This is a guide to using EndNote in situations where two or more researchers are collaborating in the production of a single publication, and all of those researchers are using EndNote.

The researchers might be located at the same institution, or they might be located at different institutions.

There are at least three possible situations:

• 1. Researchers are at the same institution and using a single EndNote library, located on their local network
• 2. Researchers are using a single EndNote library, which is not on a network
• 3. Researchers are each using their own, separate EndNote library

1. Researchers are at the same institution and using a single EndNote library, located on their local network

This technique is popular in research groups where the members work closely together on a continuing basis. In such situations, it is often more efficient to maintain a single EndNote library for the group, rather than each member maintaining their own library.

The EndNote manual (a large PDF file which is installed on your computer with the EndNote software), contains a chapter on Networks and Volume Installations. It contains the following advice about providing multi-user access to an EndNote library:

Even though EndNote can be used across a network, it was not designed with specific networking capabilities in mind. EndNote does not perform record locking functions that would allow multiple users to edit one library at the same time. However, multiple users can access one EndNote library simultaneously as long as the library is restricted to read-only or locked status. This will allow the user to perform searches, copy information to their documents, and format their papers. Use Windows Explorer to change the Properties of your EndNote library; select the Read-Only attribute for the .ENL file and the .DATA folder.

The simplest way to set up an EndNote library for shared network access is to use the network's system of file permissions to control the type of access allowed for users and groups. One or two people should be assigned the responsibility for maintaining and updating the library; these users should be granted full access to the library .ENL file and .DATA folder. All other users should be granted read-only access.

If the person who maintains the library (the library editor) has it open for editing, all other users will be denied access until the library editor closes the library. So it is best if the editor keeps a separate copy of the library on their own computer and edits it there. This copy can then be loaded to the network to replace the read-only copy, at a time when nobody is accessing the networked copy (for example, at night).

Other users who wish to add new references to the library should send them to the library editor. One option is to send such references as a small EndNote library, which can be imported into the master library: see Appendix 2. This procedure will weed out any duplicate references.

Researchers will all be working from a single EndNote library, accessed on their internal network. This should minimise problems with EndNote. The drawback of this setup is that individual researchers cannot insert references into their document until the networked library has been updated. However it is possible to insert the citations in a temporary format, and then format them when the library is updated: see Appendix 3.

2. Researchers are using a single EndNote library, which is not on a network

This is a useful procedure when the researchers have not previously been working on the topic under investigation. If an initial literature search has been conducted to support the project, the results can be imported into an EndNote library, which can form the basis of the collaboration.

There are two possible scenarios:

• a. Each researcher is working on the document at a different time
• b. Researchers are working on the document simultaneously

a. Each researcher is working on the document at a different time

If one researcher writes one section of the document, and then passes it on to another researcher to complete another section, the procedure is quite simple.

The first researcher will compile an EndNote library and pass that library on to the second researcher, along with the document. The second researcher will add any necessary references to the library and to the document. If there is a third collaborator, the document and library are passed on to that person.

At any given time, only one person is working on the document and only one person has the current, updated version of the library.

When emailing the library, it should be sent in a compressed format, to ensure that the Data folder is sent with the library: see Appendix 1.

b. Researchers are working on the document simultaneously

When researchers are working on the document simultaneously, and maintaining a single library, the procedure becomes more complicated.

One of the collaborators must be designated as the library editor. The library editor maintains the master version of the library, and makes any changes to it. Whenever the library is updated, the library editor emails a read-only copy of the master library to the other collaborators. (See Appendix 1 for the procedure for compressing and emailing a library.)

The other collaborators will use the read-only copy to insert references in their section of the document. When they need to insert references that are not in the master library, they will send those references to the editor (possibly in a small library to be imported by the editor into the master library: see Appendix 2). They can insert the references into the document in a temporary format (see Appendix 3), and format them once they receive the updated master library.

3. Researchers are each using their own, separate EndNote library

This is a useful procedure when the researchers do not normally work closely together and already have their own established EndNote libraries which they need to use for the collaborative project.

