Skip to Main Content

EndNote: Manually adding & editing references

Manually adding & editing references

References can be added manually for documents that do not have an electronic record that can be directly exported to EndNote, e.g. government documents, web pages, print only sources.

To manually create a new reference in your EndNote library:

  1. Select References in the top menu and then New Reference, or select the new reference icon 
  2. Select the Reference Type from the drop-down list. This will mean you have the correct field titles available (Author, Journal, Volume etc) and will ensure your reference is formatted correctly. If there isn't a reference type for what you are adding, choose the closest possible to mimic your reference format.
  3. Enter the information into the fields that are essential parts of the reference. Ensure you enter this data in the correct format (see Data entry table below)
  4. Close the reference by clicking the Save button.

Important points about references:

  1. Records are added using one of 45+ Reference Types, e.g. journal article, book, book section [chapter], conference paper, government document. Three additional Unused reference types are available so you can define your own.
  2. Each reference added to a library is automatically assigned a unique record number that never changes for that reference in that particular library. EndNote uses these numbers to format papers. You cannot change these record numbers.
  3. The text of the references should remain as plain text unless a special font, size, or style of text is required for a specific term or character, e.g. Latin name used for a species.
  4. You can insert only one graphic or file in the Figure field, and the figure can be cited in Microsoft™ Word. However, multiple files can be added into the File Attachments field, e.g. draft MS Word documents, PDF files. All other fields can contain up to 64KB or approximately 16 pages of plain text. To attach a Figure go to References in the top menu and then Figure > Attach Figure.

Data entry

If you begin to enter a name, journal or keyword that you have used before in that library, EndNote will complete the term for you to speed up data entry. To accept a term that EndNote has suggested, press Return/EnterTab or click in the next field.

Author and Editor names, Journals, and Keywords that have not already been used in your library appear in red text.

EndNote uses term lists for the Author and Editor names, Journals, and Keywords. These lists are updated automatically as you enter new terms into these fields.

 

Content Data entry
author name

Family name, first name (or initial separated by a full stop, or space),

e.g.

Smith, John
Brown, M.A.
Fisher, J.O.
de Gaulle, Charles
Smythe, Alfred, Jr

 

Start each author on a separate line and enter all author names.  EndNote will truncate the list of authors with "et al." or "and others" as required by the referencing style.

anonymous If the reference has no author, leave the Author field blank.  Do not enter "anonymous".  The style that you use to format the bibliography determines how anonymous references are treated.
corporate author

Add a comma at the end of the name, or two commas if the name normally includes a comma,

e.g.

Australian Securities Commission,
NSW,, Department of Education

title

Use sentence case - capitalise first letter, first letter of sub-titles and any proper nouns,

e.g.

Ecotourism: Not sustainable tourism

journal name

Use title case,

e.g.

Australian Journal of Botany

volume, issue and page numbers

Omit prefixes such as v, vol, iss, p., pp.

e.g.

4 [for volume 4]
23-30 [for pp. 23-30]

edition

Omit 'edition'

e.g.

5th
revised

Remember, consistent entry of author names is important!

You could consider using the Research Notes field to store your own notes about a particular reference. Including details such as a direct quote (and associated page number) that might be relevant to the article or essay you are writing.

Charles Sturt University acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands on which its campuses are located, paying respect to Elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations Peoples.Acknowledgement of Country

Charles Sturt University is an Australian University, TEQSA Provider Identification: PRV12018. CRICOS Provider: 00005F.