Author and Editor Parsing (Import Filters and Connection Files)

Use the Author Parsing panel to specify how author names are arranged in your data file. These settings apply only to authors in EndNote’s main (Generic) Author field. The Editor Parsing panel applies to editors, translators, and other authors that are in EndNote’s Generic Secondary Author, Tertiary Author, and Subsidiary Author fields.

Name Order

Use the "Name Order" settings to specify the order in which first and last names are arranged in the data file. Examples appropriate to each setting are shown below:

Last Always Precedes First

AU: Smith, J.;

First Always Precedes Last

AU: J. Smith,

Name Order is Inconsistent

AU: Smith, J.,

Interpreting First Names

The "Interpret First Names as" option allows you to specify exactly how EndNote should interpret the part of the author name that it has identified as the first name or initials.

The default is set to Smart, which uses the following rule: If there are three or fewer contiguous uppercase letters, these letters are imported as initials. Otherwise, the letters are imported as a whole name. For example, if the author’s name appears in the data file as:

AU:  Childs,

Smart parsing will interpret "Jackie" as the first name, and "D" as the middle initial. This author name would import as:

Author:
Childs, Jackie D.

If the author’s name appears in the data file as

AU:  von Braun, ED

Smart parsing will interpret ED as initials; thus the author name would import into EndNote as:

Author:
von Braun, E. D.

EndNote would only import ED as a first name "Ed" if you selected the Whole Names option.

The Whole Names and Initials Only options should only be used in special cases. The Whole Names option should be used in the case where the authors in your data file are all uppercase, and full names are used. This option prevents EndNote from converting names consisting of two or three uppercase letters, as in "SUE" or "AL" to initials. For example, if the author’s name appears in the data file as:

AU:  TOBIES, SUE

the Whole Names option would correctly import the author’s first name as "Sue." By contrast, EndNote’s Smart Parsing would interpret the whole name SUE as three initials, as "S.U.E. Likewise, if you select Initials Only, EndNote imports all first names as initials only. You would only choose this latter option if the all the first names in your data file are initials.

Author Name Separators

The Author Name Separators tell EndNote how to extract the individual authors from a line containing several authors.

Between Authors

The "Between Authors" option refers to the punctuation that is used to separate individual author names. It is extremely important that this setting is correct so that the author names import correctly into EndNote. Author names in an EndNote references are listed one name per line.

The default for the Between Authors option is set to Smart. With this option selected, EndNote looks for a common separator, either a semicolon (;), a carat (^) or a vertical bar (|), and use this delimiter to identify where one name ends and the next name begins.

In this example, multiple authors are separated by a semicolon:

AU:  Bunting ME; Hanzlik

EndNote’s Smart parsing recognizes the semicolon separating the two author names and correctly imports them into an EndNote library as:

Author:
Bunting, M.

Therefore, in this example, you do not need to change the setting. However, if your data file has a delimiter other than a semicolon (;), a caret (^), or a vertical bar (|) separating multiple authors, you must select another option from the adjacent list. To type any punctuation such as a dash or a slash, select Other and type the character there. A space and a return (where the authors are listed one per line) can be selected directly from the list.

If you select Import As Is from the list, EndNote will not try to separate the names that follow the author tag. Everything that follows that tag in the data file will be imported exactly as it appears in the file.

Last and First Names Separator

Once EndNote knows how to identify an individual author name in a list of authors, it looks at that name and tries to determine what the first name is and what the last name is. The Last and First Names separator is used to do this, along with the Name Order settings.

The default Last & First Names setting is Smart. With this option selected, EndNote attempts to interpret an author’s name based on the following separators: a space, a comma, or a period. In your data file, if the separator used between the last name and the first name is something other than a space, a comma, or a period, you can select a separator from the adjacent list.

Parenthetical Data in Author Field

It is not uncommon for information providers to include additional information about the authors (such as date of birth or institutional affiliation).

AU: Takahashi,

When this information is mixed in with the list of authors on the tagged author line, EndNote provides two options for what to do with it.

Note: It is not appropriate for EndNote to import that data into the Author field because it would produce an incorrectly formatted bibliography to have the parenthetical data included with the author names.

Related Topics

Continuation Lines

Field Editing (Import Filters)

Record Layout (Filters)

Reference Type

Source Parsing

The Basic Components of a Filter