Groups make it easy to break a large EndNote Desktop library into sub-categories. A group creates a ‘folder’ of references that already exist within your library.

When you create a group and populate it with references, the references are still kept in All References folder. You are not moving your references from the All References folder; you are simply creating copies of them in your groups.

There are two types of groups you can create: a basic group and a smart group. You can also create group sets to group together any of your basic or smart groups.

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1. Create a new basic group

With basic groups, you manually drag and drop any existing references into your group. The references are still kept in All References folder; basic groups only contain copies of them.

TO CREATE: Right-click on My Groups > Create Group, or from the toolbar menu Groups > Create Group. Name your group whatever you like (e.g. a topic you are researching).

Now drag-and-drop some references from All References into your new group.

A basic group is identified with this icon .

 

2. Create a new smart group

With smart groups, EndNote will automatically place into the smart group any future or existing references that contain your search criteria within any field within the reference, e.g. title, author, abstract, keywords, etc.. The references are still added or kept in All References folder; smart groups only contain copies of them.

TO CREATE: Right-click on My Groups > Create Smart Groups, or from the toolbar menu Groups > Create Smart Group. Name your group whatever you like (e.g. a topic you are researching). Press the Author drop-down list, scroll up and select Any Field. In the text box, type a word that commonly appears in your references (e.g. in title, author or abstract). Press the Create button.

A smart group is identified with this icon .

 

3. Create a Group Set

A group set allows you to group various simple groups or smart groups together.

For example, if you are undertaking several courses/subjects, you could create a group set for each of your course/subject codes. You could then create simple groups within every group set for each of your assignments, e.g. assignment 1, assignment 2, etc.

Another example is if you are only undertaking a thesis or dissertation in your studies, you could create a group set for each chapter of your paper, e.g. Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. You could then create simple groups or smart groups within every group set for the references you use for each chapter and categorise those references into sub-topics, e.g. sub-topic A, sub-topic B, etc.

Another example is if you are researching a topic, you could create a group set consisting of sub-topics. For example, you topic could be about long-term unhealthy eating and impact on health. You could create group sets as sub-topics for your topic, e.g. causes of unhealthy eating, psychology, health consequences, management & treatment, etc. You could then create simple groups or smart groups within every group set for the references you use for each of these sub-topics and categorise those references into further sub-topics, e.g. sub-topic A, sub-topic B, etc.

TO CREATE: Groups > Create Group Set OR right-click on the first MY GROUPS on left panel and select Create Group Set. Give your group set a name (e.g. EEET2449, Chapter 1, etc.).

A group set is identified with this upside-down triangle icon .