EndNote Desktop: X9 & 20: Adding References

The process of adding references to EndNote is very similar across databases but the exact steps can differ a little. Here we have created step-by-step instructions on exporting references from the most commonly used databases. 

• PubMed
• CINAHL, PsycInfo, and other EBSCOhost databases
• Scopus
• Google Scholar
• PDFs and other sources

There are two ways of importing citations into EndNote from PubMed. Both methods follow the first three steps. Method #1 tends to be faster but it does not work on some computers. If you try Method #1 and no citations appear in your EndNote library, move on to Method #2.  

Beginning Steps

1. Conduct a search in PubMed. 

2. Check the boxes next to articles for the citations you wish to download. If you wish to download all of the citations   If you're conducting multiple searches, save items to your Clipboard, a temporary storage space in PubMed.  You can do this by selecting Clipboard from the Send to menu. If you do this, a Clipboard icon and the number of items on it will be displayed at the upper right of the page. To view the items on your Clipboard, click on the items link next to the icon.

3. Once you are ready to export your results, click the Send to menu at the upper right corner of your results page or Clipboard. Select Citation manager.  You can download up to 10,000 citations at a time in the new PubMed. Click Create File. Your computer will download a .nbib file.

From here, move onto either Method #1 or Method #2. 

Method #1

1. Locate the .ris file in your downloads and right click. Hover over Open With and select EndNote. If you do not see EndNote on the dropdown shortlist, select Other and choose EndNote from the options provided. 

2.Your citations will automatically appear in your EndNote library.  If you do not already have EndNote open, your computer will open your EndNote library.

Method #2

If you have a Mac, please see alternate instructions here.

1. Follow steps 1-3 listed under Beginning Steps (above). 

2. In EndNote, locate the Import option and select File.

3. Select the .ris file downloaded from PubMed. Set Import Option to Reference Manager (RIS). If you do not see Reference Manager (RIS) in the dropdown, select Other Filters and search for Reference Manager (RIS) in the list. 

4. Select Import. Your citations should now load into EndNote. 

Note: These instructions apply to all EBSCOhost databases.

Moving citations from CINAHL or PsycInfo into EndNote requires two steps. First, you'll export the citations out of the database. Next, you'll import the citation file into EndNote. Click the links below or scroll down for instructions. 

Step 1: Exporting out of CINAHL and PsycInfo:

Exporting a Single Citation - Click here

Exporting Multiple Citations - Click here

Exporting a Large Number of Citations (e.g. for a systematic review) - Click here

Step 2: Importing into EndNote - Click here

Exporting a Single Citation

1. Conduct a search in CINAHL or PsycInfo.

2. Click on the title of the record that you wish to export to your EndNote library.

3. On the right side of your screen, select Export.

4. In the window that pops up, select the first radio button Direct Export in RIS Format. Click Save.

5. Proceed to Importing into EndNote instructions below. 

Exporting Multiple Citations

1. If you want to export several citations, click the blue folder icon next to each citation you want to export. This will add the citation into your Folder. 

2. If you want to save an entire page of results, click Share on the right side of your screen and under Add to folder select Results. You can display up to 50 citations on a single page. To change the number of citations on a page, click Page Options. 

3. Once you have added all the citations you want, click the Folder icon at the top right of your screen.

4. In your folder, select all the citations you want to export. Then click Export on the right side of your screen. 

5. On the right side of your screen, select the first radio button Direct Export in RIS Format. Then on the left side of your screen, click Save.

6. Proceed to Importing into EndNote instructions below. 

Exporting a Large Number of Citations

Sometimes you'll need to export hundreds or thousands of citations at a time, especially if you're doing a systematic review or a big literature review. You can export up to 25,000 citations at a time in EBSCOhost databases. 

1. After conducting your search, click Share on the right side of your screen and then click Email a link to download exported results. 

2. The following screen will appear. On the left side, enter your email address in the Email To box. On the right side, select the first radio button RIS Format. Then click save.

