RefWorks Resources

The sage of RefWorks: Amy

These are some answered questions and additional information that will be helpful for trainers.

Refworks curriculum is being updated to include the new RefWorks 3 system.

To use the new RefWorks, make an account with your @byu.edu address if you have one. You can make @byu.edu email aliases here. This is better because you’ll get more storage, sharing capabilities, tech support, training and other benefits.

To learn the new RefWorks system, read through all of the pages here.

Additional troubleshooting and help topics here.

June 2016 Update information here.

Questions and answers with the ProQuest customer service representative about the new RefWorks (RefWorks 3) system:

  1. Can you share collections with people who do not have an institutional access to RefWorks? For example, I have a collection that I would like to share with a colleague who is at a school that does not use RefWorks. Is there a free version of RefWorks 3 for people who do not have institutional access?
  • Public sharing (similar to sharing a folder in the legacy RefWorks platform) is currently in development and is currently set to release sometime in Q3 of 2016 for new RefWorks. Also, at this time, there are no plans to release a free version of RefWorks 3.

 

  1. If I, as the owner of the collection, share a collection with other users, does it count against their storage memory space?
  • A user’s storage space will not be impacted if they add a shared collection to their own account.  Storage space is only used when an individual adds files to their own account/collections.

 

  1. Can you download a PDF that contains the conversations from a shared document or that has been marked up and contains all of my annotations? Can I print/download the document notes I write either with the PDF or separately?
  • Comments or annotations made to PDFs stored in the new RefWorks platform will not be present when printed or saved to a computer’s local disk drive.  These features are present within the RefWorks program only.

 

  1. If we’re bringing in articles from another manager, will it bring in the pdf or just the citation or both? For example, we have some patrons on campus that would like to switch from Mendeley to RefWorks, but want to know if the PDFs associated with their Mendeley account will transfer over also.
  • Currently only the reference data from another reference management program will be imported.  The users can import the PDFs from the other bibliographic management software but any other records would still need to be imported manually.

 

  1. If a BYU patron signs up for a RefWorks 3 account without BYU email domain, will their account be affiliated with BYU as they are within the BYU IP addresses?

o   Create an account with an institutional email address

o   Create an account via an institutional unique URL on-campus (or within your Institution’s IP range)

o   Create an account via an institutional unique URL and access code when off-campus (or outside your Institution’s IP range)

o   Receive an email from an institutional administrator with a link to create an account

Additionally, when we make RefWorks 3 our default system, Rebecca Boughan has configured a special institutional URL that will work without using a BYU email address. It will be behind the proxy server for off-campus access and will authenticate users that way.

  • From Rebecca Boughan: If users already have a legacy RefWorks account they can now transfer that existing account by using the link at the top of the legacy RefWorks page after logging in. Using that link will provide the best user experience as it will automatically walk the user through the steps to create an account and will transfer their existing references. When RefWorks 3 becomes our default all accounts will be automatically taken through this same process.

 

  1. Feature Request: Please provide a group-wide discussion board for a collection that a research group could discuss on a broader scale instead of at the journal-by-journal level.
  • I will submit this to the development team as an enhancement request.

 

  1. Feature request: Legacy RefWorks has the ability to display a full record including the citation article’s Abstract. In RefWorks3, the only way to view an abstract is to click into the record to edit it, which is cumbersome and time consuming it a patron wants to review multiple abstracts in an account. It would be helpful to be able to click on the abbreviated abstract in the right hand panel when a record is selected or to have the option to view the entire record in the main viewing pane.
  • I will submit this enhancement request as well.

 

  1. If RefWorks is already open, why does the system open up a new tab every time that a new set of citations is directly imported? We know that it updates the account with the new information, but it also creates a multitude of tabs and in practice is creating confusion with the students. We would like to see the program updated within the single open tab and not open another tab each time more references are added to RefWorks.
  • This function is not dependent on the RefWorks program.  It is the online catalog and database websites that choose how direct export options are sent to the new RefWorks program.  Depending on how the website is programmed on the back-end, it will force a program, such as RefWorks, to open a new browser tab or window.

 

  1. It appears that the “Save to RefWorks” feature on the Favorites tool bar does not work with Safari or Firefox. Will this be addressed or remedied?
  • The Save to RefWorks feature does work with Firefox.
  • If it is not working for users, they will need to make sure they have an updated version of Firefox and that any third-party popup blockers are not blocking the STR bookmarklet from opening on a selected page.The Save to RefWorks bookmarklet was designed specifically for the Firefox and Chrome browsers.  We cannot confirm that this bookmarklet will function as normal in other web browsers other than the previously two mentioned as it was not designed/tested for other browsers.

 

  1. How does RefWorks dedupe references? It does not seem to catch many of the same references and so we have to manually review the references for duplicates.
  • At this time, the new RefWorks platform searches for exact duplicates only based on the author, date and title fields.  The duplicate check is also sensitive to casing and punctuation.  For example, if there is an additional space, a capital letter or other variation in the records, the duplicate search will not obtain those records.The program development team is adding additional duplicate search features for the new RefWorks and the current timeline for release is set for the end of Q2 of 2016.