Exporting from Zotero to Endnote

Wenkele

Hi,

I have been working with Zotero for a while, but my institute now started to use Endnote, so everybody is encouraged to go for it. Is there a possibility to export the references I have collected in Zotero to Endnote?

Thank you!

Sigrid.

bdarcus

I have been working with Zotero for a while, but my institute now started to use Endnote, so everybody is encouraged to go for it.

I strongly suggest your institute reconsider this move. Zotero is arguably a superior solution now, but it's capabilities will grow much faster than Endnote's. This is not a smart long-term move.

And that's not to mention the fact that the company that develops it has decided to try compete against Zotero not by actually improving its product, but by suing the institution that hosts its development.

In short, "just say no."

But if you must, just export using RIS or Refer.

mark

It's easy to give it a try since exporting from Zotero is a piece of cake, but I suspect that you'll long for Zotero soon enough. I know what I'm talking about; I switched from Endnote to Zotero some time ago.

But here's what you need to do to see what your library looks like in Endnote: Select the references in Zotero, rightclick and export to RIS; then go to Endnote, choose File>Import, browse to the file and click OK. Don’t forget to specify Refman RIS under ‘Import option’; Endnote doesn’t autodetect the format even if you feed it a perfectly valid .ris file.

Wenkele

Thank you for your help! I will try that. But you might be right about how zotero is better than endnote, I have looked into it for a bit now, and zotero seems so much easier to handle!

rs123

That almost works, but not quite, and I'd appreciate suggestions.

I don't know a way to preserve the "last accessed" date for web pages. I also seem to lose info about "computer programs" -- in my case, R packages.

I don't think there's a clear way to make this happen. Some of the formats don't support these data items. And the ones that do [in the main list], Endnote seems to ignore -- like Wiki, for example.

mryckman

Hello,

Yes - EndNote, in my mind, is really a different beast. EndNote is designed for a focus only on the bibliography itself. EndNote simply removes an annoying task for the researcher; conversely, Zotero enables the researcher. Consider that in EndNote, the list of entries is just that - one big list. EndNote is not really made to do things like note taking, reference organizing and project management and preparation. Sure, EndNote can do these things - you can take notes for example - but it is an annoying process because of the broader focus of the application.

I think the power of Zotero is that it moves beyond the references themselves. To most academics (who I assume is the target here), the citation is simply a minor hassle. The focus is on the ideas - the way information relates, organizes and works toward the creation of new ideas. I find that Zotero is built in this way.

As an example, consider that EndNote (at least to my knowledge) doesn't do things like tag clouds or collections. EndNote is made to work with one big list of entries and it places the burden of knowing relationships among the data on the user. Zotero likewise uses one big list as a base, but the real interactions with Zotero happen through tags and collections. From these, you can focus on a specific area of interest. This way, over the course of some normal day, I can find articles that do not relate in any way to something I am interested in now and I can add them to Zotero. Later, when I am interested in some new idea, I can effectively ask Zotero to show me what I have on topic X. This allows me to manage more complex relationships among the data easily.

Finally, EndNote is a tool designed to remove a singular annoyance: the creation of a bibliography. Zotero is more than that... Zotero organizes the information academics use. For example, I have the pdfs attached to almost everything in my Zotero list. In case of datasets, I have also included things like the codebook - or sometimes even the data themselves. EndNote can store links to these sorts of things, but again, this places the burden on me to keep track of where those files are... and if I move, I have to redo a lot of links.

That's just my thought on it... these are different programs designed for different uses... But importantly, Zotero subsumes EndNote. Put differently, everything you can do in EndNote, you can do in Zotero. But Zotero likewise enables so much more than EndNote offers.

Mike

pwevans

I do not like zotero mostly because I can't make it work for me. I also am having difficulty with firefox. On my 64-bit Windows 7, zotero windows show up without text in them, and I can't get igoogle themes to show when igoogle is brought up in firefox. I prefer Chrome but in either case zotero doesn't have full functionality. For example the green file icon doesn't show so I can select it to bring a page into zotero with one click. Any ideas snyone?

Patrick

mark

Patrick, you don't give enough information about your system and on what you have tried for us to provide any helpful ideas. It may also help to familiarize yourself with the Zotero documentation.

Re: iGoogle: Zotero has nothing to do with that — Zotero is an addon for your browser while iGoogle is a customizable webpage.
Re: Chrome: you can only expect Zotero to show up in Chrome if you (1) have installed the Chrome connector and (2) have installed either Zotero Standalone Beta or Zotero for Firefox. If both are the case then Zotero should have full functionality.

aaroncavanaugh2

Hi,

Just wanted to add my thoughts here. Trying to do the same thing "Export to Endnote." I feel like Endnote is a way more powerful tool, but I like Zotero for quoting websites. Looking forward to using both for school.

Thanks. God Bless.

Aaron.

adamsmith

Endnote is not far more powerful than Zotero.
But if you want to export from Zotero to Endnote just use Export---> RIS.
Since one of the many ways in which Endnote is less powerful than Zotero is the lack of support for good and open standards of data export and import this won't be loss-less.