October 22, 2013 ver.
Endnote FAQ
Why has Endnote come up related to Forest Plan revision?
Several Forests in revision has raised questions to the Early Adopter Support Team about documenting scientific information, tracking material for the administrative record, and sharing information, like citations, references, etc. In asking other revision efforts haEndnote has been suggested as one possible example of a tool that could meet all these needs in an easy-to-learn, easy-to-use package. As we’ve looked into it, we’ve also discovered that a fair number of people working on plan revisions already have some familiarity with Endnote.
What is Endnote?
Endnote is bibliographic software with three main functions: (1) it works like an add-in to MS Word, (2) it works like a repository for any and all bibliographical references (journals, books, papers, personal communication, slides, graphics, etc.), and (3) it works like a search engine for on-line or electronic literature. It has “cite-while-you-write” capabilities, meaning you can highlight any word in your document, search your Endnote library for relevant references, and choose the ones you want to reference.
How easy is Endnote to use?
If you can write a citation, you can use Endnote. Even better, if you work with any on-line reference library, you can export citations directly into Endnote. That means, more often than not, you can reduce the amount of work and time needed to build a strong reference library relevant to any planning effort. Lastly, if you or anyone on your team is already using a different approach to documenting your references, Endnote imports and exports smoothly. You can shift to Endnote or not depending on local preferences.
How flexible is Endnote?
Endnote has flexibility that subject matter experts will find useful because of the early on in a planning effort and writer/editors will find invaluable. Once you have the basic reference, you can choose from dozens of formatting options and see the difference instantly. You can embed citations into a Word document and choose whether and how those appear when the document is printed. You can choose from any number of existing bibliography formats or design your own.
What does Endnote cost and does it require Technical Approval?
The answer is priceless: the easiest way to get started with Endnote is FREE and already supported by FS Libraries ( On that page, you can findlinks to existing FS citation templates, to training for Endnote, and to the (did I say free!) Endnote Web application. That’s the easiest way to get started. And you can import and share any existing reference databases you might have.
If you want a locally installed copy, Endnote is on the current list of “expedited approval” software, meaning no additional technical approval is needed (note: it is listed incorrectly as a MS product [LINK]). Endnote licenses are available by the seat (individually), the site (multi-user licensing in groups of 5-100 seats), or the subscription (groups of 50-200 seats). Currently, there appear to be about 10 site licenses, mostly with R&D, and any unknown number of individual licenses. That means the FS already incurs some Endnote licensing costs. We are checking with FS CIO to see if they can tell us how many Technical Authorizations already exist for licenses. We also are exploring actual costs for various options and will provide those once we have those figures.
How can I learn more about Endnote?
Endnote is a product of Thomson-Reuters. The website is here:
- Endnote “Quick Start” (8 p.):
- Endnote training videos: