Article: References come alive

Bibliographies and reference lists in manuscripts will never again be just a passive list at the end: online libraries and the web have revolutionised the way in which people can easily get hold of referenced documents. STEPHANIE MARSHALL explains why this has made EndNote reference management software more important than ever.

When you need to compile bibliographical references, EndNote is the ultimate time-saver. Dedicated to the concept of reference management, EndNote has evolved over the years into a product which is almost perfect for its job, thanks to the demands of its massive worldwide user base and the response to these demands by developers ISI ResearchSoft.

The product you see today, EndNote 6, is the result of all those wish-lists. It takes away the drudgery of compiling and formatting bibliographies and reference lists, integrating itself right into your word processing software!

Using EndNote in Microsoft Word, you can insert citations as you write. When you want to reference a source, simply go to the Tools menu and select ‘Find Citation’. State your search terms, select the appropriate reference, and EndNote puts an in-text citation into your text and creates an entry in the bibliography at the end of the paper. Or just type the author name, year, and number of each citation in brackets, and EndNote will format them all once you’re done.

If you forget to add a key citation; just put it in the right place and EndNote will renumber everything for you - a big time-saver over, for example, using Word's Insert Footnote command manually every time you cite a source.

Where EndNote really comes into its own, however, is when you use it to access remote databases. Hundreds of these are available, some free and others from the big-name commercial services. Just pull in the required references, and these are instantly added to your own personal database for use in your work. Never retype a reference again!

EndNote allows you to organise more than just text. Any type of graphic image or even file from another application can be managed along with your text references using the new image and caption fields in any reference type.

This means you can apply keywords and search for non-textual data in exactly the same way as you do for references.

‘Cite While You Write’ provides an easy way to search for and insert figures in a Microsoft Word manuscript. EndNote tracks inserted figures the same way it does references, and automatically builds a figure list for submission with your paper.

EndNote really is the most flexible tool for organising bibliographies. It’s a personal electronic card catalogue for references, but it’s much more besides. The familiarity which everyone now has with the Internet and hyperlinking has affected the intrinsic nature of a manuscript, making references more important than ever.

EndNote is the perfect tool to manage that trend - now your references can be more than just a list, they can be real links to full-text articles held elsewhere. Without any real extra effort.