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Library Guides

Referencing & Plagiarism

Referencing Guide

Reference Management Tools

There are various different tools and apps on the market that can help you reference correctly and organise the literature you find through your searching.  At the University of Plymouth, we provide advice on, and access to Endnote reference management software.  Follow the guidance below for comprehensive advice on how to set up and use Endnote for your level of study:

What is Endnote?

EndNote enables you to keep track of the bibliographic references you discover through the course of your literature searching and works with Microsoft Word to enable automatic formatting of references in your documents (many referencing styles are available).  With Endnote you can:

  • directly import references into an EndNote library from Primo, library databases (e.g. Web of Science, Ebsco), journal collections (e.g. Science Direct) and also from Google Scholar.

  • attach pdfs with your references and store them in your Endnote Library

  • organise and group your references in a flexible way to suit you (you can add notes and search through your references)

  • automatically format your references using the University of Plymouth 'Cite While You Write' Harvard style & University of Plymouth Humanities style in your Microsoft Word documents (other styles are available).  You can also copy a formatted bibliography to add to your documents if preferred.

There are two types of Endnote software.  Choose the one for your level of study/research below:

Endnote Online

Recommended for: 

Undergraduate & Post Graduate Taught

Endnote Desktop

Recommended for:

Post Graduate Research, Research and Academic staff


A note about Mendeley:

The Library provides advice, support and training on use of Endnote Desktop and Endnote Online referencing software.  Staff and students can use any preferred software although the Library can only support use of Endnote at present.  If you are a user of Mendeley and would like to use Endnote, we have provided some advice below on switching to Endnote.  This guide applies to Endnote Desktop.