google scholar and/or worldcat, on the desktop and in endnote web

I have searched everywhere without success, so I’m asking here.

At the moment I am not affiliated with a university, so I do not have access privileges to the big wonderful databases. However, I can pretty much find the citations I need using Google Books/Scholar and WorldCat.

Of course I can go to Google scholar and set it up to export all the things I mark for import to Endnote, but this renders Endnote a lot less appealing.  Is there no way to access these free databases from the search screen? I work both online and on the desktop, so my question extends to both.

Also: I still cannot get Worldcat to work with endnote. I get an error message about my login name/pw from Worldcat – when Iknow for sure I have entered this correctly.

I’m juggling 3,000 references here and anything to streamline the process and take out intermediate steps would be MUCH appreciated.

So please somebody, give me some good news.

I’m using X5 on a mac with Lion, most recent version.

rlg

Just some info:

  1. There’s been prior requests/discussion about an EndNote connection file to facilitate searching and downloading references from Google Scholar (see here for prior thread). Unfortunately, at present no connection file seems to have been distributed (which may be a reflection of the issues discussed in the thread).

  2. If you think there’s a problem with your WorldCat password, you should click the “Forgot my password” link on the home page to obtain a new password.  (See this older thread discussing exporting from WorldCat into EndNote; also check YouTube for instructional videos on the topic.)

  3. Since you have EndNote, have you setup an account for EndNote Web which allows searching and retrieving references from ISI Web of Science and online databases :  https://www.myendnoteweb.com/EndNoteWeb.html?Init=Yes&SrcApp=CR&returnCode=ROUTER.Unauthorized

Does access to WoK really come free with EndNote (via the free use of EndNote Web)???

I thought it was the other way round - you can get free use of EndNote Web if your institution subscribes to WoK?

If I’m wrong and buying EndNote desktop really does give free use of WoK that’s a major selling point for encouraging users to buy EndNote rather than some of the free alternatives. (Which is why I’m suspicious that it’s too good to be true otherwise Thomson would be advertising it).

@crazygecko wrote:

Just some info:

 

  1. There’s been prior requests/discussion about an EndNote connection file to facilitate searching and downloading references from Google Scholar (see here for prior thread). Unfortunately, at present no connection file seems to have been distributed (which may be a reflection of the issues discussed in the thread).

 

  1. If you think there’s a problem with your WorldCat password, you should click the “Forgot my password” link on the home page to obtain a new password.  (See this older thread discussing exporting from WorldCat into EndNote; also check YouTube for instructional videos on the topic.)

 

  1. Since you have EndNote, have you setup an account for EndNote Web which allows searching and retrieving references from ISI Web of Science and online databases :  https://www.myendnoteweb.com/EndNoteWeb.html?Init=Yes&SrcApp=CR&returnCode=ROUTER.Unauthorized

Thank you for getting back to me.

  1. The prior thread is dated 2008, and at that time the TR representative said they were ‘working on it.’ So I was hoping for some progress, I guess.

  2. I can log into WorldCat without a problem on the WordCat website. I can’t login when I try to search WorldCat through EndNote.

  3. Really? I don’t see how that works … I’ll have to check again.

I have to point out that while I like Endnote’s features (or potential features) a lot, Papers for Mac is far, far more flexible in terms of searching and importing references. Where Endnote seems to have a bottleneck (institutional access, or nothing) Papers lets you search Google Scholar, where references almost always link to the publisher’s page for that particular article, and from there it’s the click of a button to download exact metadata directly into Papers.  I point this out because I anticipate somebody is going to say that Google Scholar isn’t all that reliable, which is true. But it almost always gets you where you need to be, and quickly.

Which website do you have an account with for accessing WorldCat?  EndNote’s WorldCat (OCLC) connection file connects to oclc.org, not worldcat.org

Rosemary - You’re correct. If you have access to Web of Knowledge, you get EndNote Web with it. Not the other way around.

@medmunds wrote:

Rosemary - You’re correct. If you have access to Web of Knowledge, you get EndNote Web with it. Not the other way around.

medmunds–

So, okay. That point is clear. Can you address the other issues I raised, please? To repeat:

  1. I can login to WorldCat without a problem – on their website. Through Endnote desktop, I get an error. I can’t even chose WordCat as an option on Endnote web. Right? Wrong?

  2. There is still no way to use Google Scholar or Google Books as a search database, not for the desktop nor for the web versions of Endnote. Yes? No?

  3. Thus: without an institutional affiliation, Endnote’s usefulness is severely limited. Opinion?

@ptravis wrote:

Which website do you have an account with for accessing WorldCat?  EndNote’s WorldCat (OCLC) connection file connects to oclc.org, not worldcat.org

Sorry, I missed your message … I will go check again, and let you know.

I am an individual, an independent scholar, so I don’t have an OCLC account – I believe those are only for institutions, right? So yes, I go to worldcat.org to check references.

As far as I can see, OCLC is not even among the choices under “Select database or library catalog connection…”

So I’m guessing this means that there is no access to OCLC/worldcat without an institutional affiliation?

For clarification,  EndNote’s Online Search is not searching the same servers that you would use when searching the web application. It’s searching through a different server, using the Z39.50 protocol in many cases. WorldCat does not have a Z39.50 server so there’s no connection file. The OCLC WorldCat access requires a subscription.

My recommendation in this case is to use the web applications to conduct searches and then use direct export to import the records into your library. For Google Scholar, see this FAQ - http://www.endnote.com/support/Faqs/Import/faq11.asp. For WorldCat, you can use the Cite/Export option on the full record and select Export to EndNote. You can also export a set of references from a list’s Citations View tab. 

We offer different options to support searching and importing records due to varying technologies and authentication models. Online Search is just one method to accomplish this but it isn’t the only way. 

Hope this helps,

 - Mathilda, the EndNote team

@medmunds wrote:

For clarification,  EndNote’s Online Search is not searching the same servers that you would use when searching the web application. It’s searching through a different server, using the Z39.50 protocol in many cases. WorldCat does not have a Z39.50 server so there’s no connection file. The OCLC WorldCat access requires a subscription.

 

My recommendation in this case is to use the web applications to conduct searches and then use direct export to import the records into your library. For Google Scholar, see this FAQ - http://www.endnote.com/support/Faqs/Import/faq11.asp. For WorldCat, you can use the Cite/Export option on the full record and select Export to EndNote. You can also export a set of references from a list’s Citations View tab. 

 

We offer different options to support searching and importing records due to varying technologies and authentication models. Online Search is just one method to accomplish this but it isn’t the only way. 

 

Hope this helps,

 

 - Mathilda, the EndNote team

 

 

Mathilda – thanks for your detailed response. I did know all this, but my hope was that since the subject was first raised in 2008 y’all would have made a connection file for Google Scholar. Is that never going to happen?

Note I didn’t say that there was no way to import references – I said there was no way to avoid the tedious intermediate step of downloading to the computer and then importing or uploading to Endnote.

There are a lot of independent scholars out there, and as it stands, Endnote is not very accommodating for us. I’m afraid I’ll have to give it a negative review.