There are three main ways to populate your EndNote library with references:
To enter references by hand: From the top menu bar, select the new reference icon, or click "References" from the top toolbar, then "New Reference."
Select the appropriate reference type, such as Journal Article, from the drop-down menu. (This is important because it determines the fields that will show in the citation.)
Search the database via the web interface as you normally would. Select the references you want, then save or export them. Every database works a little differently. Some offer an obvious EndNote export, like Web of Science:
And some offer a more generic RIS export (like Ebsco databases):
Most databases can export to EndNote with these general steps:
In many cases, EndNote can generate bibliographic information from PDFs that have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number. Most journal articles have this number embedded in the file. If the PDF does not have a DOI number or if the PDF does not have OCR encoded text (for example, if it was scanned from paper and not OCR'ed), this will not work.
To import a PDF, go to File → Import.
Then navigate to the PDF you'd like to upload. You can select one or several. To select several, CTRL-click on the file in Windows or Command-click for Mac. Make sure to click "Options" in the bottom left corner of the prompt window:
This opens a list of import option filters. Choosing the correct import option will tell EndNote which file type to expect. If you forget to configure this, nothing will happen after you try to import your file. Choose "PDF File or Folder," then click "Import":
Once you have found a book title using the library catalog, click "Export RIS" under "Send To," then click Download.
Click OK when the pop-up window appears and the citation will be added to your unfiled folder. Check the "Do this automatically" button if you want this to be your default preference in your browser.
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