For academic and technical editors, reference management programs are like pineapple on pizza – you either love them or hate them. In the past, when a project arrived with references in EndNote or some other referencing management program, I would ask the author for a plain text version I could edit. Now, I’ve learned to love the pineapple that is EndNote, for three main reasons.
1. Renumbering is easy with EndNote
Have you ever gone through a document meticulously adding Vancouver-style numbered references, and then needed to rearrange some of the content? Deleted a section and needed to renumber references in the remaining text? It’s a time-consuming job. What if all those references renumbered automatically for you, instantly? EndNote will do that.
2. Ensuring that references are accurate is easier with EndNote
The occasional typo in a year or an author’s name can become a compound error when an author uses that reference multiple times in different documents. Adding references manually is a risky business – a 2010 study found over 600 different mis-citations for a popular biochemistry article! Using EndNote ensures that the basic information is correct, because journal articles and books are downloaded straight from the source into the EndNote program. Also, if all the in-text citations are live EndNote links, the reference list automatically matches those citations, avoiding the need for cross-checking.
3. Referencing style is easily changed with EndNote
When submitting a paper to a journal, the author needs to format the references to match the journal’s style. It’s not uncommon to make more than one attempt to get a paper accepted, and reformatting the references to suit can be a huge chore. Imagine it was possible to select the desired referencing style and click a button to update them the references throughout the document. That process is easy with EndNote.
How does EndNote help editors?
Academic and technical editors have much to gain from learning to use EndNote in Word. Editors who are confident in the program can:
- work effectively with authors who are using EndNote
- pursue more job opportunities where EndNote skills are a listed requirement
- save time and improve the quality of the final product by offering to create an EndNote database for managing large reference lists.
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Keen to learn more? My free Endnote extras mini course is a great place to start, and if you want to get serious about using the program, NAIWE members receive a 25% discount on the EndNote for editors course (to receive the discount, sign in as a NAIWE member and go to the member benefits section).