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Using Google Docs: Adding references to your Google Docs

Using Google Docs in collaborative environments

Reference management and Google Docs

In grant writing or manuscript preparation reference management is an important component. At present, Google Docs interfaces with Zotero and SciWheel. It does not have integrations for Mendeley or for EndNote. However this doesn’t mean that Google Docs can’t be used with those two programs. With just a few extra steps you can include EndNote or Mendeley citations in your Doc. 

Adding references to your Google Docs from EndNote

For a document created in Google Docs or a document uploaded with no references added the easiest way to add references is to use the “Two window solution”. In this you need to have both Google Docs and Endnote open and accessible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When a reference needs to be added it is select from the Endnote library by clicking on it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then clicking again, hold down the left mouse button and drag the citation into Google Docs and releasing the mouse button when the cursor is in the location you want to add the reference to. This will create a temporary citation that Endnote can recognize later

 

 

 

 

 

 

 For a document created in Office with references already it is best to upload that document with the bibliography unformatted, that is with the temporary citations in place. The document can be uploaded to Google Docs and converted to Google Doc format without losing the temporary citations. Additional citations can be added via the “Two window solution” detailed above

 

Since Google Docs doesn’t have reference management functionality it is necessary to download a Doc to your desktop to format the references using Endnote.

Download the Doc in .doc or .docx format (using the instructions found here) and all the temporary citations will remain in place.

Once the doc is opened in Office the update citations and bibliography function can be used to properly format the references.

Adding citations using Zotero or SciWheel

To cite references in google docs using SciWheel or Zotero, simply make sure that you have downloaded the necessary plugin from each company and then follow the prompts