Washington University Libraries Save Time! Ask Us

Admin Sign In 

RefWorks Guide  Tags: citation refworks research writing bibliography works_cited references style_manual citation_formats citation_style_manuals  

Last update: Jul 01, 2009 URL: http://libguides.wustl.edu/refworks  Print Guide  RSS Updates

Home             Print Page
  
 

What is RefWorks?

RefWorks is an easy to use web-based product available to Danforth Campus users. It allows you to import references from the Library's Catalog and many electronic databases to which we subscribe.

Take a look at what you can do with RefWorks--

1. Create and manage citations of books, articles, videos, etc.

2. Import citations from databases and the WU Catalog

3. Quickly create a bibliography in multiple formats (MLA, Chicago, APA...)

4. Easily share references with others

 

Getting Started

RefWorks Login Page

Quick Start Guide

RefWorks Webinars

RefWorks Help

Tutorial

FAQs

 

Contact Information

Contact your Subject Librarian for more information

Web site: http://www.refworks.com/

Email: Info@refworks.com

 
 

Creating your RefWorks account

Sign up for an Individual Account to begin using Refworks (No cost!) 

Tutorial on logging into RefWorks

 

About access and use off-campus

Off-campus users must either use the group code (RWWUSTL) or authenticate through the library proxy server. To access RefWorks through the proxy server, you can:

Note: When logging in from off-campus via the proxy server, you will receive a security certificate error. This is because the security certificate is being read as www.refworks.com.libproxy.wustl.edu when you log in through the proxy server. Accept the exception/click OK (depending on your web browser) to continue to RefWorks.

 

Getting references into your account

There are a number of ways to add citations to your RefWorks account:

  • Use the direct export feature found in many databases
  • Import from saved text files
  • Add references manually
  • Convert to RefWorks from other bibliographic formatting programs including: EndNote, Reference Manager, Pro Cite, Papyrus
 

Importing from online databases

Many online databases make it simple to import citations into RefWorks. Below find information on importing from your favorite database. 

 

Importing from the WU Catalog

There are a couple of ways to get citations from the WU Catalog into your RefWorks account:

  • Export the citations from the catalog, and import them into RefWorks (see below)
  • Search the catalog directly within RefWorks.  That's more straightforward, but there are fewer search options to locate what you want in the catalog: for example, you cannot do a search by publication year, even though the RefWorks Advanced search form offers it - the WU catalog software does not support it.  The process is described on this RefWorks help page.

If you want to do the export/import process: 

  1. Search the catalog to find the citations you want, and mark each one (click the Save Marked Records button on any results screen, or the Save Record button on the record for an individual item). 
  2. Click the View Saved button, and then Export Saved button on the next screen. 
  3. Choose Full Display for the format, and Local Disk for the 'Send List to' option, then click Submit.  You can open the text file, or save it (someplace you can find it again!). 
  4. Log in to your RefWorks account
  5. On the toolbar, choose References, then Import.
  6. Choose 'Washington University, St. Louis, MO' for the Import Filter/Data Source
  7. Choose 'Washington University Catalog (Full Display)' for the Database
  8. Then either Browse to your saved file (will be called export.txt), or copy the text from the text file, and paste it into the 'Import Data from the following Text' box and click the Import button.
  9. You can then View Last Imported Folder to see the citations you just imported.
 

Creating a bibliography and formatting a paper with footnotes or endnotes

There are four ways to create output in RefWorks. You can:

Additional Help can be found within RefWorks under the terms Output and Formatting.

 

Using Write-N-Cite

Using the RefWorks Write-N-Cite (WNC) tool, you can easily cite references from your RefWorks library as you write your research paper or other document. First, you will need to follow these two steps.

  1. Download Write-N-Cite
  2. Install Write-N-Cite

Important tip: Using Write-N-Cite off-campus
Please log in with the Group Code (RWWUSTL) and your Log-in Name and Password when using Write-N-Cite off-campus.  While you can try configuring WNC for the proxy server (below), this has been known to cause problems, and we don't recommend it.

If you want to configure Write-N-Cite for the proxy server:

For Windows:

  1. Select the Start Button-->Programs-->RefWorks-->WNC Configuration Utility
  2. Paste in the following URL:
    http://libproxy.wustl.edu/login?url=http://www.refworks.com/refworks/
  3. Click OK
  4. WNC should now be configured. You will be prompted for your Log-in Name and Password when WNC starts

For Macs:

  1. Open Write-N-Cite--> From the toolbar at the top of the screen, select the Write-N-Cite menu (toolbar maybe hidden by the WNC window)-->Preferences--> Select Proxy
  2. Paste in the following URL:
    http://libproxy.wustl.edu/login?url=http://www.refworks.com/refworks/
  3. Restart Write-N-Cite
  4. WNC should now be configured. You will be prompted for your Log-in Name and Password when WNC starts.
 
Description

  Loading content... please wait