RefWorks Overview
RefWorks is a comprehensive reference management service designed to streamline the process of research, collaboration, data organization, and writing for students, faculty, and librarians. Here’s a detailed look at what RefWorks does and its key features:
Purpose and Benefits
RefWorks simplifies the management of references and citations, enabling users to produce more accurate and efficient research papers. It provides a centralized workspace for collecting, organizing, and sharing research materials, making it an invaluable tool for academic and professional research.
Key Features
Collect and Import
RefWorks allows users to find, access, and capture research materials from virtually any source and in any format. It supports auto-completion of reference data and retrieval of full text, saving time and ensuring accurate citations. Users can import references directly from websites using the Save to RefWorks bookmarklet or through direct export when supported.
Manage Research
The platform unifies materials in one central workspace, facilitating storage and reuse. Powerful tools such as tags, folders, full-text searching, and deduplication enable easy access and organization of references. Users can create new references manually, upload documents, and import references from other reference management services like Mendeley.
Organize and Edit
RefWorks offers multiple options for filtering, organizing, tagging, searching, and sorting references. It includes tools to edit references in bulk and to identify and eliminate duplicate references. The interface allows users to view and annotate uploaded citations directly within RefWorks and manage references by folders and tags.
Share and Collaborate
Users can organize, read, annotate, and highlight full-text documents individually or share them privately with members of their institution or any RefWorks user. This collaborative environment enhances teamwork and research coordination.
Citation and Bibliography Management
RefWorks supports multiple citation styles, including CSL styles, and features a comprehensive citation style editor to create new styles. Users can generate citations and bibliographies in various formats (bibliography format, citation format, footnote format) and export them to their documents or websites.
Integration with Other Tools
RefWorks integrates with Microsoft Word through the RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) add-in, allowing users to insert in-text citations and bibliographies directly into their documents. Note that the older Write-n-Cite tool is being phased out and will no longer be supported after 2024.
Institutional Support
Library administrators can define institutional reference list styles, analyze usage across the institution, and manage copyright compliance. RefWorks also supports single sign-on with local institutions and can synchronize with Dropbox to automatically make copies of uploaded citations.
Additional Functionality
- Projects: Users can maintain separate reference collections for different research projects.
- Utility Toolbar: This includes institutional information, language menu, user menu, and help menus.
- Reference Actions: Users can add, upload, import, create, assign to folders, share, export, and delete references.
- Trash Folder: Deleted references are stored here and must be manually cleared to be permanently removed.
Support and Resources
RefWorks provides round-the-clock support and extensive resources, including user guides, customizable posters, release notes, and a YouTube video channel. Users can also submit support cases and suggestions for improving the service through the RefWorks Ideas Exchange.