Temporary Citations Preferences

To access these settings, go to the Edit menu, select Preferences, and then click Temporary Citations in the list of preferences.

A "temporary citation" is an unformatted citation that EndNote inserts into your word processing document when you use the Insert Citation(s) command from Word, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice, or when you copy and paste a citation into a document. You can also type temporary citations into your document. The temporary citation is a placeholder that EndNote later changes to a formatted citation, such as (Smith Jones, 2015).

By default a temporary citation includes the first author’s last name, the year, and the EndNote record number, enclosed in curly braces:

{Smith, 2015 #24}

If necessary, you can change the temporary citation delimiters, and can set a field other than Record Number, to be used in temporary citations in this preference panel.

Temporary Citation Delimiters

Curly braces are the delimiters used by default to indicate the start and end of each temporary citation. If you commonly use curly braces in your writing, you might want to select a different pair of markers for EndNote to use as Temporary Citation Delimiters.

Enter the desired markers into the appropriate boxes at the top of the Temporary Citations preferences panel.

Note: Be sure to use characters that are not likely to appear in the text of your document. For example, do not use left and right parentheses characters because these are frequently used in writing, and any text in them would be considered a temporary citation by EndNote.

Record Number Marker

The number sign (#) always precedes the record number in an EndNote temporary citation. You may change this by entering another character in the Record Number Marker box.

The EndNote record number is a unique number assigned to each reference as it is added to a library. The number is specific to that reference in that particular library. If you are using the same library on multiple computers through EndNote Sync, or collaborating with other writers who are sharing their libraries through EndNote Sync, you might find it easier to replace the Record Number in the temporary citation with something that uniquely identifies the reference but is not specific to a single EndNote library on a single computer. To do so, select the Use field instead of record number option and select from the Label field, the Accession Number field, or the Pages field.

  • The Label field can be used to manually enter any unique code that you would like to use for each record.
  • The Accession Number field is designed to contain the unique record number assigned to a reference from an online database.
  • The Pages field can contain a unique page number or another unique number for each record.

Notes: If you have selected the Label, Accession Number, or Pages field, and that field is empty in a particular reference, the Record Number will appear in the temporary citation.

EndNote record numbers are unique to a library but are not permanent identifiers. They can change through syncing, copying a reference from one library to another, or even cutting the reference from a library and pasting it back into the same library. See Record Numbers for more information.

Citation Prefix Marker

The Citation Prefix Marker separates prefix text in a citation from the citation itself. For example, if you wanted a citation formatted as:

(see also Smith, 2015)

you would enter the text into the temporary citation as follows, with the "\" indicating the end of the prefix text and the start of the citation:

{see also \Smith, 2015 #24}

If you prefer to use a different character as the Citation Prefix Delimiter, you may enter it in this preferences panel. Semicolons (;), letters, numbers, and characters already used as other delimiters may not be used for the Citation Prefix Delimiter.

Note: When you use Cite While You Write’s Edit & Manage Citation(s) command to add prefix text, the Citation Prefix Marker is automatically inserted as part of the temporary citation.

Including Notes in the List of References

Some journal styles permit you to include notes with the list of works cited at the end of the document. In such a system, the notes are numbered just like the citations, and included in the reference list, just like the references. This feature is only available with numbered in-text citation styles.

To identify text to be included as a numbered note in the reference list:

  1. Type the text into the body of your document where you would want the number for the note to appear (or use the Insert Note command in Word, see Including Notes in the List of References in Microsoft Word).
  2. Be sure to surround the entire section of text with your Temporary Citation Delimiters (curly braces by default), and begin it with "NOTE:". For example:

{NOTE: The authors would like to acknowledge the support of...}

When the paper is formatted by EndNote using a numbered style, the text is assigned a number and listed along with the references at the end of the paper.

The way that these notes are identified may be changed in the Temporary Citations preferences. Enter a prefix that you would like to use to signal that the text should be treated as a note.

Restrictions on the Use of the "NOTE" Feature
  • This feature requires that a numbered style be used for the formatting; otherwise, the note will be left as it was entered in the body of the text.
  • Enter text only. Do not attempt to insert graphics, equations, or symbols as note text.
  • Do not use the temporary citation delimiters as part of the text of the note. Other markers, such as the record number marker and the prefix marker and the multiple citation separator may be used.
  • These types of notes cannot be combined with regular temporary citations within the same set of brackets. They should be cited separately—each in its own set of brackets.

Related Topics

Cite While You Write Preferences for Microsoft Word

Components of a Temporary Citation

Notes About Temporary Citations