Endnote

Creating groups

Groups allow you to organise your references into categories or folders.

There are two types of groups that you can create: a (basic) group and a smart group.  Groups can also be arranged into group sets (or headings).

Groups, smart groups and group sets can be created either

• in the top menu under Groups or
• by right clicking on MY GROUPS in the left side panel.

Adding references to a group:

• Select/highlight all the references you wish to add.
• Drag and drop into the relevant group.

Smart groups

If you want certain references to be automatically grouped together, for example, references from a particular journal, author or on a specific topic, then you can set up a smart group.

• From the File menu, select Create Smart Group.
• A menu will appear > select the conditions for your group > click Create.
• Any references that match your conditions will now populate the group. This also applies to any new references you import.

Group sets

Group sets provide headings under which you can arrange both basic and smart groups.

For example:

• If you are a student, you might create a group set for your unit (eg. UNCC100), and create separate groups within the UNCC100 group set for each assessment task (e.g. Assignment 1; Assignment 2 etc.).
• If you are a researcher, you might create a group set for a research project, and then create separate groups within the research project group set for each of your publications or for each database searched.

Editing references

Each reference is made up of numerous fields for information (metadata) about the publication, e.g. title, authors, DOI, journal title, etc. It is also assigned a reference type, e.g. journal article, book, book chapter, artwork, etc.

To manually edit a single reference:

• select your reference, then click on the Edit tab of the reference summary pane (if this pane is not visible, double-click on the reference)
• make changes to any of the reference fields, then click Save.

When you edit a reference, keep in mind the following:

• Make sure the appropriate Reference Type is chosen from the drop-down menu.
• Be accurate when entering data into a field.
• Use appropriate capitalisation (e.g. headline style or sentence style) for article, book, book chapter, and journal titles, according to your referencing style
• Don’t format text (e.g. italics or bold). EndNote formats the reference according to the referencing style.
• Authors should be entered one per line. Begin with the family name and separate the family name and given names with a comma, e.g. "de Gaulle, Charles".
• For organisations and companies, make sure you include a comma at the end, (e.g. United Nations,).
• Abbreviate journal titles if required for your referencing style. EndNote provides journal term lists to assist with correct abbreviations for your reference output style - see the instructions in the Enhance your library section of this guide.
• If required, you can always create a new reference via the File menu.

If a reference is missing vital information (e.g. DOI, volume / issue numbers) use References > Find Reference Updates. Endnote will search for updates for you to review.  If an update is available, you can choose to update all fields, empty fields, or edit the reference manually.

Removing duplicate references

As your collection grows and you import references from many sources, you are likely to have duplicate references in your library. There are two ways to handle and remove duplicate references.

1. Remove duplicates automatically:

• choose All References (or a group you wish to check for duplicates) in the left EndNote panel
• select and highlight all the references in the group
• go to Library > Find Duplicates
• duplicate references will display in pairs, allowing you to compare, discard or keep. 

Make sure you don't discard or delete any references you have already cited in Microsoft Word.

Duplicate references are completely removed from your library. If you want to remove references from specific groups but retain them in your library, you will have to de-duplicate your references manually.

2. Remove duplicates manually:

• choose the group you wish to check for duplicates
• arrange the references by clicking on the Author heading
• scroll through the list of references, comparing the information in references with the same author and date
• if a duplicate is found, right-click and choose remove the reference from this group.