Reference Management Tools for Academic Writing

You can attach up to 45 files to a single reference, including PDF, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPEG, etc. You may follow the steps below: 

By default, the PDF files attached in your EndNote library are saved in an independent folder under [EndNote library name].Data > PDF. Annotation, highlight, and other changes on the PDF files will also be saved there.

You can learn more about attaching a file to an EndNote library record and making annotations from the official video below (starting from 4:49 to 8:28):

Summaries generated by AI:

EndNote 2025 Desktop and EndNote Web users (activated via sync with EndNote 2025) can access the newly introduced generative AI tool – AI Key Takeaway to streamline research discovery and the writing process. These enhancements help users to streamline their workflow by quickly summarizing key insights from the PDF and generating structured outlines based on research topics.

To start using AI Key Takeaways, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the PDF tab in the Summary panel.
2. Click on Show the Research Assistant button in the top menu bar to launch the tool.

The AI Key Takeaways tool provides two key features:

• Brief Overview: A concise paragraph summarizing the key insights of the document.
• Additional Topics: A paragraph highlighting other relevant topics addressed within the document.

To copy the AI Takeaway Summary, follow these steps:

1. Click on Copy takeaway to clipboard button.
2. Paste the summary into any word processor.

You can sort references by clicking on the corresponding column header:

Tips: Sorting by "Title" helps you identify duplicate titles; sorting by "Author" helps you find works from the same author. 

You can drag the column header to change the sequence of fields to display: 

You can personalize the column headers with the steps below:

1. Right-click on the column header row.
2. Select the column header you wish to add, e.g. Publisher. The maximum no. of headers to display is 10.
3. Uncheck the existing header if you wish to remove it from the header row.

You can learn more about configuring display fields from the official video below, which share the same steps as EndNote 2025:

You can make use of "Label" and "Research Notes" fields to add additional and searchable remarks to the references. These two fields are usually empty in the imported references.

To avoid loss of your references, we recommend that you backup your EndNote library using either one of the following options: