About RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based tool for storing and managing references to articles and other research materials that you wish to use in your bibliographies. With RefWorks, you can create personal databases and quickly output bibliographies for your papers and research projects, including formatting those references in Word documents.

RefWorks is licensed campus-wide by the UCSD Libraries. All current students, faculty, and staff members can use RefWorks from any off or on-campus computer (including library Infostations and ACS computers). And because the service is web-based, you don't have to purchase or install additional software.

How To Get Started With RefWorks:

• Go to RefWorks from any UCSD-connected computer and click "sign up for an individual account." Once you have set up an account, you can login from any computer on or off-campus. However, remote users must access RefWorks via the UCSD proxy server, which you may have already set up to access the databases and e-journals.
  
  
• From the RefWorks menu bar under References, you'll see an Import command. From here, you can import one or more references you have saved from a database search into your RefWorks collection. Some of the databases will also all you to export references directly into RefWorks without first saving the references to a file for importing. Scroll down to the list of S&E Databases to learn more about how they are compatible with RefWorks.

  • If you have some references to start with, you can type them in manually using Add New Reference under References.

  • You can also import references from an EndNote library, using References/Import EndNote V8+ Database.
    
    

• You can organize your references into folders to keep items relating to different projects or papers separate. If you expect to have large numbers of references relating to completely separate projects, you can also sign up for multiple accounts and keep all your projects separate that way.
  
  
• You can connect RefWorks with the Word document of your paper in a couple ways, either via a small applet called Write-N-Cite, which inserts a RefWorks button into Word, or by clicking "Bibliography" from the top menu bar and following the directions for adding citations to your document. You will want to review your bibliography submitting it, especially if you have some unusual types of references, but overall it should work fine.

RefWorks Assistance & Instruction

Faculty, students and staff in the physical sciences and engineering should contact Teri Vogel about RefWorks training.

Using RefWorks with Library Databases (click the links below for step-by-step instructions)

Major Science & Engineering Databases

Compendex

IEEE Explore

INSPEC

MathSciNet

PubMed

SciFinder Scholar

Web of Science

ROGER (UCSD Libraries Catalog)

Other S&E Databases & E-Journals