RefWorks

If you have downloaded PDFs to your local computer, you can drag and drop them into your RefWorks library.  Two caveats:

• If the PDF is just an image of the article, chapter, report, etc., RefWorks will be unable to find any metadata (author, title, journal title, etc.) about the article. Nor will RefWorks be able to search the full text. You can identify a PDF that is an image when you click on a page, and the entire page highlights instead of individual words.
• RefWorks ability to analyze the metadata associated with the PDF is limited to the quality of the metadata associated with the PDF, so after using "Drag and Drop" to put a PDF into your RefWorks library, check the metadata to make sure it is accurate.

To perform drag and drop, do the following:

1. Since you can drag a PDF (or multiple PDFs) to any folder in your RefWorks library, be sure to select the appropriate folder for the PDF.
2. Click and drag the PDF(s) from your computer to the appropriate folder in your RefWorks library.
3. Depending on the number of PDFs and the size of the PDF(s), the amount of time it takes RefWorks to analyze and upload the PDF can vary.
4. Once the PDFs have been transferred to your RefWorks library, you can view, edit the metadata, and associate them with appropriate subject folders. Remember, the best time to edit citations and associate them with subject folders is when they are first imported into RefWorks.

Often when searching in multiple databases for a topic, you may unintentionally import the same citation more than once.  RefWorks has a duplicate detection function that looks for duplicates across your entire RefWorks account.

1. If you want to look for duplicates in a specific folder, select that folder.
2. Select "Find Duplicates" from the "More" menu.
3.  The default is to look for duplicates in the specified folder, but you can select the radio button associated with "All references", if you want to look across your RefWorks library for duplicates.
4. From the pull-down menu, select the preciseness for the search and click the "Find Duplicates" button:
   • Strict Match -- looks at the references' "title", "author" and "publication date" as an exact match
   • Fuzzy Match -- looks at the references’ "title", "author" and "publication date", but considers similarities, such as the author initials vs the full name or a partial date vs a more complete date.
5. RefWorks arranges the results by looking for duplications with the most metadata and arranges those at the top of the list.
6. Select the duplicates to be removed from your RefWorks library and click on the "Delete" icon. Remember that deleted citations will be placed in the system "Delete" folder for 30 days before they are permanently removed from your account.

Note: Be careful not to delete any citations that have already been imbedded in papers that have been or will be formatted using RefWorks.  When formatting a paper, if Write-N-Cite or the RefWorks Citaton Manager can't find the Reference ID number for a citation that has been previously imbedded in the paper, the formatting process will generate an error message.

There is an old adage -- Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO)!!  RefWorks only imports the data for each citation as it is supplied to it from the source.  The source providers don't always have accurate information (metadata) in their systems.  Consequently, data imported by RefWorks may need to be corrected.  Or, you may want to add notes, URLs, attachments, etc.

1. Click on a citation to be edited.  Details for that citation will appear in the right side panel.
2. Click on the "Edit" icon.
3. To the right of each citation, you will see an "Edit" icon. 
4. Click in the fields that need to be edited and make changes.
5. Of particular importance is the Reference Type field.  Make sure it is set to the correct type (journal article, magazine article, book, book chapter, web page, etc.).  Selecting the correct type impacts the formation of the correct citation.
6. Click the "Add more fields..." button if you need a field that does not display.
7. When done, click the "Save" button located at the top of the display. There is also an "Undo" button that will remove the changes in the record, if clicked before saving.

A nice feature for this version of RefWorks is that if you view your citations through the citation style you plan to use, RefWorks will highlight areas where it believes important information is missing from the citation.  To use this feature, do the following:

1. At the bottom of center panel in RefWorks, you will see a pull-down menu set to "Normal View".
2. Click the "Normal View" option and change it to "Citation View".
3. If the citation style you need doesn't display, click on the gear icon  to find the needed citation style.
4. Once the appropriate citation style is selected. the reference will display in that style, highlighting areas of each citation where there may be potential issues, like the example below
   
   
    
5. Those flagged in yellow most likely need to be corrected; those flagged in blue mostly likely are preferred but not required.