Merge between Endnote and Refmanager

EndNote EndNote General
1

I work at R&D at a company, which recently bought Endnote X4, multiuser version to sort our references out. The problem with Endnote, is as many multi-users have discovered that it is multi-read, but as you write, you lock the database completely. We really like Endnote, expect for this very annoying feature. As many others we have solved this by having two databases that are copied each night. We are still not really happy with this solution, and would prefer a real database, that locks a specific post instead of the complete database when editing

However, as Thomson Reuters have Reference Manager, that have solved this feature, with a much better shared-access, my first thought that this was the big-brother in their citation product family. I ordered the demo version, but at a first glance the interface doesn’t strike me as especially user-friendly, and the search function seems very complicated, where Endnote has a much better interface, and is easy to learn.

Does anyone know why there are two products, where none of them offers a user-friendly multi-user environment? Is there a program that combines these features?

2

To answer your last question first, there are two, because they bought out two (really 3, if you count Procite) packages and further developed both of them.  (They have not further developed Procite). 

You might want to look at the Endnote Web part of Endnote, which is their  Multi-user/shared library facility.  There are webinars and an online videothat walk you thru the process. I found the “Endnote Web for Endnote Users” webinar helpful.   Or if you prefer written instructions - see here.

3

One more point.  If your users used the locked copy of the library and create small libraries with new refs and later import them (discarding duplicates) into the main library, that is another way to “share”.  X4 (and X5) are pretty good at not relying as much on the underlying record numbers