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Chemical Literature (Chem 184/284) |
Lecture 18: Personal Bibliographic Database Software:
EndNote Web
Virtually every scholarly publication requires an accompanying bibliography -- the list of sources which form the background
for the research being presented. Major review articles and dissertations may have hundreds, even thousands, of references.
Even where a researcher is not preparing such a massive bibliography for any one paper, it still may be necessary to keep
track of a large number of references to support his/her overall research.
Practically since the introduction of the personal computer, scholars have been interested in creating personal databases
of bibliographic references to replace card files and file cabinets full of reprints. Today, sophisticated personal
bibliographic software packages exist for both Windows and Macintosh personal computers. They not only store and retrieve
lists of references, but you can import answer sets from indexing databases, and can format them according to a wide range of style guides, and generate bibliograpies.
Note that we are not talking here about database packages designed for the storage and retrieval of chemical structures and
data (e.g. ChemBase, ISIS and the like). Those are beyond the scope of this course.
Among the most popular PBS systems are three from Thomson Scientific's ReseachSoft
divistion:
Of these, ProCite is probably the most powerful, but has the steepest learning curve, while EndNote is the easiest to
use (and the most popular at present.)
There are other packages out there, some of which are freeware. One which is popular among Mactintosh suers is
Papyrus, available at http://www.researchsoftwaredesign.com/. For a review
and list of more packages see the
More recently, PBS software available through the Web, with data stored on the vendor's servers has become available.
Examples include:
- RefWorks from ProQuest (the producers of the CSA Illumina database platform.)
- EndNote Web, from Thomson Scientific.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, both of these products require institutional subscriptions for access, and both work most smoothly
in cooperating with their own database platforms for importing data. However, there are some free Web-based systems which can perform some of the same functions:
- CiteULike (http://www.citeulike.org/
This system creates a personal database of documents from electronic journals. The database is, however, visible to other users, so, in effect, you share your favorite research sources on a topic with the world.
- Connotea (http://www.connotea.org/)
Connotea, from Nature Publishing, allows you to create a Web-based collection of referenes and make them private, limited access or fully public as you prefer.
These sites, however, are not designed for exporting references in specific citation styles.
The UC system currently has a subscription to EndNote Web, so the rest of this lecture will focus on using EndNote Web.
EndNote Web (http://www.endnoteweb.com)
EndNote Web is a relatively new product, and is significantly less sophisticated and powerful than the parent EndNote
software. However, it has the advantage of being free to institutional subscribers (and so a reasonable choice for students and others who may not need all the features but would like to use a PBS package), and, since it is based on ISI's servers you can access it anywhere on any computer connected to the Web (so long as you are on the UCSB campus or can set up to use the UCSB proxy server on the Web browser.)
Rather than going through the use of EndNote Web here step by step, you should work through the excellent tutorials at
http://www.endnoteweb.com/training/tutorials/endnoteweb/EndNote%20Web.asp. Note that your computer must have a current version of the Shockwave software to view the tutorials. Below are some notes to supplement the
tutorials:
Creating an EndNote Web account
- Note that an account created for EndNote Web also serves as an account for ISI's Web of Knowledge databases (e.g. Web
of Science, BIOSIS) for saving searches and setting up alerts. Note, too, that EndNote Web has very specific requirements for
the number and type of characters in a password. Older passwords for Web of Knowledge did not have this requirement, so
some users had to log into their Web of Knowledge accounts and change the password to fit the End Note Web requirements.
The EndNote Web library screen
- The basic EndNote Web screen is pretty straightforward. Note that you can create multiple folders, if you want to keep
references for different papers, projects or searches separate.
- Note, however, that EndNote Web is still under development. The detailed layout of the library screen (see below) has
changed since the tutorial was created. The basic functionality, however, is the same.
This is my EndNote Web library. Notice that, from a ucsb.edu address, or using the proxy server, UC-e-Links links are available for each document.
Creating a New Reference
- This screen is for entering references manually. (You can also use a similar screen to edit the content of pre-existing
records or ones you've imported from an index database.)
- Note that EndNote Web is not set up to capture the full text of articles, whether as text, HTML files or PDFs. You can
however, include the URL of an electronic article in your record.
- Be sure to select the Reference Type (= Document Type) carefully, as that will affect which fields you have for
bibliographic data.
- Adding keywords can make it easier to search your EndNote database for specific records later on.
Searching online resources
- Using EndNote Web as a "front end" to search indexing databases can be convenient, as it streamlines the process of
impaorting answers. However, please note:
- Not all databases are available for searching through EndNote Web. That long, long list on the drop-down menu is
composed mainly of library catalogs from universities around the world -- not usually a prime source for chemistry searching.
- In particular, this only works for Web-inerface databases, so that excludes both SciFinder Scholar and CrossFire
automatically.
- Also note: in the vast majority of cases, the EndNote user interface will be less sophisticated and less powerful
than the normal user interface of the index in question which may negatively impact your search results.
Importing references
- Note that every database has a somewhat different procedure for creating an answer set for import into EndNote Web.
This is the downside of doing your searching in the original database. However, once you get used to the process for your
favorite database, it's not so bad.
- Note: If you are working on UCSB Library computers, many will not allow you to save files to the desktop or to a folder
on the hard drive. Be sure to bring a USB drive (aka: thumb drive, flash drive) with you to the library if you want to import
your search results into EndNote Web!
- After you import your records, check them! You will frequently find that you need to edit the records to make sure that
all the data went into the correct fields in the correct manner.
Managing EndNote Web folders
Most of this is pretty straightforward. Note that "shared folders" are read-only except for the person who created them; they are not truly open for contributions by multiple users, and so somewhat less useful for group projects than they might be.
Exporting references
- Note that "exporting" is primarily for transferring lists to other bibliographic database packages. To create formatted bibliographies, use "Format Paper" or "Bibliography".
Using "Format Paper" with RTF documents
- This feature is designed to let you take a paper in RTF format, insert footnotes, and then have EndNote Web automatically
reformat the footnotes to a particular style and generate the bibliography.
- Note that this process is not perfect; always proofread your paper to make sure both the footnotes and bibliography are
correct.
- Note that in the current version of EndNote Web, you must create a list of your favorite Output Styles using the Output
Styles screen. This is a tedious process, but once you've done it, you don't have to repeat it.
Using "Bibliography" to create an independent bibliography
- See comments for "Format Paper"
- Here's the "My Articles" file, imported from SciFinder, formatted to ACS style, and exported as an HTML file: Chuck Huber's Articles.
Searching an EndNote Web library
- The Quick Search function in EndNote Web is somewhat primitive: You cannot, for example, specify the field you wish to
search. But for the small files generally created, it can still be effective.
The Web browser plug-in
- The Web browser plug-in, which creates an EndNote Web "My Library" button on your browser's manu bar can be handy if
you use EndNote Web frequently, but it is not required. Note that UCSB Library computers do not have the EndNote Web plug-in.
EndNote Web and the Web of Knowledge
- As mentioned above, the integration between EndNote Web and the ISI Web of Knowledge is very tight. Importing references
from Web of Science or BIOSIS is much easier than doing so from other databases. Do not, however, let this stop you from
using all the databases you need to do an effective search.
Cite While You Write
- This tool hooks EndNote Web into your Microsoft Word work processing software to allow you to, as the name suggests, "cite while you write."
- Note that this tool is not currently installed on any of the UCSB Library computers that have Microsoft Word.
- Versions exist for Windows and Macintosh computers; however, check the systems requirements to make your your versions of the operating system and Word are compatible.
- This tool essentially does what the "Format Paper" option does, only it does so within MS Word while you are writing the document.
This page created by Chuck Huber (huber@library.ucsb.edu).
Updated: 03/02/08 04:51:37