Skip to Main Content

EndNote: Get Started

A guide to getting started with the EndNote citation management program

Downloading and Installing EndNote

To download and install EndNote, go to your Student Hub or MyNortheastern to the software downloads section, or see these detailed instructions for EndNote download.

Creating an EndNote Online Account

Once you have downloaded the EndNote software, it's a good idea to create an EndNote Online account so you can save and sync your citations online, as well as on your own computer.

To create an account:

If you are on campus, sign up for an account at the EndNote Online website.

If you are off campus, install the EndNote software, then navigate to the "Preferences" menu and use the "Sync" options to set up your EndNote Online acccount.

If you are already registered with Web of Science, use that login information to access your EndNote Online account.

If you already have a free ResearcherID account, use that login information to access your EndNote Online account. 

 

Exporting References from Library Databases

Many library databases offer options to export references directly to EndNote. Look for options that say "cite," "save," or "export," to export citations to your EndNote library. See a few examples below:

EBSCO Gale ProQuest SAGE Taylor & Francis
Emerald JSTOR PubMed Science Direct  

For directions about how to export citations from other library databases, view this handout

 







 




Exporting References from Websites

EndNote has a tool you can add to your browser that will allow you to capture citations from online sources.

The steps for installing this tool are covered below:

1. Log in to your EndNote Online account

2. Click on the "Downloads" link in the toolbar.

 

3. Drag the "Capture Reference" button to your browser's bookmarks bar to install.

Once you've installed the tool, click "Capture Refence" in your bookmarks bar anytime you want to save an article or document from a website. 

Importing PDFs

If you already have saved PDFs that you want to import into your EndNote library, follow these steps:

1. Move all of the PDFs into the same folder on your computer

2. In EndNote, open your Preferences menu and click on PDF Handling

Screenshot of EndNote preferences menu

3. In the PDF Auto Import Folder section, click Select Folder and choose the folder in which you just placed all of your PDFs. 

4. Click the box next to Enable automatic importing.

4. Click Apply. Click OK.

EndNote will now bring in all of the PDFs you currently have in the selected folder, as well as any new PDFs you add in the future--automatically.

*Not all PDFs will have information that EndNote can read to generate a citation, so make sure you review and edit the publication information in EndNote as necessary for any PDFs that you import. 

Troubleshooting Tip: Is EndNote asking for a License Key?

If you have already installed EndNote without following the "extract all" step, then EndNote will ask you for a license number. You should uninstall EndNote, and re-install using the "extract all" step below.  Right-click to unzip the download package; otherwise the full license will not install.

During installation, when you right-click on the EndNote zip file, you should see this option:

Using Connection Files

We no longer support connection files (except for Scholar OneSearch, below). Instead we recommend using database's native interface and exporting references to Endnote. 

·        Download the Scholar OneSearch connection file to search and save citations from Northeastern's library catalog from within EndNote.

Boston Burlington Charlotte London Nahant Portland San Francisco Seattle Silicon Valley Toronto Vancouver