Each user will maintain their own EndNote library. When working on the document, they will insert references which will be instantly formatted and stored in the invisible field codes in the document: this is called the travelling library. Beware: do not unformat the citations in your Word document. Unformatting will remove the traveling library and the references can only be reformatted if you have access to the original EndNote libraries.

What happens in the case of duplicate references? If two of the collaborators have the same reference in their libraries, and they both insert the same reference from their different libraries, EndNote should be able to recognise that these are the same reference. In this situation, EndNote will only list the item once in the bibliography: there is no duplication.

If duplication is occurring, and the reference appears twice in the bibliography or list of references, check the following:

• In EndNote, each collaborator should go to Edit>Preferences and select the Formatting preferences. Make sure that the option Merge duplicates in bibliography is checked.
• Compare the two duplicate references in the bibliography. There may be some minor difference between them. Ideally, the collaborators should be obtaining their references from the same database, but realistically this will often not be the case. When merging duplicates in a bibliography, EndNote is not using the normal Duplicate settings (as defined in the Preferences) to identify duplication. It is using a special algorithm, which is quite effective at detecting duplication, even when there are minor differences between the records.

If you are using a numbered style, duplication can be difficult to detect. It will be easier to detect duplicates if you make a copy of the document, and reformat it with an author-date style, such as APA5th. This will create a bibliography arranged alphabetically by author. You can scan through this bibliography to pick out duplicates.

Appendices:

1. Compressing an EndNote library to send as an email attachment

This procedure was introduced in EndNote X. If any of the collaborators is using EndNote 8 or 9, you cannot use this procedure.

To compress the library, click on File>Compressed Library>Create (or File>Send To>Compressed Library in earlier versions) and choose a folder where you wish to save the compressed library. The file extension will be .enlx.

The .enlx file contains both the library and the attached DATA folder. It can be sent as an email attachment.

To uncompress the library, save the .enlx file to the folder where you wish to store the uncompressed library. In EndNote, select File>Open and open the .enlx file. It will automatically uncompress into the same folder, and you will now be able to see and use the .enl file and the attached DATA folder.

This procedure should work across platforms (Windows and Macintosh), providing that the collaborators on both platforms have EndNote X or a later version. However EndNote libraries larger than 4 gigabytes cannot be compressed.

Beware: If the DATA folder contains PDFs of articles which you have downloaded from databases to which your institution subscribes, you would be infringing copyright law by sharing these with someone from another institution which does not subscribe to the same databases.

2. Importing one EndNote library into another EndNote library

There are several ways of merging references from one library into another. The references can be copied and pasted, dragged and dropped, or imported and filtered. The main reason for using the filtering procedure is to discard duplicates.

To use the filtering procedure, open the master library (this is the library into which you will import the references.) Click on File>Import and you will see the normal Import dialog box.

At Import Data File, select the library (the .enl file) which you wish to merge into the master library. The Import Option should be set to EndNote Library, and the Duplicates setting should be set to Import into Duplicates Library. Click on the Import button.

The new references will import into the master library. If EndNote detects any duplicates, it will set up a new duplicates library and import the duplicates into this library. Check the references in the duplicates library to make sure that they really are duplicates. You can check to see what criteria EndNote is using to detect duplication by selecting Edit>Preferences and clicking Duplicates.

3. Inserting temporary citations into a Word document for formatting later

It is possible to insert temporary citations into a Word document, using just the first author's surname, the year of publication, and a word (preferably an uncommon word) from the title of the reference. The use of the temporary citation delimiters (which, by default, are the curly brackets), the order of the elements, and the placement of commas are all crucial. Example:

  {Dunica, 2007, anorexia}

References inserted in this way can be formatted once the master library has been updated. Use the Update Citations and Bibliography command in Word (or the Format Bibliography command in earlier versions) to force EndNote to search for the unformatted citations in the master library and format them. You will be asked to confirm each citation as EndNote locates it in the master library.

These temporary citations can include prefixes and suffixes (note the punctuation and the order of the elements):

  {see also \Gorobets, 2005, prolactin, p. 715}

or the author can be excluded:

  {,2005, prolactin}

or multiple works can be cited at the same point:

  {Scocco, 2006, psychoeducational; Boettger, 2005, empirical}