Once your database becomes large, you may not be able to find specific citations easily. RefWorks is a database -- your personal database that reflects your research interests -- and can be searched, just like any database.
- Use the "Search RefWorks" search box which is located on the far right of the menu bar. This quick search feature searches through all of the RefWorks fields -- inlcuding the "Notes" field for words or phrases.
- This search does not support any Boolean (AND or OR or NOT) searches. If you provide multiple words in the search box, the results are returned with a relevance ranking that places those citations that contain all of the words at the top of the list, followed by those citations that contain some of the words, followed by any citations that contains one of the words. If Boolean searching is important to you, use the "Advanced Search" function.
- Place quotes around words to be searched as phrases.
- Click the "Attachments' function to the right of the search box if you also want RefWorks to search your attachments. Note: The attachments must be saved as .txt files. So PDFs must be "saved as" .txt files and the uploaded to RefWorks. You may want to upload both the PDF version and the .txt version if you think you will use this search feature.
- Use the specific Search functions located under the "Search" menu:
- Advanced -- leads to a search form that provides the ability to search in specific fields
- By Author
- By Descriptor
- By Periodical
