Handling multiple references to one item

EndNote EndNote How To
1

Hi.

I am new to EndNote, having acquired it recently through my university. Eager to use it for my work, having spent some time exploring the application I am stuck at a point where I am unsure as for how to achieve the result I am seeking for.

I want to refer to the same items, for example a book, multiple times. For each reference I want to specify pages, excerpts and similiar. Further, I need all the references to have unique numbers (when using a numbered style) despite being to the same item. My question is, can this be done without needing to make a new reference entry in my EndNote library for each reference, or is that the only possible method to achieve this?

It would be, I think, very practical to be possible to have a library of items, adding pages and excerpts on the fly for each reference as they are used. Especially since I also use independent bibliographies to list used items. Or maybe have separate libraries for items and references based on these… maybe I should use groups for this? Anyhow, information about alternatives would be appreciated.

Thanks beforehand for any answer.

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The edit citation facility means you enter the book or resource once, and then specify pages using the suffix - or “cited pages” (making sure the style includes or you edit it to include that field in the “citation” template).   I think you will be pleasantly surprised.  Make sure you explore the endnote website (see the online tutorials and regular Webinars available at: http://www.endnote.com/training/ ), the PDF and “Getting Started” manuals available in the endnote folder in the program folder.  Finally don’t forget to use the help within the program. 

Message Edited by Leanne on 10-17-2009 03:44 PM

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I have tried the edit citation function, however it is not quite what I am looking for. I seek to have page numbers and other specifications in the reference, not the citation. The below text illustrates how I have been referencing for a while now (except for when otherwise is required), and what I seek to do with EndNote.

Text with citation

”… Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.” [1].

References

 

[1] O’Connor, J.J. and Robertson, E.F. (1997). Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Biography. page number(s), chapter/subtitle, “Excerpt text”.
    
Bibliogaphy (Independent)

 

O’Connor, J. J. and Robertson, E. F. (1997). Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Biography. The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. Retrieved October 2009, from http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Bessel.html.

That way the independent bibliography incudes all the items referred to (with the possibility of exceptions, but that can be solved for individual references by typing all the text as one string), and sometimes some which may not have been directly referred to but which may be of interest for readers to know have been used. Every item is listed once there.

The references part includes information about each individual reference, which is always numbered uniquely in ascending order, even when there are several references to the same source. Page numbers and other specifications are included here.

I keep the citation itself restricted to a number.

Anyhow, I guess I will settle for now with making a group for items and one for all the unique references, it will likely have its advantages down the road. Maybe I will use some different approach for referencing in the future, as well.

EDIT: I solved it by using different groups, a reference entry in the library for each reference/citation, and three custom fields for all the referrence types (Referred Page(s), Referred Chapter/Subtitle and Referred Text Excerpt). I think this will work fine :).

I used the following style format should anyone be interested

Author (Year). Title|.◊Referred Page(s)|.◊Referred Chapter/Subtitle|.◊_“Referred Text Excerpt”|_.

Message Edited by Alle on 10-17-2009 04:28 PM

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It is certainly a limitation of EndNote that with numbered styles you cannot have multiple references to the same book, each reference having a specific page number appended in the reference list.

I’m surprised that this question doesn’t arise more often. I guess numbered styles are mainly used in disciplines where virtually all cited references are journal articles. 

Maybe a footnote style would suit you better? Footnote styles allow cited pages in each reference, and Word gives you the option of putting your footnotes at the end of the document as endnotes.

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Hi John East.

I usually reserve a separate purpose for footnotes, for example to explain unusual terms. Even if I wouldn’t, I do not know how to link the endnote functionality of Word to my EndNote library, I see no specific footnote style.

The way I achieved the result I was seeking works well now, further, I added another custom field simply named “Reference Notes”. A smart group makes sure that all references are put in a group for references based on that they have something in this field, and another one puts the ones without any content in the “Reference Notes” field in an group titled items, respectively. It is easy to copy an item and make as many references as I want to. Further I have made a style for the separate bibliographies, and another one for references.

Down the road I anticipate the benefit of easily being able to search both my items and my different references used in different works, since such information is stored in the custom fields, including for which work and purpose I have created the reference. I suppose therefore that something positive has came from not being able to just add such information on the fly to the references.

The only issue, but maybe it is a non-issue in practice, is that the custom field for “Referred page(s)” does not have the special functionality of the default pages fields, for which reason I cannot use the automated “p.” and “pp.” prefixes. Either I need to settle for putting them manually in the field, knowing that I will not be able to change them in the future, or I can opt not to use any prefix. It is not a difficult thing though to just make a decision at the beginning of each work as for how the pages should be specified, and stick with that.

It does take some customization, but I am happy that the room for this is there in EndNote. It would be beneficial to be able to create custom special fields as well, such as those handling pages.

Message Edited by Alle on 10-22-2009 12:20 AM