What is EndNote?

EndNote is citation management software that allows you to manage your research materials, create bibliographies, format citations, and collaborate with others. EndNote is probably the most sophisticated of the citation tool options. The user interface is highly customizable and very robust. However, it may take a bit longer to learn than other tools and the most full-featured version usually costs money, but there's an educational discount for Harvard students.

Strengths of EndNote:

  • Can handle large collections of citations
  • Has unlimited storage space
  • Many library databases offer a direct export option for EndNote
  • Has professional technical support
  • PDFs can be viewed and annotated directly in EndNote
  • Especially good for life sciences

Get Started with EndNote

Install EndNote

  • All Harvard:
  • FAS affiliates:
    • FAS students, faculty, and staff can download EndNote free of charge from the FAS software downloads page. Please note that if you are an FAS affiliate and the link to the FAS downloads page doesn't work for you, first try a different browser or private/incognito window. If you continue to experience issues, please report the issue to HUIT, as the FAS downloads page is maintained by HUIT.
  • HMS students, staff, and quad-based HMS faculty are eligible for the HMS institutional license of EndNote

Customize EndNote for Use at Harvard

  • Register with EndNote Online 
    • Registering allows you to sync your EndNote library across different devices or to share your EndNote library with collaborators. 
  • Set up Find Full Text
    • EndNote's Find Full Text feature allows you to pull the full text (PDF) for a journal article into your EndNote library. 
  • Set up OpenURL
    • OpenURL enables you to try to find access to an item via Harvard's system. 

Use EndNote at Harvard

Using EndNote with HOLLIS
Import (add) citations from HOLLIS.

Using EndNote Find Full Text at Harvard
How to find the full text for article references you've imported.

HOLLIS connection file
The HOLLIS connection file allows you to search HOLLIS directly from within EndNote (Books and journals only. Articles are not searched in EndNote's internal search.).

Rather than using the HOLLIS connection file to search via EndNote, we recommend searching HOLLIS and other databases directly. Searching HOLLIS and other databases directly has the following advantages:

  • The database usually has a superior search algorithm;
  • The user can more closely control the search;
  • Articles can be included in the search results;
  • The user can see more information about each citation before choosing to export to EndNote.

However, if you would like to use the HOLLIS connection file to search from within EndNote, you can download it from the Harvard Wiki EndNote Connection File page

EndNote Classes at Harvard

FAS Classes

We do not plan to offer EndNote classes in the spring 2023 semester. If you would like to learn about EndNote, please submit an inquiry to the Citation Tools Help form in this guide.