Reference Types Preferences

Use the Reference Types preferences panel to customize your settings for the fields (such as Author, Year, and Title) and reference types (such as Journal Article or Book) that are used by EndNote. Any changes that you make in this panel apply to all of the libraries that open on the computer for your user account.

To access these settings, go to the EndNote 2025 menu, select Settings, and then click Reference Types in the list of preferences.

Note: Be very, very careful about using the Apply to All Ref Types option. If you make a change to a reference type, such as editing a custom field, then apply that change to all reference types, you are likely to overwrite necessary fields in other reference types. It is best to customize each reference type individually.

Default Reference Type

When you create a new reference in your EndNote library (by selecting New from the References menu), the new reference is set up for a journal article by default. If you would rather have new references automatically appear as books, patents, or some other reference type, change the Default Reference Type setting:

Click the Default Reference Type list and choose from one of the available reference types.

If you need a reference type that is not in the list, you will need to create a reference type for it and define it yourself (see Customizing Reference Types).

Defining Reference Types

If you need to modify any of EndNote’s fields or reference types, click the Modify Reference Types button. This opens the EndNote Reference Types preference where you can add, delete, and rename EndNote’s reference types and fields.

See Customizing Reference Types for more information about reference types and how to customize them.

Reference Type Table

You can use the Export and Import buttons to share a customized reference type table with another EndNote user. See Backing Up or Sharing Your Reference Types Table for step-by-step instructions.

Note: Replacing another user's RefTypeTable.xml file overwrites all changes to his/her current Reference Types table.