3. You will receive an email with a link to download the RIS file. This may take a while, depending on how many citations you're exporting. Make sure to check your Spam folder if you don't receive the email. 

4. Once the RIS file has downloaded, proceed to Importing into EndNote instructions below.

Step 2: Importing Into EndNote

There are two methods for importing the citation file into EndNote. If the citations do not appear in your EndNote library when you use the first method, try the second method.

Method #1

1. Locate the RIS file in your downloads and right click. Hover over Open With and select EndNote. If you do not see EndNote on the dropdown shortlist, select Other and choose EndNote from the options provided. 

2.Your citations will automatically appear in your EndNote library.  If you do not already have EndNote open, your computer will open your EndNote library.

Method #2

If you have a Mac, please see alternate instructions here.

1. In EndNote, locate the Import option and select File.

3. Select the RIS file downloaded from CINAHL/PsycInfo. Set Import Option to Reference Manager (RIS). If you do not see Reference Manager (RIS) in the dropdown, select Other Filters and search for Reference Manager (RIS) in the list. 

4. Select Import. Your citations should now load into EndNote. 

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Step 1: Exporting out of Scopus

1. Conduct a search in Scopus.

2. Check the boxes next to articles for the citations you wish to export to your EndNote library. If you want to export an entire page of results or the entire results list, click All and then either Select all or Select page. You can download up to 20,000 citations at a time in Scopus. 

If you're conducting multiple searches, save items to My List, a temporary storage space in Scopus.  You can do this by selecting Add to List at the top of your results list. To view the items in your list, click on the Lists link in the menu bar at the top of the page. 

3. Once you are ready to export your results, click Export at the top of your results. 

4. A pop-up box will appear, asking you to choose your default reference manager or file type. Choose RIS format. Select the desired information to export from the drop-down menu. Click Export.

5. If you are making more than one export from Scopus, you'll notice that your export settings automatically save for the duration of your session. These settings include the file type and the type of information (i.e. citation metadata) that gets exported, . You can now click RIS export and another citation file will automatically download. If you wish to change the file type or add/remove any of the citation's metadata, click the small arrow next to RIS export.

Step 2: Importing into EndNote

There are two methods for importing the citation file into EndNote. If the citations do not appear in your EndNote library when you use the first method, try the second method.

Method #1

1. Locate the .ris file in your downloads and right click. Hover over Open With and select EndNote. If you do not see EndNote on the dropdown shortlist, select Other and choose EndNote from the options provided. 

2.Your citations will automatically appear in your EndNote library.  If you do not already have EndNote open, your computer will open your EndNote library.

Method #2

If you have a Mac, please see alternate instructions here.

1. In EndNote, locate the Import option and select File.

3. Select the RIS file downloaded from Scopus. Set Import Option to Reference Manager (RIS). If you do not see Reference Manager (RIS) in the dropdown, select Other Filters and search for Reference Manager (RIS) in the list. 

4. Select Import. Your citations should now load into EndNote. 

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Exporting out of Google Scholar

Step 1: Set-up 

Go to Google Scholar at UNC. We recommend that you access Google Scholar from this link, or from any UNC-CH library page, so that you can link to full-text journal articles. On the left side of your screen, click the three horizontal bars next to the Google Scholar logo. Then click Settings.

Scroll down to the Bibliography manager section. Select the Show links to import citations into radio button. Choose EndNote from the dropdown menu. Click Save. You will not need to perform this step on subsequent visits to Google Scholar.

Step 2: Exporting Citations Out of Google Scholar

Exporting a Single Citation

1. Conduct a search in Google Scholar. Click Import into EndNote link under the citation you wish to import to your EndNote library. The citation will download as a .enw file.

2. Proceed to Importing Citations into EndNote.  

Exporting Multiple Citations

Note: You cannot download more than 20 citations at a time in Google Scholar. If you anticipate downloading a large number of citations, try using the library's databases first.

1. Click on the small star below each citation you want to export. This will add the citation to the My Library folder. 

2. When you are done adding the citations you want to export, click on My Library at the top right of your screen. 

3. Check the boxes next to all the citations you want to export, or check the "select all" box at the top. Then click the Download icon and select EndNote from the drop down menu. This will download a .enw file containing your citations. 

Step 3: Importing Citations into EndNote

There are two methods for importing the citation file into EndNote. If the citations do not appear in your EndNote library when you use the first method, try the second method.

Method #1

1. Locate the .enw file in your downloads and double click or right click and select Open. 

2.Your citations will automatically import into your EndNote library.  If you do not already have EndNote open, your computer will open your EndNote library.

Method #2

If you have a Mac, please see alternate instructions here.

1. In EndNote, locate the Import option and select File.

3. Select the .enw file downloaded from Google Scholar. Set Import Option to EndNote Import. If you do not see EndNote Import in the dropdown, select Other Filters and search for EndNote Import in the list. 

4. Select Import. Your citations should now load into EndNote. 

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EndNote is often able to extract metadata from PDFs during the import process and create citations from that metadata. The process utilizes Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) to capture bibliographic data, so this method will not work for older articles (particularly articles that have been scanned). Please note that this process is not always successful. If unsuccessful, you'll need to edit the metadata for each citation manually or you'll need to export the citations from a database and attach the PDFs individually.

1. Open the EndNote library into which you wish to import your references.

2. Under File, go to Import and then File if you want to import a single PDF, or Folder if you want to import a folder of multiple PDFs. A dialog box will appear.

* Mac users: You will not see a File or Folder option. For more information on making imports on a Mac, please click here.

3. If you are importing a single PDF file, choose the file and set the Import Option to PDF. If you do not see PDF in the dropdown, select Other Filters and search for PDF in the list. 

If you are importing a folder of PDFs, the dialog box will look slightly different. Choose the folder you want to import and set the Import Option as PDF. If the folder you are importing contains subfolders with PDFs, you can check the first box to include them -- otherwise EndNote will only import the PDFs contained in the main folder. If you wish to keep the citations generated from this import separate from previously imported citations, select the second box to create a Group Set.

5. Select Import. Your citations should now load into EndNote. If you do not already have EndNote open, your computer will open your EndNote library.

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Need to import a citation of a physical item, like a book? UNC's catalog makes it easy to do that! As long as the resource you're citing is part of our collections, you won't have to fill out any information manually. 

Exporting Citations From the Catalog

1. Conduct a search in UNC-CH Library Catalog. 

2. If you want to export a single citation, click on the title of the record that you wish to export to your EndNote library. Click the RIS File button at the top of the record. The citation will be downloaded to your computer as an .ris file.

3. If you want to export multiple citations, check the Add to List box next to each item you want to cite. Once you have added all the citations you want to export, click the View List button at the top right of your screen. 

4. Click the RIS File button at the top of the list. All of the citations will be downloaded to your computer as a single .ris file.

Importing Citations Into EndNote

Method #1

1. Locate the .ris file in your downloads and right click. Hover over Open With and select EndNote. If you do not see EndNote on the dropdown shortlist, select Other and choose EndNote from the options provided. 

2.Your citations will automatically appear in your EndNote library.  If you do not already have EndNote open, your computer will open your EndNote library.

Method #2

If you have a Mac, please see alternate instructions here.

1. In EndNote, locate the Import option and select File.

2. Select the .ris file downloaded from PubMed. Set Import Option to Reference Manager (RIS). If you do not see Reference Manager (RIS) in the dropdown, select Other Filters and search for Reference Manager (RIS) in the list. 

3. Select Import. Your citations should now load into EndNote. 

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Some resources, such as ClinicalTrials.gov, may not automatically have an Import filter in EndNote.  You can search for individual filters on the EndNote website or add all additional filters through EndNote's filter zipped file. 

Download and save the filter or folder of filters.  Open your EndNote program folder.  You should see a folder in it labeled Filters. Drag and drop the filter(s) into the Filters folder.  The next time you import a file, these filters should be available to you.