Getting Started with EndNote and EndNote Click

EndNote is a huge productivity boost and a big QOL improvement. No one deserves to do research without it. It does all the boring stuff for you necessary to keep your bibliography consistent and tidy.

This tutorial shows you how to set it up, add references with and without EndNote Click, organize your library, add references to Word, handle adding or managing PDFs and reordering references in Word.

Setting everything up

  • Download and install EndNote 20 (often available for free or at a discount through your university).
  • Inside EndNote, click on File, then on New... to create your library. Don’t change the name of the library folder, because things will break.
  • Download EndNote Click. It's an optional, but highly recommended browser extension that navigates paywalls, logins and redirects, giving you direct access to the PDF. Currently only available for Chrome and Firefox.

Adding a reference to your library

  • Go to your research database of choice, login through your institution, and find a study you like (I use PubMed).

Without EndNote Click

  • Find a download for a citation file. So far, all file extensions I’ve tried work with EndNote. In PubMed, for example, it says “Cite”, then “Download .nbib”. On ScienceDirect, it says “Cite”, then “Export citation to RIS”.
Downloading a citation for EndNote without EndNote Click

With EndNote Click

  • There should be a button in the bottom left saying “View PDF” with a grey/purple color depending on whether a PDF was found for your study.
  • If it’s purple, click the button.
  • You can now choose to “Export to EndNote Desktop”, which downloads a citation file.

In both cases, click on the downloaded file to add the reference to your library.

Downloading a citation for EndNote using EndNote Click

Organizing your library

  • Open your EndNote Library. The sidebar on the left holds 5 folders at the top that hold references depending on their “state”.
  • All References and Imported References should now hold 1 study.
  • There’s also the My Groups folder, which holds a group set with the same name. Right click and ‘Rename Group Set’, name it according to the project you’re working on.
  • Right click it again to ‘Create Group’.
  • Name the group according to the subject of the study you added.
  • Click on Imported References, then click on our study. Drag it into the group we just made.
Organizing your EndNote Library

Viewing PDFs in EndNote

  • The paperclip icon to the left of the author column says there’s a PDF attached to the reference. Double-click on the reference to open the right sidebar with the PDF.
  • The icon below the X in the right top opens the PDF in a new window.
  • You’ll find options for searching and annotating the PDF in the top left.
  • Press save after making changes to the PDF!

Adding a reference to a Word Document

  • EndNote should’ve added a new tab to Word that says EndNote 20.
  • In a document, click somewhere inside the document, go to the EndNote tab, and click Insert Citation
  • Find your study, press insert. You just added a reference!
    Finding a study on PubMed

Configuring bibliography in Word

  • A little to the right of the Insert Citation button, there’s the option to change citation style.
  • For more options, click on Configure Bibliography below that.