Importing Custom Groups from Endnote

I'm trying to import my complete library from endnote into zotero as per the instructions on your website. Most of my references within endnote are filed under multiple custom groups, however I'm unable to import the complete library in one shot, while retaining the custom groups info. I'm unsure if importing only one custom group at a time, and renaming the imported folder within zotero is my best solution? (which is what I'm currently experimenting) If I follow this method will references that exist in multiple custom groups in endnote becomes duplicate records in zotero?

Any advice on a smoother transition will be welcome. Thanks
  • edited January 26, 2011
    AFAIK, RIS doesn't have any field to represent a collection/group. If you want separate collections, you need to import multiple RIS files as you say. Alternatively, you can put this information into tags by editing the EndNote RIS exporter to export your groups as RIS KWs.
  • Hi,

    could someone help me out and explain how I can get Endnote to export groups as RIS keywords? I don't have much experience with the output style manager - I tried KW - `Keywords|Groups|` instead of KW - `Keywords|` but that didn't work.

    Thanks in advance
  • @Dameder, @Dkhera,

    Found a similar question and answer for Mendeley:

    [Quote]
    Hi, with Endnote X6 i just discovered how to do this.
    In Endnote:
    1. Go to your 'Group'- select all entries within the group (click on the first entry, hold shift, click on the last entry)
    2. 'Tools' -> 'Change/move/copy fields'
    3. In 'Change fields' - select 'labels' from the drop down list
    4. Select 'insert after'
    5. type in your Groups name
    6. All your entries will now be 'tagged' with your Groups name & will show up as 'tags' in Mendeley
    You can also do this to add keywords to your Endnote libraries

    http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/question/15736/how-do-i-maintain-endnote-groups-when-importing-to-mendeley
    [/Quote]

    Do you have EndNote X6? Perhaps a similar strategy would work for Zotero. Of course, this approach requires repeating the above for each Group--if you have many groups with few articles in each, it may not be worth it.

    If you figure it out, will you please let us know?

    Warm regards,

    James Carroll
    Research Fellow
    National University of Health Sciences
  • (jfcarrol's solution will work for Zotero as well)
  • Hi,

    Yes, it was along the lines of jfcarrol's post that I made it work. I have to admit I can't exactly remember what I did and for some reason I can't retrieve the help that I got from Endnote support forum on exporting any more.
    If jfcarrol's solution doesn't work for you, try to also use keywords instead of labels in the Endnote dropdown list, I also played around with that (not sure which one finally worked).
    Unfortunately, I found that I had to go in and add line breaks after each of my keywords/labels in the resulting ris file, otherwise zotero would import one long tag containing all keywords, not several tags.

    On another note, I found it necessary to remove the "date" field from the RIS-export output style in Endnote in order for Zotero to import the correct publication year. (In Endnote, choose "Edit", "Output Styles", "Open Style Manager". Find "RefMan (RIS) Export", "Edit Style...". Choose "Templates" under "Bibliography", click "Reference Types" in the top, choose "Journal Article". Then remove the "DA - 'Date" line.

    Best, David
  • the one-keyword-per-line thing is expected. Endnote should really export that correctly, that's required in RIS.
    What happens if you do have DA in RIS? Zoter should be able to handle that without problems.
  • I'm also heavily invested in groups within EndNote. I see how to sort of add group names as keywords so they get recognized as Tags in Zotero, the key being presumably to not use generic keywords but say put your initials before each such as MD Needs Assessment, or otherwise "your" group will get mixed up with other tags.

    My question, though, is how to create the equivalent of groups in Zotero, out of searches. I constantly search hundreds of downloads for specific concepts and then in Endnote create a group. But it seems like when you do a search of a collection in Zotero, all you get to "keep" is a "search" folder and within that you can't really do anything that doesn't involve individually adding say a tag. You can't seem to do a global operation of any kind on the search.

    One workaround is to export the search and then important it as a new collection, but then you end up with oodles of duplicates.

    This reminds me of the Procite to Endnote transition. For a long time I maintained a public file on various listserves in which I matched up what Procite could do that Endnote couldn't. Finally, features evolved and I was able to convert basically everything to EndNote, which is pretty much where I am today. All tips welcome, but I'm not sure I can adequately function in Zotero for my serious bibliographical database development. Perhaps for posting bibiogrphies for classes; linking to records I want to email with attached PDF, etc.. Not sure.
  • what types of operations are you trying to do within a saved search? Apart from creating subcollections, you can do anything in a saved search that you can do in a collection - mass tag, sort, quick search, advanced search...
  • One workaround is to export the search and then important it as a new collection, but then you end up with oodles of duplicates.
    Dragging items to collections does not create duplicates (collections in Zotero are like playlists that reference global items). AFAICT, collections are the same as groups in EndNote.
  • I am anticipating having the same issue as 'mdover' in that I use groups and sub-groups a great deal to organize individual libraries in EndNote.

    For example, in Endnote, I have individual libraries for separate grants. Within those libraries, I have many groups, such as Key Personnel, Revisions, Submissions, In Press, Published, Progress Report Year 1, 2, 3, etc.

    So is there anything like a sub-collection in Zotero?

    I'm only thinking of moving from EndNote because one of my clients said he'll never use EndNote again because having Zotero online was so much easier. However, I'm not sure that for my purposes that will work?
  • Yes, you can create as many collections/sub-collections as you want in Zotero and functionally they seem to be identical to EndNote groups, though I haven't worked with EndNote extensively. From a quick look, what you refer to as "individual libraries" are called group sets in EndNote and you can then create single level of groups within a group set. That seems to be more limited than Zotero's ability to nest as many collections as you want. I'd suggest that you install Zotero and play around with it a little bit. If something doesn't seem to be possible, feel free to post on the forums and we'll guide you through it (if there's a way).

    I'll just note that EndNote still doesn't seem to be able to export groups in their XML format, so there's no way for Zotero to import existing groups.
  • Hi, Thanks for the quick reply.

    An individual library in EndNote is just that--a separate file with groups and sub-groups built within it. It is imported into Zotero as a "Collection".

    I will do as you suggest, also trying to add tags to the groups hoping that at least I'll be able to import the library with those tags intact to re-create the groupings I'd had in EndNote.
  • FYI, we suggest that you use EndNote XML export option for transferring your EndNote library. That should be the most lossless way of moving your data.
  • To respond to @adamsmith belatedly, since I see Zotero does a great job of remembering the discussion forums you have participated in, I suspect that I can use "sub-collections" much like Endnote uses "groups". This should suffice.
  • Подскажите пожалуйста: Как перенести литературу из Mendeley в Zotero?
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