The source line refers to the line in the data file that represents the source information for the journal (typically journal, volume, issue, pages, and sometimes the year). It is most often the most complex and inconsistent line of data in your data file—and it is also the most important. As a result, the EndNote filters provide a sort of safety net to catch inconsistently entered source data.
The tags and templates defined in the Templates panel are used first to import source data. If a source line in a data file does not match any of the options in the templates, then EndNote provides you with additional options for how to handle that. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that EndNote has correctly identified the journal article source tag.
Identifying the Source Tag
If the source tag for the Journal Article reference type in the Templates section of a filter is SO or JN, EndNote automatically identifies this tag as the source tag. However, if the source tag defined in your filter is something other than a "SO" or " JN", you must choose the appropriate tag from the Journal Article source Tag list. (All of the tags that have been defined in the Journal Article template will appear in the "Source Tag" list.)
When source data and filter templates do not match
If a journal article’s source line in your data file does not match a source line in your filter, you can choose how EndNote should treat the unmatched source line. The default option is Use Smart Parsing. EndNote’s Smart Parsing does its best to distinguish the journal name, the volume number, the issue number, the page numbers, and the year, and import each into the corresponding EndNote field. Any information that is not identified as a journal, volume, issue, pages, or year is imported into the Notes field, along with the comment "Using Smart Source Parsing." (After importing, if you suspect that some references may not have matched the defined source template, it is helpful to use EndNote’s Search command to search for the text "Using Smart Source Parsing" in the Notes field of the imported references. You may then check those specifically to see if EndNote correctly interpreted the data.)
If you choose the other option to import the source data into a separate field, EndNote does not attempt to parse the source information, and instead imports the entire unmatched source line into whatever field you have specified.
For any reference type other than a Journal Article, unmatched source lines are automatically imported into the Notes field. Therefore, if you have not defined an exact match for a source line found in a book record in your data file, EndNote imports the entire source line into the Notes field.