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      Introductory Tutorial for EndNote 9:
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Importing Downloaded References with a Filter

What is a "filter"?

A filter is a piece of software that will take a file of references which have been downloaded from a database and convert them into references in your EndNote library.

The file of references must be in plain text (*.txt) and must be split up into labelled fields, something like this:

  AU: Smith, J.
  TI: New developments in instructional software
  SO: Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 3 (2001): 305-318A


A filter is specific to a particular database (e.g. Medline, Psycinfo). When the database is marketed by more than one vendor, separate filters will be required for each vendor's version of the database (e.g. Medline from Ovid, Medline from SilverPlatter, Medline from CSA).

Use your web browser to display the UQ Library EndNote filters page at: http://www.library.uq.edu.au/endnote/filters.html

Browse through the list to find a database which is relevant to your research. Check the Other Information column to find out how to download references from the database correctly. An EndNote filter can only import a plain text file (*.txt).

Click on the Download Link to download the filter. Save it in your EndNote filters folder. The default location of the filters folder is
C:\Program Files\EndNote9\Filters

Use your web browser to display the UQ Library Database list at: http://www.library.uq.edu.au/database/

Open your chosen database. Perform a search and select some useful references.

Using the instructions from the Filters page, download the references in the correct format for import to EndNote. Save the downloaded references in any convenient folder.

Return to EndNote, and make sure that your library is open.

Click on the Import button Import button in EndNote 9 on the main toolbar. You should see a dialogue box that looks like this:

Import Dialogue Box in EndNote

Now click on the Choose File button. Locate and highlight the file of references that you downloaded. Click on the Open button to select the file. This will return you to the previous dialogue box.

In the box labelled Import Option, click on the down arrow to see some of the standard import options. Then click on Other Filters to open the list of filters, which looks like this:

Filter Manager in EndNote 9

Browse down the list of databases until you find the filter which you downloaded. All filters from the UQ Library EndNote Filters page have filenames beginning with uq_…

Highlight the filter and click on the Choose button. This will return you to the previous dialogue box.

Next, in the Duplicates box, select Import into Duplicates Library.

In the Text Translation box, the option Unicode (UTF-8) is appropriate in most cases. The dialogue box should now look something like this:

Import Dialogue Box when Completed in EndNote 9

Click on the Import button and the references should be imported.

More on filtering references …

After filtering, only the references which you have just imported will be visible in the library window. To see all the references in the EndNote library, click on References on the menu bar, then select Show All References.

No filter is perfect, and all references should be checked after import. For this reason, it is often better to import references into a temporary library, and leave them there until they can be checked against the file of downloaded references and amended. They can then be transferred to the permanent library.

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