What is EndNote Fusion? What RefWorks and EndNote users need to know

EndNote Fusion is Clarivate's unified, cloud-based reference management platform. RefWorks is being renamed to EndNote Fusion, targeted for October 2026, and Clarivate says accounts, saved references, and workflows carry over unchanged.

Less clear is the long-term role of EndNote Desktop, which Clarivate describes as converging into the same cloud platform. Separately, some universities are ending RefWorks licenses regardless of the rename, so check your institution's end date.

Last updated: August 2026

What is EndNote Fusion?

EndNote Fusion is the name Clarivate is giving to its combined reference management platform. In Clarivate's announcement, it “will bring together proven EndNote and RefWorks capabilities together in a single cloud-based product" that supports browser-based, desktop, and hybrid use.

In practice, what EndNote Fusion will be is RefWorks with a new name and a refreshed interface. It is not a shutdown: no RefWorks account or library disappears because of this change.

Timeline: what Clarivate has announced

As of August 2026, here is what is confirmed and what is only targeted:

• Announced: RefWorks becomes EndNote Fusion later in 2026, with a refreshed interface and new capabilities. RefWorks name October 2026 as the date. Clarivate itself has not published an exact day, so treat October as the target rather than a deadline.
• Not announced: An end date for EndNote Desktop, or pricing for EndNote Fusion.

What happens to your RefWorks account

If you use RefWorks through your university, you don't need to do anything for the rename itself. Your account, saved sources, documents, and workflows remain unchanged. The Word and Google Docs integrations continue to work.

A redesign is still a redesign, though. Expect the interface to look different in places, expect your university library's help pages and screenshots to lag behind it for a while, and expect some retraining if you support other users.

The rename doesn’t extend or protect your access. Your RefWorks account exists through your institution's license, and each university sets its own license (more on that below).

What EndNote Fusion means for EndNote Desktop users

This is where Clarivate's messaging is thinnest. The announcement says desktop workflows "remain fully supported" and that EndNote Desktop users face no required changes this year. Moving to EndNote Fusion is currently optional for EndNote Desktop customers and is pitched at users who are seeking cloud features like centralized administration and single sign-on.

What has not been answered is what happens to the desktop application after "this year": whether it keeps getting standalone releases, becomes a companion to the cloud platform, or is eventually retired the way other desktop reference managers have been.

Clarivate has not said, and nobody outside Clarivate knows.

Meanwhile the current desktop release has visible strain. In Clarivate's own community forum, a thread titled "EndNote 2025 won't quit!" reports the Windows app refusing to close since September 2025, still unresolved as of June 2026. That is context rather than a verdict, but it suggests where development attention is going during the Fusion transition.

If you rely on EndNote Desktop, the practical move is to keep working, keep local backups of your .enl libraries, and watch for EndNote Online transition communications, which will show how Clarivate handles moving users into Fusion.

If your university is dropping RefWorks anyway

Separate from the rename, some institutions are ending their RefWorks licenses. The University of Georgia is an example: its library ends RefWorks access on August 31, 2026, after which data is available by request from Clarivate for 120 days before accounts are permanently removed.

To export your RefWorks library:

1. Export your references as RIS files. RefWorks exports folder by folder, so repeat the export for each folder to preserve your folder structure.
2. Download your attachments separately. PDFs and other attachments are not included in the RIS export and have to be re-linked in whatever tool you import into.
3. Import the RIS files into your next reference manager before the purge date, while you can still go back for anything you missed.

Clarivate offers discounted personal subscriptions to users whose institutional access ends, so continuing on RefWorks (soon EndNote Fusion) at your own cost is also an option.

EndNote Fusion vs RefWorks vs EndNote today

The names will get confusing for a while: "EndNote" will mean the desktop app, "EndNote Fusion" the renamed RefWorks, and "EndNote Online" the sync service in between. When you read an announcement from your library, check which of the three it is actually about.

If you'd rather not ride out the transition

A platform transition is a natural moment to reassess, and this is the biggest one in reference management since Mendeley stopped actively developing its desktop app. If you are exporting from RefWorks anyway, or unsure how long EndNote Desktop stays a priority, it costs little to look at a reference manager like Paperpile that isn't mid-rebrand.

• Paperpile imports EndNote, RefWorks (RIS), Zotero, Mendeley, Citavi, and BibTeX libraries, with no storage limits on any plan.
• You can cite in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and LaTeX.
• The Word plugin works on Windows and Mac.

You can try it free for 30 days and import your EndNote library in a few clicks.

If you are comparing EndNote with Zotero instead, our EndNote vs Zotero comparison covers that decision.

Frequently Asked Questions about EndNote Fusion

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