How to use abbreviated journal names in EndNote

9/1/2026

EndNote: using abbreviations for journal names in EndNote

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I talked about some of the common issues in EndNote that can lead to the reference list not being styled quite correctly in this post: EndNote: What to watch out for when you're editing. Another thing to check in your EndNote reference list is that all the journal names are abbreviated correctly, or not abbreviated at all, as this is something that can go wrong.

Sometimes you'll find that your reference list looks something like this, with some journal names abbreviated and some written out in full:

Journal Term Lists in EndNote

EndNote deals with the different options for journal names by having a list of journal names and their abbreviations stored in Journal Term Lists, which you can access by clicking on 'Open Term Lists' under the Library tab in EndNote.

EndNote provides various lists of journal names and their abbreviations which you can import if you click on 'Lists', select 'Journals' and 'Import List...' and pick the one that suits you best:

You will then have a Terms List for journals that looks something like this:

If there are any journals that don't have abbreviations listed, you can enter the abbreviations manually using the 'Edit Term...' button on the left-hand side of this pop-up box.

selecting the correct option for Journal names in your output style

Once you have shown EndNote all the options for potential journal names, you need to select the correct option in your output style to tell EndNote how to treat journal names. Open up the relevant output style and click on 'Journal Names' in the menu on the left-hand side. You can then select to use the full journal name or the correct abbreviation style. 'Abbreviation 1/2/3' refers to the column in the journals term list (see the image above). If you select 'Don't replace', EndNote will use the journal name as it had been entered into the library.

Update your references to make sure that the correct style has been applied

Once you have made sure that EndNote has the correct abbreviations for the journals in your reference list, and the correct format has been selected in the Output style, updating your references should sort out your journal name abbreviation problems.

To update, an EndNote reference entry, right click on the reference and select 'Find Reference Updates' in the menu: