Skip to Main Content

Citation Management for Academic Research: EndNote

This guide juxtaposes the affordances and constraints of popular citation management systems Mendeley, EndNote, RefWorks, and Zotero.

EndNote

Primary User Base

Undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, scholars, clinicians, librarians, federal agencies, and editors. 

Upload and Annotate

Endnote X9 allows you to upload, read, annotate, and search PDFs.  Even more, you can add sticky notes to your PDFs and search for them later. Use the built-in email functionality to quickly share a reference and its file attachments with others.

Word Processor Integration

Cite While You Write, an Endnote plug-in, can be used to insert in-text citations into a document while simultaneously creating a bibliography in the chosen reference style. This plug-in is available for Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, Apache OpenOffice, and LibreOffice.

Installation Required

Endnote offers a free web-based version, but it has limited features and functionality. Endnote X9 requires installation and is available on the Windows, Macintosh, and iPad platforms.  Even more, can install collection files for the databases that you use.

Collaboration Features

Endnote X9 offers many collaboration features. Endnote users can share their entire library, including references, PDFs, and annotations, with up to 100 other users. Each person can add to, annotate, and use the library at the same time and see who is making changes. Users can also share just a portion of their library while providing either “write” or “read only” access to collaborators.

Price to Students

Although there is a free web-based version of Endnote, the full version (X9) costs $113.95 for students.  For those that are not students, the full version of Endnote (X9) costs $249.95 for the first time and $99.95 annually. (https://endnote.com/buy/). However, BYU students can get FREE access by following the instructions at https://lib.byu.edu/faq/244971/.

Access After Graduation?

Free student access will end at graduation, but users may continue to access their accounts by using the free web-based version or moving to a paid subscription.