RefWorks: Managing Your References and Writing Your Papers with a Style!

Are you using a reference management program to store and organize references? Have you found yourself writing a manuscript for a journal that uses a publication style different from what your discipline uses? In this post, I’d like to share with you a useful tool, RefWorks, and how I use it for reference management and in manuscript/ grant writing. 

What is RefWorks?

RefWorks is a reference management program that help people store and organize references electronically. Thanks to O’Kelly Library, RefWorks is one of the reference management programs that are available for WSSU faculty and students. Some useful features in RefWorks include:

• Conveniently saving searched references within search engines (e.g. ProQuest, EBSCOhost) and journal websites
• Organizing references in folders, which can be shared with others too
• Generating bibliography in common styles including APA, AMA etc.
• Citing while writing in MS Word

Click the link here for a brief overview of RefWorks.

How to Create a RefWorks Account?

A RefWorks link is available in the library resource page on Citation Styles, under the section of “Citation Managers”. You may follow the instructions on the screen to create an account. Note that your RefWorks account does not sync with your WSSU username and password, and you are advised to take note of your RefWorks username and password for future reference.

How to Add References into My RefWorks Account?

There are a few different ways that users may add references into their RefWorks account. Below are links of video tutorials for a couple of common ways—

• Creating References and Adding Documents Within RefWorks
• Exporting References to RefWorks

How to Organize and Share References in RefWorks?

Below a couple more links of video tutorials that take you to—

• Organizing References with Folders in RefWorks

RefWorks allows users to share references with other RefWorks users, which is a useful feature when you work on a project with a team. Here are some video tutorials if you are interested in this feature–

• Collaboration Through Sharing in RefWorks

How to Generate Bibliographies Using RefWorks?

In a couple of clicks, RefWorks can help you generate a bibliography in a selected style such as AMA, APA, etc. Here is a video link that walks you through the steps of generating bibliographies in RefWorks. Users may need to copy the generated bibliography and paste into their working Word document.

Please note that no reference management programs generate perfect bibliographies, and RefWorks is no exception. You will still need to manually check the generated bibliography for format accuracy. What RefWorks helps is that at least you do not need to generate the bibliography from scratch, which oftentimes can be tedious, time-consuming, and more prone to errors.

How Does RefWorks Help with Manuscript or Grant Writing?

Your RefWorks account comes with a tool called “Write-N-Cite”, which allows you to add cited references while writing in MS Word. Write-N-Cite automatically formats your in-text citations according to a style you select, as well as generates the list of bibliography in Word. As a writer who uses the APA style, I find Write-N-Cite very helpful when I need to write a grant or a manuscript in the AMA style, which I am not as familiar with. It saves me a lot of time to learn other publication styles. The following video links walk you through the steps to—

• Editing Citation Styles in RefWorks

More Information

For more information on RefWorks, contact staff in the O’Kelly Library or watch for a workshop from CITI, in the coming year.