If anyone has ever read or written a journal article they know the lengthy list of citations that come at the end.
References that can, at times, be several pages long.
Organizing those references and citations in ways that fit the format and style for different journals can be one of the most daunting tasks for the author, said Ashok Mudgapalli, PhD, director of the Research IT Office at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Many scientists have been using a licensed software program called Endnote, to help make this task easier.
But with a cost associated with each license, the software was limited to those users who could afford it.
To help broaden access to everyone, Dr. Mudgapalli operationalized Endnote software distribution, a commercial reference management software package, used to manage bibliographies and references when writing essays, reports and articles that helps the user save time formatting citations.
“It really makes their life easier, productive and saves a ton of time,” Dr. Mudgapalli said.
He credits the Nebraska INBRE program with first broadening access to more users with funding the program provided in 2021 that allowed Dr. Mudgapalli to buy 500 user licenses. The popularity of the program then prompted the vice-chancellor for research office to purchase a package that provides an unlimited number of licenses.
“Now all the partners in the IDEA CTR, COBRE and INBRE can request multiple licenses, whether you have one laptop or five,” he said.
Now:
- Any UNMC user can get the Endnote program on their Windows or Mac computer, for details visit the UNMC Research IT Office (RITO) website.
- RITO also made it possible that no administrative rights are necessary to install the software on UNMC managed Windows workstations.
- Anyone who is outside of UNMC but is part of the INBRE, COBRE, or the IDeA-CTR, can submit a request to RITO to download Endnote on their personal computers.
“We get multiple requests every week, and as long as the person is a participant in either INBRE, COBRE or the IDEA CTR, they are granted access to the software program,” he said.
So far more than 1,000 licenses have been issued in the last 12 months and usage continues to increase, he said.
A high-level of technical support is provided by the RITO office and extended software support is provided by the vendor 24/7.
Anyone who needs help with a technical issue can call the following toll-free number: 800-336-4474, dial option 4, followed by option 1.
