You may be able to add references by importing one or more PDFs into your EndNote library, provided the PDFs have DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers).
Caution: A reference will only generate if the PDF has a DOI. Sometimes, however, even articles with DOIs don't import well.
But if you have plenty of PDFs, it is worth a try to import them to see which references generate. This page explains how to add references by importing PDFs manually and automatically.
| Quick Steps: File > Import > File or Folder > Browse for PDF or folder with PDFs > Import Option: Choose PDF > Import |
Step-by-Step:
Choose File or Folder, depending on whether you have single or multiple PDFs.
You can set your EndNote preferences to automatically create a reference for any PDFs that you download to a particular folder.
If EndNote is able to discover author & title information (because the PDF has an embedded DOI number), then the full reference will be created, otherwise, a record showing the PDF name will be created, that you can then edit to add full details.
Click Select Folder and browse to choose a folder that will hold your downloaded PDF files
If you set this preference then when you start EndNote it will automatically create records for new PDFs in your download folder, and attach a copy of the PDF file into your Library. The references are stored in the group Imported References, which you can them move into your own groups.
This "PDF Auto Import Folder" (2013) video is from EndNote's video tutorial collection, created by EndNote Training. This is EndNote Training's latest video available on this topic. Although it is demonstrated on EndNote X7, the steps are still applicable to EndNote X8.
Q: How do I find out if my article PDF has a DOI?
A: The DOI is usually in the article description on the first page.
Instead of checking each PDF to see if it has a DOI, we recommend: