Getting Journal Abbreviations Correct While Using EndNote

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A common question MSK Librarians get about EndNote is how to get the journal abbreviations to display correctly in the formatted citation when a particular output style calls for the journal title to be abbreviated. To have the abbreviated journal titles available in your Endnote program, you must first load a Journals Term List into each EndNote Library file in which you may want to use the abbreviations. The process is a bit complex, so feel free to ASK US if you need further help. Here are the instructions:

  1. In EndNote, open the library in which you wish the journal abbreviations to appear.
  2. Next, go to the EndNote Tools menu and select Open Term Lists > Journals Term List.
  3. In the new dialog box that appears, go to the Lists tab.
  4. After selecting Journals, click the Import List button.
  5. At this point you will be prompted to choose a file. You should see a list of text files to choose from: select Medical.txt and click Open.
  6. After it has “updated” the term list, click OK and go back to the Terms tab and look at the columns.
  7. Note which column lists the abbreviations the way you want them to look (one column will have the abbreviation with periods, one without) and click the Close button.
  8. Now, go to the Style drop-down menu and choose Select Another Style and choose the style you wish to use (e.g. Cancer ACS).
  9. If the abbreviations do not display correctly in the formatted citation preview, you will need to create a custom style. Go to the Edit menu and select Output Styles > Edit “Cancer ACS” (or whichever style you are using).
  10. Go to Save As in the File menu to save the style under a new name (e.g. JAMA Abbrev).
  11. Then, go to Journal Names on the top left and choose the abbreviation version you want based on the options you noted when you looked at the Terms tab in step #7. Save the style.
  12. Close the style and go to Select Another Style in the drop-down menu to choose the style that you just created.

Now when you look at the Preview tab in EndNote or choose the style in Microsoft Word, the journal abbreviations should display correctly if the selected style calls for it!