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RefWorks

A guide to using the RefWorks reference management software.

Organising references

It's a good idea to get into the habit of organising your references especially if you're going to use RefWorks for different assignments. Having your references organised properly will save you time when you need to find references or when you want to create reference lists to copy into your coursework. 

There are two main ways of organising references: using folders and using tags. Folders are best to organise references for different pieces of coursework. Folders allow you to store different references in one place so that you can locate them more easily. Tags allow you to search for multiple references and are effective if you want to organise references based on their topic. 

Using folders

1. Sign into your RefWorks account from https://refworks.proquest.com/

2. Select the 'My Folders' section on the left-hand side

3. Click the ' + Add folder' option, give your folder a name and click 'Save'

4. If you already have references saved in your RefWorks account you can add them to your folder by selecting 'All References', clicking the tickbox next to any references you want to add to the folder and dragging and dropping them into your selected folder. 

5. Once you have set up a folder, you also have the option to immediately add your references to a folder when exporting them from a search engine, database or when uploading them

n.b. A single reference can be stored within multiple different folders, this is particularly useful for core texts that you're likely to use in different assignments.

Using tags

1. Sign into your RefWorks account from https://refworks.proquest.com/

2. Select 'All References' on the panel on the left-hand side

3. Use the tickbox to select one or more references that you want to add tags to. You can also use the 'Search' function to identify references by author, title or keywords

4. Click 'Add Tags' from the top bar then select any tags you want to add to the selected references and click 'Save'

5. To search for references with a particular tag use the 'Search' option on the top bar and type in your tag.