Author and Editor Names
The following information about Author and Editor fields applies to the following "Generic" field names: Author, Secondary Author, Tertiary Author, and Subsidiary Author.
Always enter author and editor names with one name per line. If an author’s name is too long to fit on a single line, let it wrap to the next line as you type it.
Author names can be entered either with the last name followed by a comma and the first name or the first name followed by the last name. Both are correct. However, if you have the "Suggest Terms as You Type" feature of the term lists turned on, EndNote suggests author names based on names entered with the last name first.
EndNote can abbreviate first and middle names, so for maximum flexibility enter whole names whenever possible. If you are entering initials instead of full names, be sure to type a period, a space, or a period and a space between initials; otherwise EndNote interprets the initials as a single name. For example, entering "JO Fisher" or "Fisher, JO" would result in "JO" being perceived as the single name "Jo" and formatted as "J." in the APA style instead of "J. O." However, using any of the data entry formats below would result in the name being formatted according to the APA requirements.
- James Oscar Fisher
- James O. Fisher
- Fisher, James Oscar
- Fisher, James O.
- Fisher, J. O.
- Fisher, J.O.
- Fisher, J O
- J. O. Fisher
- J.O. Fisher
- J O Fisher
Note: EndNote will not perceive an author's name entered as a full name to be the same author as a name entered with initials. EndNote's author term list is not designed to work with full and abbreviated versions of a name. This means that to meet requirements for styles which require special formatting when there are multiple works by the same author, such as a solid line instead of repeating the author's name in the reference list, it is important to enter the author's name the same way in all records.
See Additional Style Formatting Options for information about how EndNote can use style settings to format author names in bibliographies. For more information about term lists, see Introduction to Term Lists.
Using "et al." or Similar Abbreviations
Enter all author names for a particular reference. EndNote will truncate the list of authors with "et al." or "and others" as required by the bibliographic style. If you do not know all of the authors’ names, then the last author should be "et al." or "and others" followed by a comma.
Anonymous Works
If a reference has no author, leave the Author field blank. Do not enter "Anonymous." The style that you use to format the bibliography determines how anonymous references are treated.
Note that if a work is published with "Anonymous" printed on the title page, most style guides request that "Anonymous" be entered as though it were the author name.
Corporate Authors
When entering corporate authors, put a comma after the name:
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Apple Computer Inc.,
This ensures that the entire name is treated as a last name, so no name manipulation will be applied.
If a corporate author name includes a comma in the name itself, use two commas in place of the first comma:
Apple Computer,, Inc.
EndNote treats this as a last name, followed by a blank first name, and then a suffix. As a result, everything after the (blank) first name is appended, with the second comma treated as text instead of the identifier between the first and last name. The formatted result of the corporate name above would be "Apple Computer, Inc."
Complex Author Names
For multiple-word last names, like Charles de Gaulle, enter the name with the last name first, such as:
de Gaulle, Charles
Entering a name this way ensures that both words "de" and "Gaulle" will format as the last name.
Enter authors with titles, such as "Jr." or "III" as Last, First, Title. For example, "Alfred Smith, Jr." must be entered as:
Smith, Alfred, Jr.
The text after the second comma will print exactly as entered and the second comma will always be included as part of the suffix. For the example above, the name would show as "Alfred Smith, Jr." but could not be formatted as "Alfred Smith Jr."
Note: See the Sorting Preferences section of the EndNote preferences if you do not want EndNote to include prepositions (such as de, van, von, and so on) when it alphabetizes references in a bibliography.