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RefWorks

Use RefWorks to collect and manage your references and help with your in-text citations and bibliographies.

RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM)

RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) is an 'add-in' tool for Microsoft Word which enables you to cite references from RefWorks directly into your document as you write it. You can use your chosen referencing style and easily create your bibliography.

RCM is compatible with Word 2016 or later. If you have an older operating system or word processor you may use the alternative Write-N-Cite (WNC) add in tool until the end of 2024 but it will be withdrawn after that time. See  Finding the Right Writing Tool Add-on to check which writing tool is best for your operating system and version of Microsoft Word.

TIP: RCM may work better if you switch from Online version of Word to the Desktop app.

Installing RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM)

From the  Word, click the Home tab click Add-ins. You may then need to click + Get Add-ins

At the Office Add-ins box, select Store, search for RefWorks, you should find the RefWorks Citation Manager and click Add.

RCM will then appear in the tabs at the top of your Word screen.

ALTERNATIVELY:

  • In Word, if you do not see Add-ins or Store when you click 'Insert', click 'File' and then select 'Get Add-ins' from the menu on left.
  • At  the bottom of the 'Add-ins' screen, click the '+ More Add-ins' button
  • Search for RefWorks and select RefWorks Citation Manager and click Add. RCM will then appear in the tabs at the top of your Word screen.

IMPORTANT

Before you can log in and start using RefWorks Citation Manager you will need to have an account for New RefWorks.

Log in to RefWorks Citation Manager using your email address and your New RefWorks password.

Logon to RefWorks Citation Manager

You may need to login to RCM each time you open a Word document:

  • Click Insert on the Word Tool bar and select My Add-ins (you may need to click Add-Ins first). See image in box above.
  • Login using your email address and the password you used to register with New RefWorks.

Change Citation Style

To change the citation or referencing style click the action menu  

Select Change Citation Style and choose the style you want from the drop-down menu e.g. Harvard, Chicago, APA etc. and click Update.

Insert In-Text Citations

  • In your Word document, position your cursor where you want to cite one or more references.
  • In the RefWorks Citation Manager either select from All References or click the drop down menu to select one of your folders.
  • For a single citation, hover your mouse over the relevant reference then click Quick Cite (but if you also wish to add a page number click Preview & Edit instead and add your page number in the suffix box e.g. p. 7)
  • To cite multiple references at the same location iin your text, tick the boxes then click Insert Citations.
  • If you need to edit a citation later e.g. add a page number to it, place your mouse on the citation and make your changes when the reference information opens in the right side bar.

 

Author as natural part of sentence

To include the author as part of your sentence e.g. Choi et al. (2020) argues that ...: you need to manually write the author name and then 

  1. Place your cursor where you wish to position your reference and manually write the author surname.
  2. If you are adding a new in-text citation hover your mouse over the reference in the RCM pane on right of screen and select Edit this.
  3. If you have already added the citation and need to change the format (as in the example below), click on the in-text citation to open the edit options.
  4. Remove the tick from the option to 'Include author' and click Update Citation.
  5.  The RefWorks in-text citation will be updated to only the year of publication (and page numbers if you add a suffix) and the reference will appear in your bibliography as usual.

 

Remove Field Codes / Content Control

When you insert RefWorks citations and bibliography into a document, computer links between your document and RefWorks are created. RefWorks calls this 'Content Control' although other software may refer to 'Field Codes'.

Publishers usually ask for Field Codes or Content Control to be removed so that the document you send them is plain text. It can also be useful to remove the content control if sending a document to reviewers e.g.documents which include field codes or Content Control can become corrupted if used with 'track changes' function in Word.

IMPORTANT - if you remove the Content Control, your document will no longer be able to change the citations or update the bibliography via RefWorks. Always, take a back up copy of your document before removing the 'Content Control', so that you have a version that will continue to interact with RefWorks should you need it.

  1. Write your document in Word, as usual.
  2. Insert desired citations using RCM
  3. Before removing the Content Control, take a back up copy of your document.
  4. Select all contents in Word (Ctrl+a)
  5. Right click on the content
  6. Click on “Remove Content Control”: