As you may know, we switched over to EndNote as our officially supported reference management software at the start of 2024. The uptake has been impressive and our clients seem very satisfied with the software. But there are always questions and some of them get asked more frequently than others and, as EndNote can be quite a complex programme to work with when compared to Mendeley or Zotero, we’ll try and answer some of these questions here. This will be a “work in progress” as new questions continually pop up. So we’ll add a link to our EndNote LibGuide to this post so you can check back in to see if any new questions were added.
How is EndNote different from Mendeley and/or Zotero?
The core functions of all three programmes are essentially the same, to simplify in-text citations and generate a reference list for your research paper, assignment or thesis/dissertation. But there are some significant differences that we cannot go into here. Considering technical support, while Mendeley and Zotero are open source free-to-use platforms, EndNote is subscription-based and with the subscription, we get an immense amount of technical support and access to instructional resources that are of greater quality than that of Mendeley or Zotero. To read more about these differences, click here.
Is EndNote available to anyone at SU?
Yes, we have an institutional subscription, which means that any student or staff member at SU can get EndNote. However, we still discourage undergraduates from using reference managers, since they first need to learn how to reference and cite properly before they can make optimal use of reference managers.
I have been using Mendeley/Zotero to reference in my thesis, must I switch to EndNote?
No, you do not have to switch over to EndNote, especially if you are in the advanced stages of your thesis/dissertation. It can be a tedious and distracting exercise to switch over to EndNote at the later stages, so we recommend that you rather finish your current research project before switching over.
I have installed EndNote on my Mac device and clicked on it to run, but nothing seems to be happening
Unlike EndNote for Windows, EndNote Mac does not prompt you to create a new library the first time you launch the software and you need to do it manually. To learn more on how to do that, check Step 15 in the installation instructions here.
I have many folders in Mendeley, is there a way they can be replicated in EndNote?
Unfortunately, there is no way to replicate these folders and you will have to manually reorganise your references once you have imported your Mendeley library to EndNote.
Can I share my EndNote library or folders with colleagues?
Yes, you can either share your entire library, or specific folders (called Groups in EndNote) with colleagues. More about sharing with EndNote can be viewed in these PDFs:
Windows
MacOS
Can I use EndNote without internet access
Yes absolutely. EndNote works perfectly well without internet access. The online library serves more as a backup of your data.
How do I import references into EndNote
You can learn more about importing references here:
Windows
MacOS
How do I manage and edit citations in EndNote?
You can learn more about importing references here:
Windows
MacOS
For any enquiries please contact Kirchner van Deventer.
Leave a Reply