Sorting and searching references

• Sorting references
• Searching references
• Combining search terms

Sorting references

There are two different ways to sort references in your library.

• The easiest way is to simply click on the Field title at the top of the library, eg. Year.

EndNote rearranges the references so that they are in chronological order, from the oldest to the most recent.

• Click on the Year field title again.

The references now appear in reverse chronological order.

The second option for sorting is to use the Sort icon.

• Click on the Sort icon.

A Sort Options window appears.

• Click on the first down arrow to see the options available for sorting your libray.
• Scroll up and click on Author.
• Click the button next to Author to switch it to A-Z.

• Now, click on OK.

Your references are now arranged alphabetically by Author.

Searching references

You can search your library for references on a particular topic, by a particular author, etc.

We will use the sample library that comes with EndNote, Paleo.enl, in this example.

• Click on the (Open library) icon.
• Go to C:/Program Files/EndNote X1/Examples
• Select Paleo.enl
• Click on Open.

• Click on the Search icon. (You can also perform a Quick Search by using the search box on the toolbar.)

A search box appears.

• Enter Billoski in the first box as your search term.
• Change Any Field to Author.
• Click on Search.
• Close the search box to see the results better.

EndNote retrieves 8 references that match your query, i.e. with the author Billoski. (Note that Billoski is the second or third listed author in some of the references. That is why some of the retrieved references appear under different names. You can search for Billoski as First Author if you only want references where Billoski is listed first.)

Combining search terms

• Click on the Search icon again.

You can combine search terms using the AND, OR and NOT operators.

AND combines terms and narrows your search.
OR adds terms and broadens your search.
NOT excludes terms and narrows your search.

Let's search the Paleo library for articles with the author Billoski and which have been published in 1990 or later.

• As before, enter Billoski and select Author on the first line.
• Leave AND selected at the end of the first line.
• Enter 1990 in the second search box.
• Change the second search field to Year.
• Change the second Contains to Is greater than or equal to.

• Click on Search.
• Close the search box to see the results better.

We have retrieved 5 references that match these criteria.