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AI Evaluations - Library

EndNote AI functions - Library AI Evaluation

This evaluation is part of Deakin Library’s AI Evaluation series, providing structured, practice-informed insights into emerging AI technologies. Evaluations are designed to support critical decision-making and responsible engagement with AI, guided by Deakin’s Generative AI Framework and Principles.

Our findings and assessment are shared to inform your judgement. Evaluations are not an endorsement.

Evaluations like this one are not about deciding whether the AI “works,” but about understanding what kind of thinking and behaviours it encourages and whether that aligns with our pedagogical, scholarly, and professional values.

Key advice

EndNote 2025 AI functionality is currently limited. Usefulness is expected to grow as features evolve, particularly with the upcoming rollout of EndNote Research Assistant.

The AI Key Takeaway function provides value to standard users by highlighting the essential content of PDFs, supporting users to pinpoint relevant articles for specific needs. However, scope is confined to full-text articles in references already present in their EndNote libraries, offering only brief summaries. 

EndNote overview

Field Details
Tool
Vendor
Primary function
  • Endnote is a bibliographic or reference management software.
  • EndNote 2025 key AI functionality includes: 
    • AI Key Takeaway function – provides concise, AI-generated summaries of full-text documents that users have attached to Endnote records. 
    • Find a Journal function – provides recommendations for publishing options based on user submitted title and abstract. 
    • PaperPal Preflight function - an AI pre-submission tool to check for manuscript compliance with journal submission requirements. 
Impacted areas
  • Education and Research
  • All discipline areas
  • Library research services 

  • Academic skills services 
Existing alternatives
  • Comparable functions: 
    • Text summarisation 
    • Journal recommender 
    • Journal submission requirements checker 
  • Tools with comparable functions: 
    • Zotero – free, open-source reference manager that includes AI capability, including chatbot (PapersGPT) and literature discovery (Scite for Zotero). 
    • Mendeley – Elsevier reference management product (available through Deakin) that includes an AI recommendation function for related papers.  
    • RefWorks – Clarivate reference management product that includes an AI plagiarism checker (Copyleaks) and journal submission requirements checker (PaperPal Preflight). 

Summary findings

Evaluation snapshot

  • ProQuest Research Assistant is embedded AI in selected ProQuest databases (e.g. ProQuest Central, ProQuest One Business) with no additional cost to users or enterprise at this time.
  • EndNote 2025 promotes three new AI features: 
    • AI Key Takeaway – provides concise, AI-generated summaries of full-text documents that users have attached to Endnote records.
    • Find a Journal - uses AI to match manuscript titles and abstracts to journals indexed in Web of Science, helping researchers identify suitable publication venues based on keyword relevance and match scores. It requires users to upload their own title and abstract into the tool.  
    • PaperPal Preflight - an AI manuscript pre-submission tool to check for manuscript compliance with journal requirements (manuscript is uploaded into Preflight and a report is generated). Free and paid tiers with suggestions on language, structure, metadata, and more. PaperPal Preflight operates externally to EndNote through a business partnership and requires users to upload their own manuscript. 
  • Summarisation technology is similar to other Clarivate products - ProQuest Research Assistant and Web of Science Research Assistant. 

  • EndNote is subscription Clarivate software, available as both desktop and in web format. 

Benefits

  • Endnote is Deakin’s preferred and endorsed bibliographic software (available to staff and students) which supports users in experimenting with their AI functionality in a supported environment. 
  • Deakin’s existing resources (e.g. Library EndNote guide) can be easily scaffolded with AI guidance.   
  • AI Key Takeaway: 
    • Produces extracts from full-text PDFs which have been attached to EndNote records.  
    • Can assist in selecting relevant references.  
    • Can support citation decisions, enhancing digital literacy and research workflows. 
    • Clearly links to the source PDF in EndNote, supporting traceability and citation accuracy. 
  • AI features do not use uploaded content for model training, reducing privacy concerns and hallucination risks. 

  • Comprehensive documentation, video tutorials, and a knowledge base are available to support user adoption. 

Limitations or risks

  • AI functionality in EndNote is currently limited, but its potential is expected to grow with the future release of additional features in EndNote Research Assistant (not yet available). 
  • The AI-generated key takeaways offer only a limited summary paragraph as the key takeaway, along with additional topics presented as bullet points.
  • Although AI-generated takeaways are based on uploaded PDFs, the original licence source may be untraceable. 
  • Find a Journal feature provides recommendations for publishing options based on user-submitted title and abstract.
  • Publishing recommendations are drawn only from Web of Science data and may not be comprehensive for all discipline areas. Use is limited within Google Docs and Microsoft Word Online; the feature is not available via Microsoft Word desktop. 

