RefWorks Competency

There is no Sage of RefWorks.

Overview

To learn the wonders of RefWorks and demonstrate your learning, create a bibliography and sample paper using RefWorks and Word. The subject can be anything you want as long as you adequately demonstrate your skill with the various tools we teach. You don’t have to actually write a paper; filler text is fine! Since RefWorks is a hard program to “show” your skills with, you will be asked to explain your process to the sage.

Help for the new RefWorks can be found here. Do not use the old Refworks!! It is outdated, more difficult to use, and we should be directing people to the new RefWorks anyway. The new RefWorks is found at refworks.proquest.com.

Installation

Make sure you have Write-N-Cite installed on the computer so you can use it with Word. If it’s not installed, go here and follow instructions for installing Write-N-Cite. You will download it from inside the actual RefWorks 3.0 program. You can also get the Add-on for Google Docs and the Save to RefWorks plugin for Chrome and Firefox the same place you download Write-N-Cite. You can either use your own RefWorks account or the Software Training account. Using the Software Training account is recommended, since it will be helpful to fill it out with references and example documents to use while teaching the class.

Level 1 – Research and saving references

Learn the basic tools of RefWorks and be able to answer simple questions about it.

Do the following:

  • Log in to RefWorks or create an account
  • Import 15 articles using the Save to RefWorks button in Chrome.
  • Create a new folder for your articles and name it appropriately.
  • Using the HBLL research guides or Google Scholar, find sources of each of the following types and import them manually. Include as much information as you can find.
    1. An article from a scientific peer-reviewed journal
    2. A chart or table
    3. A data set, such as NOAA climate data sets or government data sets available to the public
    4. A newspaper article (from any reputable news source, doesn’t have to be found in the library or Google Scholar)
  • For the table or chart above, attach a PDF to the citation. Move all of the citations created in step 4 to a new subfolder under the first folder you created.
  • Using the HBLL research guides, find a database that deals with the humanities (art, history, European culture, language, etc.) From that database, export at least 12 articles related to a topic of your choice. Pick something that actually interests you. If the database does not support direct export, choose another database, like JSTOR, that does.
  • Create a new folder for these articles.
  • Find full text for 2 of the articles, and attach the text to the citations.
  • Using the search feature, find all references from 2014 or later. Put these references in a separate sub-folder.
  • Choose an uploaded document to annotate and annotate some stuff on it.

Show your finished folders and explain what you did to the Sage of RefWorks, who will check to make sure you have learned these skills well and award your medallion.

Level 2 – In-text citations and creating bibliographies (teaching level)

After completing level 2, you will know all of the skills necessary to teach the RefWorks class, and you will be able to answer most questions that come up.

Do the following:

  • From RefWorks, create and export a bibliography using your scientific articles. Use APA 6th edition style.
  • In Google Docs, create a 2 page document using at least 6 different references and a bibliography using the Add-on. Use MLA 7th edition style.
  • Open a new Word document. Create a different 2 page document. Be sure to do the following:
    1. Format the entire paper in MLA 7th edition style, but set your citations to be inserted in Chicago 16th edition format (Author-date system).
    2. Use at least 6 different references.
    3. Use Write-N-Cite to insert each reference and create a bibliography. Create the bibliography after having used 2 sources, before using any others. Watch how your bibliography builds on its own as you add more citations to your paper!
    4. Now change the citation style to be MLA 7th edition – to match the format of your paper.
  • Explain:
    • How to share references or folders with specific people versus with the entire institution
    • How to view duplicate references within RefWorks

Show your finished sample paper and explain what you did to the Sage of RefWorks, who will check to make sure you have learned these skills well and award your medallion.

Level 3 – RefWorks Advanced

These are more advanced skills that won’t come up in class, but may be useful for tackling some of the trickier questions people have.

  • Demonstrate how to edit an output style, and create a new output style (In-text citations only) for a bibliography that includes, in this order:
    1. Title, primary
    2. Title, secondary
    3. Authors, primary
    4. Periodical
    5. Volume
    6. Issue
    7. Pub Year
    8. Language
    9. URL
  • Edit the In-text citations for your new style so that they would appear like this: (Author Last Name, Pub Year, Language).
  • Select a few references and make a bibliography directly in RefWorks using your new style.
  • Demonstrate how to share references on social media.
  • Explain how RefWorks makes research and writing easier for you!