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RefWorks Instructions: Get Started

RefWorks is an online research management, writing and collaboration tool -- it's designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies.

 

Announcement: The St Thomas Libraries will no longer support RefWorks after June 2023

We will support Zotero, a similar program, available to all for free. For more information about transferring to Zotero, see the Refworks Cancellation Guide or contact your librarian

 

About RefWorks

RefWorks allows you to:

  • Create a personal database online where you can store an unlimited amounts of references that are, accessible from any computer without having to  download or install any software
  • Import references automatically from a wide variety of databases.
  • Organize references so that you can sort and search your stored references quickly and easily.
  • Format bibliographies and manuscripts
  • Attach files to your citations (100MB of file storage for attaching files at up to 5MB each)

In order to use RefWorks you must create an account

Creating an Account

  • New users must first create an individual account in order to use RefWorks
  • After accessing RefWorks, you will come to the "RefWorks User Login for University of St. Thomas" page
  • Click on Sign up for an Individual Account
  • Fill in all fields as directed
  • Click on Register

Set up a RefWorks Acccount

Old RefWorks   the New RefWorks

Legacy RefWorks is still available and will still work, but we recommend moving to new RefWorks as this version will eventually be unsupported.

 

 VS

It's intuitive! It's easy! It does its work!

Check out our Guide and try out the New version of RefWorks!

  • navigation = easy and intuitive 
  • Collaboration with colleagues = easy
  • Migration from the Legacy RefWorks = easy

Adding Citations to RefWorks

Adding References to Your Personal Database

References can be added to RefWorks either electronically or manually.  The method you use will depend on where you find a reference. See the Saving Citations tab for more info.

RefWorks isn't perfect: the quality of the citation in the database where you found the reference determines its accuracy.  You need to become familiar enough with your chosen citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) to edit citations in RefWorks when necessary to make your Bibliography accurate.

For information on the major citation styles, see our Citing Sources guide.

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