Research Paper Writing & Citing

Note: students have reported experiencing difficulties with the RefWorks Citation Manager tool that installs directly into Microsoft Word via the Word Store on Word 2016 and above. We hope to report a solution soon. 

Aside from having a new, streamlined look, the new (2019) RefWorks platform provides greater functionality for researchers, including

• Sharing references, notes, and folders among collaborators
• Highlighting and annotating of documents within the platform
• One-click save of web pages, and drag-and-drop save of PDFs with automated citation recognition
• Unlimited storage

Create or log into your RefWorks account.

You may need to select the blue "Use login from my institution" button, then search for William & Mary. 

Key features (those with a star  are new as of the new platform)

Adding sources to RefWorks

• Import citations through W&M Library databases: save sources through Primo as well as Ebsco and ProQuest databases. 

•   Save to RefWorks plugin: import citations through your web browser.

Organizing sources

• Create and use folders to organize sources by assignment or topic.

•   Share references: share individual references or entire folders with collaborators.

Working with sources

•   Read, highlight, and annotate documents.

Writing with sources

• Make a bibliography: create a bibliography from sources you select to paste into your paper/project. 

• RefWorks Citation Manager: create citations and references using your stored RefWorks sources as you write. (For Microsoft Word |  For Google Docs)  

  • Note: students have reported experiencing difficulties with the RefWorks Citation Manager tool that installs directly into Microsoft Word via the Word Store on Word 2016 and above. We hope to report a solution soon. 

For a comprehensive overview of RefWorks, visit the RefWorks user guide or watch the Getting Started with New RefWorks videos on Youtube. 

If you have an existing RefWorks Legacy account, you can easily transfer your references to the new platform by doing the following:

1. Log into your RefWorks Legacy account. 

2. Click the NEW: Move to the newest version of RefWorks from ProQuest link at the top of the page.

3. Create a new account using your W&M email address, or log in with your existing New RefWorks account if you've previously created one. You'll be shown a few screens to set up your account and introduce you to some basic features.

4. Your references will automatically begin importing.

If for some reason your import gets interrupted, you may also go to Add → Import references → RefWorks button in New RefWorks to restart the process. 

Note: the folders used to organize your references in RefWorks Legacy should also transfer over with the references.