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EndNote 20 Basic course

3.4 Importing references using a filter

What is a filter?
A filter is a piece of software that converts references that are stored in a file on your own PC from a bibliographic database into references in an EndNote library.

The file with references must be a text file (.txt) and the references must be divided in fields, e.g:
TI: When I Write My Masterpiece: Thoughts on what makes a paper interesting.
PY: 2006
AU: Barley,-Stephen-R
SO: Academy-of-Management-Journal. Vol 49(1) Feb 2006, 16-20.

There is a special filter for each bibliographic database (e.g PsycINFO, Medline).
Databases are often run on various platforms, for instance Medline via OvidSP and Medline via CSA.
Here also special filters are needed.

Hundreds of filters are included in the EndNote program. Look at the site of EndNote for more filters. You can use these filter files in EndNote by saving the files from this page in the directory …\program files\EndNote 20\Filters

The procedure of importing references via filters goes as follows:
Do a search in a bibliographic database (e.g. PsycINFO, Medline) and save the results on your PC in a .txt file.

Start EndNote and choose a library.

Choose for File – Import – File. You see the following screen: 

Via the button “Choose…” you select the file in which you have saved the references from the database.

At the “Import Option” you choose the filter that you need.
If you do not see it right away in the menu, click on “Other Filters”.
Here you have an overview of all filters available.

Select the filter you want to use and click on “Choose”.

Opt at “Duplicates” (see the import screen below) for “Import into Duplicates Library” (or just choose Import all).

Choose at “Text Translation” for “Unicode (UTF-8)”. In most cases this is the best option, because this character encoding format maintains signs and symbols, e.g. diacritics.

Your import screen looks more or less like this: 

Click on the button “Import” and the references are imported to your library.

More about importing with filters
After importing the references are separately visible as a special selection under "Imported references". You can make all your references visible via All References.

None of these filters are perfect. Always check the imported references which and if necessary make some adjustments. You can also add a specific tag to the selection of imported references so you can easily retrieve them, if later something turns out to be not right.