Hi I’m new to Endnote (and reference managers) but I consider myself handy with computers. Here are my findings after two days of testing and Googling and text editing and pulling my hair out and drinking coffee.
Use Case:
I thought I’d try it to maintain a library of several reference types from various sources. These references are then exported as several libraries with different styles for personal webpages, co-workers, other databases, etc.
Features I found myself looking for or needing improvement:
- does not allow styles to reformat references like 2017/6/5 to June 5th, 2017. Forcing people to add custom fields just to accommodate multiple styles. Output filters need to be smarter (perhaps scriptable?).
- no simple select & merge option. Duplicates don’t always have overlapping fields. This would be a power-tool for managing low-quality imports
- searches don’t have negative boolean options. E.g. can’t create a smart group using a field with entries that exclude a specific word. So forget about complex filters.
- opening a specific attached file is clumsy if a ref has several attachments.
- when opening a URL, with multiple URLs only the first entry will be opened, even if it is broken.
- no option to use the DOI like a URL. Scraped URLs usually point to public databases, DOIs aren’t resolved.
- no field for author ID in the Journal Article reference type (e.g. ORCID). Many modern databases have a field for this. As a large reference manager Endnote is not helping a promising new standard.
- no ability to preserve the original import information as a text attachment. This causes information loss when exporting back to the original format. There should be a lossless way of importing.
- no ability to display library fields with multiple entries (e.g. keywords, URLs) apart from the authors field.
- reference types should be infinitely extensible. 8 custom fields is limiting.
- custom reference types should be merge-able with existing ones , not overwrite everything by default on import.
Poor batch workflow:
- a crude search and replace function to edit multiple references. No regexp!!
- can not import multiple files at once (e.g. multiple pdfs or several .nbib files)
- no ability to add multiple files to a single reference at once.
- no ability to add a single file to multiple references (at once, without duplication)
A lot of potential to attract power-users if these points get attention. I hope the product team realizes my suggestions aren’t niche features and have a cost/value ratio. Thank you.