Library Services
When you start at UCL you will be able to access EndNote Desktop from a UCL computer. You will then be able to sync your existing basic EndNote Online library which will activate the full version of EndNote Online Classic and give you access to the new EndNote Web, regardless of the email address you have used to register your EndNote account.
Once you leave UCL, you will retain the full version of EndNote Web for 3 years after you first synchronised it with EndNote 21 Desktop, and you will retain the full version of EndNote Online Classic for 12 months after you last synchronised it with EndNote Desktop, after which it will revert to EndNote Basic. You will not lose any references.
See Accessing EndNote.
Libraries that are created on the Mac or PC version of EndNote are compatible across platforms. You can transfer the files via portable media or you can email them to yourself.
EndNote 21 is fully backwards compatible with EndNote 20. You can use libraries in EndNote 21 and EndNote 20 interchangably.
EndNote X9.3 introduced a new database engine to EndNote. EndNote X9.3 and later libraries are not backwardly compatible with older versions of EndNote. See this page for information about EndNote 21 / 20 / X9.3 Library Conversion and Backward Compatibility.
This will depend on the accuracy of the information in the source where you got your reference from, and the accuracy of the import filter. Import filters often operate without you realising, if you are exporting references directly from an online database.
Sometimes data fields will be populated incorrectly or missing. First, check that the data was actually in the source itself - for example, often journal articles will not have a volume or issue number if they are published electronically ahead of print.
You can also try exporting from the source in a different file format, if the option is available. Often a .RIS file works well, in some cases BibTex. Refer to Exporting from Online Resources for advice on specific databases.
If you use the Remove References from Group command (found from the Groups menu, or right-click), the reference(s) will only be removed from the group. If you select Move References to Trash (found from the References menu), the reference(s) will be deleted from the main library itself.
EndNote 21 Desktop can hold an unlimited number of references and file attachments.
In EndNote 21:
Note: Sticky note comments inserted using the default EndNote reader are searchable by choosing 'Any Field and PDF' or the 'PDF Notes' search options. They are not searchable when inserted using another program.
Remember PDFs are saved by default to the PDF section of the library’s accompanying .Data folder.
Please refer to the documentation from Clarivate on exporting references from EndNote to Excel.
See Default Application.
There are several possible solutions to this. Note that these techniques will get the references into EndNote, not the full text of the item.
This technique will only be useful if the majority of your references can be found in PubMed.
We would not recommend carrying out a comprehensive search using the tools from within EndNote. Searching the database itself will give you a far richer range of options for constructing a search and managing the results.
Searching from within EndNote can be very useful if you know the details of a particular reference you want to find, or if you only want to carry out a very quick search for a few references.
You can transfer references from other reference management programmes into EndNote:
Please also see support from Clarivate on the following topics:
It is possible to move references from one reference management programme to another. You may also move any pdf attachments. To transfer references from Mendeley to EndNote:
This will export a .Data file and a .xml file.
Recall that every EndNote library is made up of a .enl file and a .Data folder. You will need to know where these files are located on your computer.
You should now find that the pdf files have been attached to the references in your EndNote library.
See Sharing a library.
Yes, but you must use the compressed file format to save your EndNote library first, and then email this version of the library. The compressed file format will save a copy of your library as a single file. Go to the File menu and select Compressed library. The library will be saved as a .enlx file.
See also Sharing a library.
Each formatted citation in your Word document is saved with field codes that embed reference information in the document. This comprises a "travelling library" of cited references which means anyone who has EndNote installed on their desktop can work on the document, even if the EndNote library file is not present.
The bibliography can be recreated from the travelling library although some fields such as abstract and notes are not included.
This means that if you had a Word document with some formatted EndNote citations, but did not have access to the original EndNote library which was used to insert them, you can still use the references and work on the document. The reference information can be extracted from the Word document and used to populate a new (or existing) EndNote library.
Note that this feature does not work when citations are unformatted.
To perform a bulk edit of references:
Warning! If you are appending additional content to existing text in a field, the additional text cannot then be removed as a group edit.
The duplicate search works by comparing information in some selected fields. Differences in formatting of journal names, author names and page numbers can mean that duplicate items are not picked up by the duplicate search. Where there are slight differences in these fields the duplicates will not be detected.
You can amend the de-duplication criteria to attempt to detect additional duplicate references. To improve the search to find such items switch off one of these parameters at a time before re-running duplicate search.
It is possible to do this but be cautious of making changes to references which might affect your citations or bibliography:
Please see advice from Clarivate on merging EndNote libraries.
See Accessing EndNote.
If you use EndNote Web as well as EndNote desktop, you will be prompted to restore data from your EndNote Web library. See Data restoration feature.
Otherwise you can try the database recovery tool by going to the Library menu, then Recover library. This may help to repair a damaged library, but doesn't always work. To avoid data loss remember to back up your library regularly.
Never save your library to cloud storage, such as OneDrive or Google Drive, because it can easily become corrupted and have performance issues. If your EndNote library is saved on a network drive, such as a shared S drive, you may experience performance issues with EndNote, such as freezing. It is also not uncommon for EndNote libraries saved on a network drive to become corrupted. You are recommended to save your library to your C drive and backup your library regularly.
Where there is more than one reference management package installed on a computer, which is the case with Desktop@UCL, there can be conflicts between the packages. Where references are automatically imported into the incorrect package, you may need to change your default application.
Multiple users can access one EndNote library simultaneously on a network drive as long as the library is restricted to read-only or locked status. This will allow the user to perform searches, copy information to their documents and format their papers but not make any changes.
To switch off read-only, simply right click the unopened library/file and select Properties
and then ensure the "read-only" box is unchecked.
Warning! EndNote libraries on shared network drives or cloud storage are easily corrupted. You are advised to backup your library regularly.
If your EndNote 21 desktop library is regularly synced with EndNote Web, you can restore your EndNote desktop library from your EndNote Web library. See Data restoration feature.
If you only use EndNote desktop, you can only restore your deleted EndNote library if you still have the saved .Data folder. When EndNote opens a library, it first checks the contents of the .Data folder, and only uses the information in the .enl library file if the .Data information is missing or corrupt. So, using the .Data folder you can essentially trick the program into restoring the original library.
Simply create a plain text file, and rename the file using the original library name, followed by the .enl file extension. Your original restored library will now open as normal.
If you and others are screening your results to determine which ones to use to inform your research study, you might wish to test your screening procedures by getting all researchers involved to screen a random set of 10-20 references to compare results before screening the entire set. Follow these instructions to ensure a truly random selection from your EndNote library.