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PolyU Library

Reference Management Tools for Academic Writing

A Comprehensive Guide for EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero

When dealing with many references in the process of research, establishing good practices can help you better manage your references. In return, this can improve your efficiency in using EndNote. Here are some tips to help you better manage your references.

Group References

Groups in EndNote can help you organize references by different subjects so that you can quickly locate the reference later on. One reference can be assigned to different groups. References added to or deleted from groups will not affect the master record of your library under “All References”.

  1. Select the references you wish to add into a group.
  2. Select New group.
  3. Name the new group created and click on OK.
  4. A group is created under My Groups.

Click to see steps in screenshots

Attach PDF and Others

You can attach file(s) to your references with the following steps:

  1. Click on the clip icon.
  2. Select Attach files.
  3. Browse and attach file(s) via the Choose File button(s).
  4. Click on Upload.

Click to see steps in screenshots

Sort References

You can sort references by either:

  1. Sort By pull-down menu on the right-hand side, OR
  2. Click the corresponding column header.

Click to see steps in screenshots

Search References

You may search for references in EndNote Web with the steps below:

  1. Input search term under Quick Search.
  2. Click on Search.
  3. The searching result will be displayed on the right-hand side.

Click to see steps in screenshots

Remove Duplicate References

To identify duplicate references, you can use the Find Duplicates function as shown below:

  1. Click on Organize.
  2. Select Find Duplicates.
  3. Duplicate records will be selected automatically.
  4. Delete the duplicate records if you wish.

Click to see steps in screenshots


Creative Commons License

Except where otherwise noted, the content of this guide is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.