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PubMed (EN): Citing and exporting references

Citing and exporting references

In PubMed you can directly generate an APA-style formatted reference to a journal article. It is also possible to export references to a reference manager such as Zotero or Endnote. 

PubMed to reference manager

A reference manager is a useful tool to organise articles that you find in different databases. There are several reference managers available, such as Endnote, RefWorks, Zotero and Mendeley. The HAN has a subscription to Endnote, which means that this reference manager is available for you to use. Zotero and Mendeley are free reference managers.

Downloading from PubMed

To add a selection of articles to a reference manager, first select the articles that you want to include by ticking the boxes on the left side of the article list. You can also download an entire results page or all the results from your search. In this case you do not need to tick the boxes.

Click the 'send to' button underneath the upper search bar and select 'citation manager'. Either click 'selection' to only export the selected articles, or click 'all results' or 'all results on this page'. PubMed will now download an nbib-file.

Importing in Endnote

To import the references in Endnote simply click on the downloaded file and make sure it is opened in Endnote. If Endnote is not opened, try selecting Endnote using right click and 'open with'. The articles will now be added to your endnote library.

Importing in Zotero

To import the nbib file in zotero, first open zotero and click on 'file' or 'bestand'. Then select 'import' or 'importeren', followed by 'a file' or 'een bestand'. Then select the nbib file from the menu. The references will now be added to your zotero library.  

APA-reference in PubMed

You can find the APA-style reference by clicking the cite-button underneath the description of an article (see image).

It is advisable to check whether the reference format corresponds with the APA-guidelines. These guidelines can be found on the HAN Studiecentra web page.