Library Guides: EndNote: EndNote Library sharing

Sharing overview

There are 3 ways to share your EndNote library. Each requires one 'admin' team member to oversee the shared Library.

Contact Ask a Librarian for advice on:

Library sharing specific to the needs of your project.
Co-authoring a Word document using EndNote.

Note: You cannot share and use a desktop Library on cloud services such as OneDrive or iCloud. The Library will become corrupted.

EndNote Library Sharing Features Comparison Chart

	Sharing a compressed EndNote Library	Sharing the entire EndNote Library	Sharing Groups
Number of collaborators	Unlimited	1000	100
EndNote versions required	All users must have access to EndNote Desktop. Compressed Libraries are compatible if using EndNote versions 9.3.3, 20, and 21.	All users must have access to EndNote Desktop (preferably version X9.3.3 and above), and an active EndNote Online account.	All users must have access to EndNote Desktop (preferably version X9.3.3 and above), and an active EndNote online account.
Online sync required	No	Yes All users must sync their EndNote Desktop Library to EndNote Online.	Yes All users must sync their EndNote Desktop Library to EndNote Online.
Sync expiry	N/A	All users must upgrade to the latest version of EndNote when their online sync expires to continue sharing their Library.	All users must upgrade to the latest version of EndNote when their online sync expires to continue sharing their group.
Sync expiry	N/A	EndNote 21: Online sync expires 3 years after you have first synced your EndNote Desktop Library to EndNote online. EndNote 20: Online sync expires 2 years after you have first synced your EndNote Desktop Library to EndNote Online. EndNote X9.3.3: After 31 December 2023, users will no longer be able to sync their EndNote Desktop Library to EndNote Online. If you have synced your Library prior to this date, the online sync will expire 2 years after you have first synced your EndNote Desktop Library to EndNote Online.
Sharing PDF attachments	Yes	Yes	No
Concurrent shared library or group editing	No The administrator/Library sharer can make a compressed EndNote Library for emailing to collaborators. When collaborators receive and open the compressed Library, a new copy of the Library is saved on their computer. Any changes made to the new copy will not appear in the original Library.	Yes When the administrator/Library sharer assigns read and write access permissions to each collaborator, they will be able to access and edit the shared Library (i.e. add, change, or remove references) at the same time.	Yes When the administrator/Library sharer assigns read and write access permissions to each collaborator, they will be able to access and edit the shared group (i.e. add, change, or remove references) at the same time.

Sharing methods

The administrator can share their entire designated EndNote 21 sync library.

EndNote 21 Library sharing features:

Administrator can share their entire designated EndNote 21 sync library with a maximum of 1000 collaborators/sharees.
Each collaborator has access to the EndNote Desktop program (versions X9.3.3 and above).
Each collaborator needs to sync their EndNote Desktop Library to a free EndNote online account.
The sharer sets read/write privileges for each collaborator. Potential for collaborators to change and delete references.
Collaborators/sharees can access all references in the Library including any full-text PDF attachments.

The administrator can only sync and share one primary Library at a time.

To ensure compliance with publication licensing, access to PDFs downloaded through CSIRO Library's electronic resources collection is restricted to CSIRO staff and affiliates.

EndNote shared Libraries are compatible if using EndNote versions 9.3.3, 20, and 21. These versions are not backwardly compatible with older versions of EndNote (i.e. EndNote X9.2 and earlier versions).

Sharing

Compress your EndNote Desktop Library to back it up.
Sync your EndNote Desktop Library to a free EndNote online account if you haven't already done so.
Select File > Share...
Add the email addresses of your collaborators.
Add the read/write privileges:

Selecting Read only allows your collaborators to access the Library.
Selecting Read & Write allows your collaborators to access and edit the Library (i.e. add, change or remove references).

EndNote Deskop Library sharing menu, read write access permissions

Collaborator(s) will have a Pending status. The status changes to Member when collaborator(s) accept the email invitation.
To re-send an invitation, revoke sharing, or change permissions for any individual group member:

Select File > Share...
Click on the options icon next to the member's name.
Select Remind or Remove, or change the person's permission from Read Only to Read & Write or vice versa.

EndNote Desktop Library sharing menu, change permissions, re-send an invitation to share

Collaborators

Important: Only sync one primary EndNote Library. Attempting to sync multiple Libraries will merge the references of both Libraries. Do not move or rename your EndNote Library files after they are synchronised as this breaks the link to the Sync target Library.

Receive and accept an email invitation to view the desktop Library.
Collaborators open their EndNote Program.
Collaborators sync their EndNote desktop Library with a free EndNote online account if they haven't already done so.
In the EndNote Desktop program, select File > Open Shared Library....
Select the email address of the sharer/Library owner.
Click Open, and a local Library is created on the computer. You will see the sharer's email on the top left of the Library window.

The administrator can only sync and share one primary Library at a time.

Collaborators can be the recipient/sharee of an unlimited number of shared Libraries.

The administrator/Library sharer is the only one who can invite others to be part of the sharing team.

Collaborators/sharees can't rename or back-up a shared Library.

The administrator can make a compressed EndNote Library for emailing to collaborators.

Compressed Library sharing features:

Compressed Library can be emailed to an unlimited number of collaborators.
Does not require syncing to an online Library.
Administrator can compress a group of references in the Library instead of the complete desktop Library.
A quick and easy way to share a set of references, however, the shared Library cannot be edited concurrently.
When collaborators receive and open the compressed Library file, a new copy of the Library is saved onto their computer. Any changes made to the new Library will not appear in the original Library.
If anyone edits the Library (i.e. adds, changes or removes references), they must compress the edited Library and send this back to the rest of the Library sharing team.

Compressed Libraries are compatible if using EndNote versions 9.3.3, 20, and 21. These versions are not backwardly compatible with older versions of EndNote (i.e. EndNote X9.2 and earlier versions).

Administrators can temporarily upload/save the compressed Library (.enlx file) to a cloud syncing folder, but collaborators must move the compressed Library to their local drive, i.e. Local Disc (C:) before opening and editing it.

Option to compress the Library without PDF file attachments to ensure compliance with publication licensing. Note that access to PDFs downloaded through CSIRO Library's electronic resources collection is restricted to CSIRO staff and affiliates.

Sharing

To compress your EndNote Desktop Library, select File > Compress Library (.enlx) ...
Choose from the following options:

Create your compressed EndNote Library or Create & Email your compressed EndNote Library.
Compress your Library with file attachments or without file attachments.
Include All References in Library, Selected References or References that appear in a Group or Group Set.

Click Next, name the file then click Save.
Email the compressed Library to collaborators.

Collaborators

Move the EndNote compressed Library (.enlx file) to your local drive i.e. Local Disc (C:) before you open and edit it. The ideal location to move the compressed file to is Local Disc (C:) \ Users \ your ident folder.
If collaborators edit the Library (i.e. add, change, or remove references), they must compress the edited library and send this back to the administrator and the rest of the Library sharing team.

When collaborators open the compressed Library, a new copy of the Library is saved on their computer. Any changes made to this new copy will not appear in the original Library.

Use the EndNote Online platform to share a group of references. Only the administrator can share the desktop Library with collaborators who can then access a specific set of references from the online Library. Collaborators are only able to see the shared references using their EndNote online account.

Group sharing features:

100 collaborators for each group of references.
Collaborators each need an EndNote Online account. Collaborators who are currently non-EndNote users can create a free EndNote Online account.
Administrator sets read only/read & write privileges for each collaborator. Collaborators with read & write access can add, change or remove references.
Collaborators cannot access the .pdf attachments.

Administrator can only sync and share one primary Library at a time.

Sharing

Administrator creates a group of references in their designated EndNote 21 sync Library to share with collaborators using EndNote Online:

Compress your EndNote Desktop Library to back it up.
Sync your EndNote Desktop Library to a free EndNote online account if you haven't already done so.
Create a group of references to be shared (this custom group will show in your EndNote online account).
Click on the Help menu and select EndNote online.
Login to your EndNote Online account using your existing Web of Science login, or Register to create a new account using your CSIRO email address and a unique password.
Select Organize > Manage My Groups.
From the Groups list, click on the checkbox in the Share column and select Manage Sharing.
Click on the link Start sharing this group.
Type in the email address of a collaborator, and add the read/write privileges:

Selecting Read only allows your collaborator to access the library.
Selecting Read & Write allows your collaborator to access and edit the Library (i.e. add, change or remove references).

EndNote Online group sharing, add email address of sharees, read-write access permissions

Repeat for each collaborator.
Notify the collaborator(s) to access the online Library (EndNote does not send an invitation).

https://access.clarivate.com/login?app=endnote

To revoke sharing or change permissions for any individual group member:

In EndNote Online, click on the Organize tab > Manage My Groups.
Click on the Manage Sharing button for the group.
Click on Delete to revoke sharing.
Change the person's permission from Read Only to Read & Write or vice versa.

EndNote library sharing, revoke sharing, manage sharing, sharing permissions

Collaborators

Login to EndNote Online account or create an EndNote Online account.
In EndNote Online, the shared group will appear in the Group list.

Installing EndNote Online plug-in

Authors collaborating on a Word document using EndNote Online must install the EndNote Online plug-in for Word and set their CWYW preferences to connect to EndNote Online.

Log into EndNote Online and click on the Downloads tab:
Download the plug-in for your operating system:
In Word, click on the EndNote tab and select Preferences:
Click on the Applications tab, and select EndNote Online from the Application drop-down menu.
Enter the email address and password for your EndNote Online account and click OK.

To set your CWYW preferences to connect to EndNote Desktop:

In Word, click on the EndNote tab, and select Preferences. Click on the Applications tab, and select EndNote from the Application drop-down menu.

Co-authoring a Word document

Word documents with formatted EndNote citations will become corrupted when saved in or opened from cloud syncing folders (e.g. OneDrive, MS Teams, Dropbox and Google Drive etc.).

Move the Word document to your local drive, i.e. Local Disc (C): before editing with EndNote.

Formatted citations and references have embedded (hidden) field codes that link to your EndNote Library.

These hidden field codes will become corrupted or lost when:

More than one person edits the document at a time.
You attempt to edit or delete a citation by typing directly into it or by using the Backspace or Delete key.
You save or store your Word document in a cloud syncing folder (e.g.OneDrive, MS Teams, Google Drive etc.).
You open and edit your Word document from a cloud syncing folder.
You use the shortcut keys [Ctrl] +6 on Windows; or [Command]+6 on macOS.
You save your document in .txt, .rtf or .odt file format.
You attempt to format a document containing Track Changes.

Co-authoring a Word document with formatted citations

Only one person edits the document at a time.
Edit the citations using the Edit & Manage Citations command found on the EndNote tab.
It is recommended that all authors work from a shared Library or shared Group with duplicate references removed.
Ensure the Word document is saved in and opened from your local drive i.e. Local Disc (C): before editing with EndNote.
Back-up the Word document in your local drive before sharing with co-authors.
Unformat the citations in the Word document before sharing with co-authors.
Save the Word document in .doc or .docx format.
All authors use Microsoft 365 version of Word (Word Desktop App).
Do not open or edit documents using Word online (Word Web) or Google Docs, as this will corrupt the document.
Turn off Track Changes before you update the citations and bibliography in your document.

Sharing an EndNote Word document with co-authors

Back-up the Word document in your local drive i.e. Local Disc (C):.
Unformat the citations in the Word document before sharing with co-authors:

On the EndNote tab, click on the small triangle symbol next to Convert Citations and Bibliography button.
Select Convert to Unformatted Citations from the drop-down menu.

Unformatted citations contain no coding. They always appear with curly brackets, containing the author surname, publication year and EndNote record number: {Author, year #no.}

You can share the document with co-authors by email or uploading temporarily to a shared drive e.g. OneDrive/MS Teams.
Authors must move the Word document to their local drive, i.e. Local Disc (C): before editing with EndNote.
Authors can reinstate the formatting for citations at any time by switching to formatted citations mode. Ensure that the Track Changes feature is turned off before switching to formatted citations mode:

To turn off the Track Changes feature, select the Review tab, click on the All Markup drop down menu, then select Simple Markup or No Markup:
On the EndNote tab, click on Update Citations and Bibliography:

Formatted citations will appear in the referencing style you have chosen along with a corresponding bibliography: