This guide has been designed to help you to explore RefWorks and give you some activities to practice using the software.
Before you begin the activities below, login to RefWorks using these instructions.
You will need to follow the sections in this RefWorks Guide to help you complete the activities.
The diagram below shows the key steps to follow when referencing using RefWorks. It is important that you follow all the steps.
Go to the Exporting from NELSON section of the guide. Read the instructions or watch the video at the bottom.
Log in to NELSON first. With your own research topic in mind (note, this could be for an assignment or other research you are doing, or a random topic), find and select some resources on NELSON and follow the steps to export these to RefWorks.
Make sure you have a go at pinning some items in NELSON and exporting these in bulk.
Go to the Exporting from Scholar section of the guide. Read the instructions or watch the video at the bottom.
Again, with your own research topic in mind, find and select some resources using Google Scholar and follow the steps to export these to RefWorks.
While you might be tempted to skip this step when you are using RefWorks under the pressure of deadlines, try not to. The software will make referencing a much simpler process overall, but it will occasionally display errors.
From RefWorks, have a look at the references that you have imported from NELSON and Google Scholar. Follow the Editing References section in the Guide to make any changes where you need to.
For the last activity, follow the Creating references section in the Guide, so create a references list for the end of your work. If you want to, you can open a Word document to put your references into.
Note: RefWorks won't save you a lot of time in terms of creating the citations for your work and is more likely to produce errors. You can have a go following the steps for Creating citations but it is recommended that you familiarise yourself with the Harvard guide for this purpose.
Organising references is about using folders or tagging to make them easier to come back to and to keep RefWorks tidy for each piece of work you do.
Have a look at the Organising references section of the Guide and create some folders for your references. Move the references into the relevant folders.
Many thanks for taking the time to complete the activities - I hope you found them helpful. Don't forget to use the RefWorks Guide when you need it.
