Product: Mac EndNote Plus 2

Author: Dr. Jiangyu Zhu

Discipline: Cell Biology

Contact: jzhu@warren.med.harvard.edu, Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, A02115 

Like Adobe Photoshop, the standard software for image processing, EndNote from Niles has become the landmark of bibliography . Almost all the scientists today find it hard to keep up with rapid-paced biomedical research. EndNote breaks the hardship by providing unprecedented ease in reference access, organization and editing. I have EndNote Plus 2 installed on two computers in the lab, PowerMac 8500 and PowerMac G3. I frequently retrieve references from Entrez PubMedline database located at National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) using either Netscape or Netrez (a stand-alone Medline browser that can be downloaded from NCBI). After checking the references of interest, I download them from web and import into EndNote. According to the subject of research projects in the lab, several EndNote reference libraries were compiled on the computers. The scientists in the lab can routinely access and review the references at a click of button. The EndNote sorting (by author, year...etc.) fuction enables us to keep track of the most recent advances in the research field and even individual research group.

Within EndNote, reference style can be easily tailored to sepcific needs. Font type, size, style and text format changes are almost effortless. I customized a reference style named "hard copy" for regular print-out. It shows author, year, title, and journal name and then in the next line the bold-faced word "Abstract" followed by abstract text in smaller font size. The spacing between two references can also be adjusted. This customized reference style gives clean and easily readable print-out. I often circulate the print-out to students in the lab, with which the students run down to the library to dig out the original articles.

With EndNote, massive influx of information turns into knowledge,which ensues innovative thinking. The seamless style editing function also allows easy accomodation of any change in publication style made by the journal publishers. For example, Nature recently changed its reference style by requiring the reference title. I wrote the manuscript using Mac Microsoft Word 5 and inserted citations into the text. Then using Microsoft Word EndNote Plug-in module, I modified the Nature reference style by including the reference title. Finally, while selecting the new Nature style, I integrated the reference into the manuscript. From start to finish, it took only minutes.

Probably the most joyful moment for scientists is to publish their ground-breaking dicovery. But often enough, that is also an extremely stressful moment as many scientists spend most of their time copying and pasting the references. Despite tremendous effort, many typo-errors are left in the reference, sometimes even just before a manuscript goes to editorial office. EndNote software brought an end to such reference hassles. It is truely a "must-have" software for every scientist.