UKC

I'm starting a literature review for my PhD and am considering using End Note as a referencing and search tool. is it worth my time and effort learning to use it or should i just continue with my own ad hoc read, log and reference plan? any hot tips?

Cheers

In reply to foxjerk:

Papers app and Word is much cheaper.You should be able to get EndNote through your Uni though...

I find it difficult to use I must admit (but then I'm not that used to it yet).

What platform are you on?

b

In reply to foxjerk:

I would strongly recommend Papers. Endnote works, but Papers is easier to use IMHO. Also, if you're staying in academia, it's worth buying it on the student discount before you stop being a student!

In reply to foxjerk:
I'd certainly recommend getting some system established as soon as possible. It will save you a lot of time when you come to write up, and help with writing papers before then. Having a pile of paper references in box can be a major mental obstacle to starting to write up (although going to the library and photcopying original articles probably seems a bit Indiana Jones these days). Anyway, I found having something like EndNote all loaded and ready to go makes getting the introduction started seem much easier.

I did use EndNote but probably some prehistoric version that bears no resemblance to the current version. It worked well for me.

In reply to foxjerk:

I'm in the same position as Dave - I used an ancient version of Endnote, and I'd definitely recommend using something along those lines rather than being completely ad hoc. But I have no idea what's what amongst current options.

In reply to foxjerk:

Just to offer a different suggestion. I currently use Mendeley which I find better than endnote and it's free. It will also back up all your paper to cloud storage if you want it to and attempts to auto extract the information needed for the reference from the paper PDF's.

In reply to foxjerk:

Mendeley - there's no decent alternative.

Mendeley is free, allows highlighting of papers, online and desktop storage, notation, a MS word plugin for references (with infite styles via Zotero)... I've 2.5 GB of papers and over 400 references in my PhD and Mendeley's quite happily dealing with all of those. Means you never need to print another paper and I can find papers in seconds with a simple search.

In reply to foxjerk:

Just to repeat what others have said, you really need something, whether or not you use endnote is up to you. I'm happy with endnote, we have version 14 in work but I think they are on version 20 ish by now but then my work still uses windows xp so no surprise we are a bit behind the times.

Some of my colleagues hight rate Mendeley (sp) it's free and apparently better than endnote but I've not bothered trying it because I'm happy enough with endnote.
On a positive note, many of the different programs will import libraries from other programs so if you start with one and don't get on with it you can change easily enough.
If endnote isn't already installed on your uni computers you can probably buy a institutional copy on your grant; that's what I did.

In reply to foxjerk:

For an undergraduate thesis I used bibtex (and latex). Even though it was a relatively small body of work and there was a notable learning curve it wasdefinitely worth it.

Research and learn the toolsets you'll use now. Doing that process early on will save you a lot of time and frustration later.

I'd definitely avoid ad hoc solutions... Unless you happen to be capable of writing your own tools.

In reply to foxjerk:
I really wouldn't use Word for referencing. Not only is it shit but many uni's simply don't like it.

Also, most papers you submit will require a proper referencing application (if you haven't got to that stage already).

I am using RefWorks for my referencing of my papers and my PhD thesis. It's fairly easy to use and you can import other people's databases... I imported a 300 paper database and hey presto! Most of my papers in the system

BUT talk to your supervisors and colleagues. They will help with what you can obtain and what is best for your subject.

In reply to crayefish:

I've not used Papers much, but do use Zotero a lot and find it very useful.

In reply to foxjerk:

Definitely use a referencing programme, it will save you a lot of heartache in the end.

I used Endnote for my thesis, but now use Refman. Both are a bit of a pain to learn to use, though I find Refman more intuitive, and I like the idea of having a travelling library.

Don't type in your refs individually. When your supervisor decides that the flow of your thesis is wrong, you will have a mammoth task on your hands.

Best think about both Endnote and Refman is that you can add as many refs as you like to your database, and then only use the ones you need.

In reply to foxjerk:
To offer an alternative viewpoint...I never got round to learning to use End Note during my PhD, and never really found it an obstacle. It hasn't caused me any trouble for any of the papers I've written either.

However, this is partly because the journals for my field stick to named references (i.e. authors' surnames and year are cited directly in the text). If you are in a field where the majority of journals use numerical references I imagine End Note or some such would be a lifesaver.

I should also point out that Google Scholar now has a library function that's quite useful for saving papers too.

In reply to foxjerk:

It's shite. Use Mendeley! Excellent user interfaces online, in word and in windows, and seamless integration through all of them.

