Being new to Endnote I was pretty excited to be able to track down references in online databases (either from within Endnote or outside) and have them imported directly into my reference library. But when I look at the references, they are very often wrong in some respect, such as not including the year of a journal article. But the most consistent error is importing edited volumes as straight books, with either no author (the editors appear at the end of the title entry) or a single author when there are multiple editors. Should the tags in the databases be able to tell Endnote that the item is an edited volume instead of a book and import appropriately? Or this is a common problem and I’ll need to go in and fix them manually?
Thanks again (second time today).
@chris12 wrote:
… Should the tags in the databases be able to tell Endnote that the item is an edited volume instead of a book and import appropriately? Or this is a common problem and I’ll need to go in and fix them manually?
It may but you will need to know the way the online database “tags” the information (see image1 for example) and how the filter’s templates are set up in order to ascertain whether the problem lies with the tags, filter’s template, or both.
You should check: 1) the online database tags, then 2) check if the filter to see what templates are included [To check the filter go to the toolbar, select EDIT, IMPORT FILTERS, EDIT [Name of the filter you’re using] which will display the filter’s settings. Click “Templates” then click the Reference Type pull-down menu - anything with a check mark indicates a pre-existing template.]
If the tags do not provide any any information to identify if the source is a book or book chapter, that’s the end of that. But if the tags have the info, the next thing to do is to check the filter’s templates. If you do not find any “Book” or “Book Section” template, and the online database tags contain information that would enable creating a template, you can create your own template filter. Use the field codes or “tags” in that the online database uses (see Image1 for an example of EBSCOHost tags). These tags are used to “build” the left column of a filter’s template (see Image2). The “Field(s)” column represent fields that correspond to those appearing in the EndNote template (use the “Insert Field” button). The combination of tags and fields enables manipulating the online database information. Once you create the template, designate it as the default so all imported references will download as a book or book section reference type. [Click"Reference Type" then by the line that says “By default, import references as:” click the pull-down menu and select the reference.]
You should read the EndNote manual’s section on Filters, particularly the part on punctuation and literal text as that along with the missing tags and fields may explain why your imported references (i.e., author names) are not downloading into your library as expected.
I’ve experienced a similar problem with the EbscoHost database but creating a filter specific to what I wanted was worth the time and effort.
This is helpful. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