  • While accessible via a link in EndNote, PaperPal Preflight operates independently from the software. 

Notable points

  • EndNote 2025 AI features pose minimal copyright risk to institutions due to their limited scope and non-training-based processing. 
  • Final decisions on journal selection and manuscript readiness must still be made by humans.
  • PaperPal Preflight also requires human editing to action AI generated recommendations. 

Considerations and implications

This section surfaces key reflections from the evaluation, moving beyond tool description to sense-making. It considers how AI may influence library practice, sector responsibilities, and the broader information landscape. As a boundary-spanning part of the university, the Library draws on its expertise in information practice and knowledge management to surface impacts across cohorts.

Our insights are provisional and reflective, emphasising conditions and contexts rather than certainties or prescriptions.

Our role is not to endorse tools like EndNote but to make meaning. To examine how different forms of AI may reshape how information is produced, accessed, and understood. These considerations are part of the academic library’s role in supporting the organisation, interrogation, and circulation of knowledges within our academic contexts.

Click on the plus (+) icons below to explore considerations related to digital literacies, user behaviours and needs, educator capability, open practices, and library practices:

Vendor in-product AI functionality

  • ProQuest’s embedded AI tools reflect a broader sectoral shift toward automating research workflows through generative technologies and automation. Their default presence in subscription platforms lowers adoption friction and normalises AI-assisted engagement within academic discovery.
  • AI Key Takeaway function is limited to full text documents already added by users to EndNote libraries. It is not available for records without full text documents.
  • Find a Journal publishing tool draws on Web of Science indexed journals and may not provide suitable recommendations for all discipline areas.
  • PaperPal Preflight function transitions users away from the EndNote environment and necessitates an additional payment to access its full functionality.
  • Additional AI functionality will be introduced later in 2025 through the EndNote Research Assistant, connected to the Clarivate Academic AI Platform.

User behaviours and information searching practices

  • AI Key Takeaway function offers succinct summary points that can help users identify pertinent papers for citation.
  • Important for users to remember that the content in the EndNote library is already a curated selection of materials. They may need to explore references outside of their EndNote library for more comprehensive understanding.
  • Users must critically assess AI-generated summaries for accuracy and context.
  • Each AI function requires additional human evaluation and action.
  • Users may over-rely on key takeaways and other satisficing behaviours, rather than reading research. This reframes the act of reading itself, especially for time-poor students or those lacking subject confidence.

Train the trainer – capability development of educators

  • Instructors need awareness of how AI is increasingly embedded across platforms. This includes not only generative AI tools like ChatGPT, but also more common built-in features appearing in systems like ProQuest, EBSCO, and JSTOR.
  • A dedicated capability stream on vendor-integrated AI could help staff build fluency in tool function, critique, and pedagogical framing. Thereby enabling more agile teaching interventions and advisory support.
  • Overall, professional development programs for information and search professionals should have a scaffolded and specialist AI training stream. Librarians focused on academic and research services need support to respond to changing user behaviours and to confidently deliver updated instructional content that reflects the AI-integrated research environment.

Broader strategic reflections

  • AI is becoming a core expectation in academic software, including reference management tools like EndNote. This shift raises broader questions about how libraries support, critique, and position platform-level AI within research practices.
  • As embedded AI becomes part of the baseline offering in academic tools, academic libraries must build capability not only to evaluate standalone generative tools, but also to interrogate how AI is layered into familiar platforms and workflows.
  • Procurement and evaluation processes must evolve to assess the pedagogical, ethical, and scholarly implications of AI-enhanced features—particularly where these features are bundled into existing subscription services without clear opt-in mechanisms or documentation.
  • Academic libraries should proactively collaborate with research integrity units, IT services, and digital research infrastructure teams to ensure institution-wide understanding of how embedded AI tools align or clash with policy, paedagogy, and responsible research practice.
  • While EndNote’s current AI tools may be limited in scope, they exemplify a broader trend: AI or automation is being marketed as a value-add. Libraries must be equipped to question whose value is being added and at what cost to transparency, researcher agency, and scholarly rigour. Procurement processes need to adapt to assess the real value and risks of these "smart" features.

 

Evaluation currency

This evaluation was first published in June 2025 as part of Deakin Library’s AI Evaluation series.

  • Last reviewed: June 2025
  • Next review scheduled: November 2025

This is a living document and may be updated as tool features, functionality, or institutional context evolve.

 

  • Last Updated: Jul 9, 2025 12:12 PM
  • URL: https://deakin.libguides.com/AI-Evaluations
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