one click to your EndNote Library from the browser.

OpenAthens is the tool we use to authenticate you as a UWA student and staff member and provide you will full access to the subscription-based information resources provided through the UWA Library.   The EndNote Click plug-in will also manage this authentication with OpenAthens. 

 

Note: If you wish to find full-text PDFs UWA can provide you independently of using EndNote while you are browsing, see these instructions for logging into resource platforms using OpenAthens.   

Organising and Managing by:

Once you've attached a PDF to a reference in your EndNote library, you can annotate the PDF by selecting Open from the PDF drop down menu in your Endnote Summary. You can add notes and other mark-ups to the PDF, including highlighting, underlining and striking out text. Use the built-in PDF viewer to read and annotate PDF articles. Add searchable sticky notes and other mark-ups, including highlighting, underlining and strikeout. Annotations sync between your workstations and library shares.

This video-only (1m17s) walkthrough demonstrates the process of adding annotations to PDF file attachments.
(V20 is the current video available)

 

 

To view and annotate a PDF

  1. Select a reference with a PDF from your EndNote library
  2. Click on the PDF within the Summary Tab for the reference to open it (EndNote automatically displays the first PDF file attached to the reference).
  3. Click on the notepad image to open up icons for adding a sticky note or annotating using highlighting or underlining. 

Search your sticky notes

When searching your Endnote Library, Sticky Note comments are searchable using the "Any Field and PDF" and "PDF Notes" options.

 

      

In EndNote, 'groups' are folders into which you can organise your references.

  • You can create custom groups into which you can manually drag-and-drop references.
  • You can also create smart groups that automatically move references into group folders as you add them to your EndNote library.

This video-only (1m01s) walkthrough shows how to create a new custom group by choosing Groups - Create Group.
(V20 is the current video available)
 

 

Further advice and tips: 

  • This walkthrough example shows all of the references in the 'unfiled folder' being selected and then moved across into a new sub folder
  • Much like a Windows folder environment you can also use the shift key to select a number of references from your library and drag them into any custom folder you have created
  • See this Clarivate FAQ for further information about using Custom Groups and Smart Groups
 

 

EndNote provides several extra fields that can be used to organise your references (they won't appear in the bibliography).

Using and adding customised fields can be useful for note-taking and organising references. 

These fields and any of the existing or custom reference record fields can be searched using the EndNote 'Advanced Search' panel. 

 

Organise references by using the Label field.

1. Open an individual reference in your EndNote Library
2. Scroll down to the LABEL field and enter a word, e.g. ‘Research Methods’.

 

4. Close the reference and save any changes.
5. To search for references with assigned labels, select the Advanced Search

6. Select LABEL from the field drop-down menu and type ‘Research Methods’ in the free text box. Select SEARCH.

Any references with ‘Research Methods’ in the LABEL field will now be displayed.

Similarly you can use the existing EndNote record fields for notes and research notes to add in personalised summaries. 

1. Open an individual reference in your EndNote Library
2. Scroll down to the NOTES or Research Notes field and enter your summary.

4. Close the reference and save any changes.
5. To search for references with assigned labels, select the Advanced Search

6. Select Notes or Research Notes from the field drop-down menu and type your search terms in the free text box.

7. Select SEARCH.  Any references with any of the text you used in your notes fields will now be displayed.

   

CONTENT LICENCE

 Except for logos, Canva designs or where otherwise indicated, content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence.