Freie Universität Berlin

The EndNote license expires in April 2027. The Citavi license will continue, and Zotero can also be used locally without logging into cloud services or syncing.

Below you will find information on how to migrate your EndNote database to one of the two programs. Please note that we are only providing a link to the standard procedure; here, we will focus on detailing what you need to be aware of and what challenges you may encounter.

Recommended Preparations Before Exporting

In any case, before you export the entries you’ve collected in EndNote, you should check whether you really need to transfer all the data. The less data you transfer, the fewer problems you’re likely to encounter. This also helps reduce the amount of storage space required.

For the entries you want to transfer to the new reference management program, you should pay particular attention to the following:

• People's names should be entered in the order "last name, first name" in the appropriate fields (e.g., "Author").
• For organizations or institutions in fields such as “Author,” the comma at the end of the name must be placed correctly (e.g., “Freie Universität Berlin,”).
• EndNote tags are lost. You must decide whether you want to convert them to keywords.
• The DOI field should really only contain the DOI itself, without any prefix such as “doi:” or similar.