In reply to ben b:
yeah, i've got it free from my university using windows 7

In reply to foxjerk:

I would recommend Zotero. I used Zotero for my masters thesis. Its free, and very easy to use and export bibliography in any format or style you like.

You can use it as a plugin for your web browser so any paper, webpage, book, magazine, newspaper etc you find online you can drag and drop in Zotero which automatically references it. There is also a Word plugin.

In reply to foxjerk:

thanks everyone for your advice. i think i'll have a look at mendeley too. on another note, anyone had much luck at getting PDFs on a kindle?

Cheers

In reply to foxjerk:

IMO Endnote is still the best in terms of automatic formatting , which will become important once you start sending your rejected manuscripts to journal after journal..

The only problem is compatibility. I used a reasonably current version of Endnote, but after upgrading my Office version (couldn´t handle my co-authors files anymore after they upgraded) I had to replace the perfectly working endnote too due to version compatibility problems. Of course this is not done on purpose, and the earth is flat....

For paper writing I have an ednote file containing citation of all papers I ever read on a given subject. For specific manuscripts I then make selctions from this master endnote file that are small enough to be distributed between coauthors by email.

For general organization of the papers to read my students use Papers, whereas I only use a bunch of folders into which I drop my pdf files according to topic.

Guess I am just showing my age.

CB

In reply to foxjerk:

would second suggestions to use referencing software - it saves hours of work and stress.

I'm currently writing up my phd, and have run a paperless office for my MSc and PhD. I use a Mac.

Used Papers app for a while, but prefer Sente - which I see noone else has mentioned.
Sente is very good:
- it populates the reference metadata file fairly automatically
- deals well with managing large numbers of PDFs (including books and journal articles)
- can annotate & highlight any OCR'd PDF
- has iPad app so I can work while travelling. not had any problems with creating annotated bibliographies or reference lists for papers/ thesis
- it reformats reference lists quickly if you need to for different journals etc

In reply to foxjerk:

You've got to get something going, will save you hours and hours over a PhD, especially as you might not be referring back for years.

I used Zotero for my MA as it's free, plugged into my browser and libreoffice and had the features I needed. I just wished I'd started using it years ago. Being able to just chuck an ISBN number in and it grab all the right info then present according to a style is brilliant.

Good luck with your research

In reply to foxjerk:
The advantages of Endnote are that it is generally stable, you can store quite a lot of references on the web for free and look at them on you tablet or one of three computers licensed which can be mac or PC on the same licence. It is very easy to change citation format, so you can write your paper/thesis with extended author date styles and then at the last moment format in the correct style, often numbered which I have real trouble getting my head around when I am thinking. The current screen layout with groups, reference list, citation details and PDF viewer works very well on a 24" screen or above. You can use it very manually using the copy formatted reference command (CMD-K)

The disadvantages are that Endnote never have compatibility with future upgrades in MS office except by upgrade and occasionally only seem to sort some bugs out in the next version. I have used it from version 2.1 (about 1994), but if I was starting again I would look at Sente and Bookends. If you don't use Word I wouldn't use Endnote. I recently tried Papers and didn't get on with it.

The combination of Mellel and Sente or Bookends looks like a good combination, but I have not used that except to experiment.

Most of these things are available for a month as a demo and that is the way to go.

In reply to oddtoast:

I have just finished my PhD and also used Zotero. Very very useful.

Another thing I found useful was that not only would Zotero attach PDFs to the article reference in the database (usually automatically if you're logged into the university network), but also, I would write up notes on articles or books in word, and then attach these to the reference as well. That way you have all your references, ebooks/PDFs, and your notes in one place.

In reply to needvert:

I'd second this. Having switched from Word/Endnote to LaTeX/BibTeX just after submission of my PhD thesis (prior to corrections) due to various issues research the tools you use well.

It is also worth checking what format the journals you may publish in will accept.

If you go the LaTeX/BibTeX route JabRef is an alternative reference manager I've been quite happy with.

In reply to SidharthaDongre:

I've pointed my daughter (19 doing first degree in psychology/biology,) at mandaley. Anyone have any advice or 'quick start" guides for using it?

In reply to stroppygob:

It's a really easy to use system, probably the only annoyance for me is that I always forget to enter papers into my library and end up having to bulk enter them when I need to use the system. It's easy enough to just copy and paste titles into the Mendeley web-interface to link them to your library.

In reply to SidharthaDongre:

Thanks mate!

In reply to foxjerk:

It might depend on what type of subject you are working on. My thesis was rather mathematical so I naturally leaned towards LaTeX. This was easy to learn and handled all the notation, cross references and figure annotations seamlessly. It might be >20 years old (and TeX is coming on for 40) but it works!