RefWorks has recently been experiencing some technical outages due to hardware upgrades as well as hosting service maintenance. It was not our intention to interrupt service however, it appears that there were some difficulties getting the new hardware on line.
If you have users that are still experiencing issues logging into RefWorks, please first consider restarting your computer to refresh network settings and clear active internet files. If rebooting does not resolve the login problem, please report any outstanding issues to support@refworks.com.
While we do not anticipate any further interruptions in service at this time, we do appreciate your support and understanding during this period.
Christine Capen
Director Technical Services
I got a question from a student worker who is doing a project with a faculty member's RefWorks account. The faculty member wants all the records to contain both a full periodical title and an abbreviated periodical title, since she switches between bibliographic styles that use one or the other. The student was wondering if there was a way to find RefWorks records that had one of these fields blank without going through the records one by one, since there are over 3000 records in the faculty member's account.
Hmm, said I. I couldn't figure out a way to search for records in which a certain field had no data. However, Lisa and I put our heads together and figured out that you can sort a list by both of those fields (periodical, full and periodical, abbrev) and if the field you're sorting by in a record is blank, it will appear at the top of the list, before the alphabetical order kicks in. Aha!
So, I recommended that the student view all references, sort by "periodical, abbrev", change the view to "full view" so that she could more quickly confirm that the field was missing, and edit the records that didn't have the field. Once she had added the abbreviation to all the records that didn't have it, she could repeat the process by sorting by "periodical, full" to make sure all the records had a full title.
This will probably be a little faster than going through the records one by one. If anyone else has a better idea, or questions, let me know!
Thanks,
Liz
Greetings,
A patron ran into an interesting problem with RefWorks the other day. He could process the citations using Write N Cite III in APA without incident, but not using Vancouver or some other styles. He received the following error message: "'length' is null or not an object." Here is what the RefWorks support people had to say about this problem:
"From what is described I will assume you are using the latest version of Write-N-Cite (WNC) and that the error is generated while attempting to format a document. It is suggested that the document be "reset".To do this, please open the document in MS Word and then activate and access WNC. Once both are running, select the Revert to WNC v.2 Document option from the Tools menu in WNC (Tools > Revert to WNC v.2 Document) and process the entire document. Once complete, save the changes in MS Word and then return to WNC and select Convert to WNC III Document from the Tools menu (Tools > Convert to WNC III Document) and process the document again saving the changes when complete.
Because the WNC III formatting process relies on embedded code in the Word document, we have seen instances where the code becomes corrupt from multiple editing sessions, the use of the Track Changes feature in MS Word, and incomplete conversions of WNC 2 to WNC III formatting. We hope this will resolve the problem you have experienced."
I hope that this information is helpful.
Martha
Here's some information regarding our trial subscription to RefAware (RefWorks' current awareness service which runs through 5/17/2008:
Thank you for your interest in RefAware, the web-based current awareness service which provides members of the academic community and other researchers with immediate access to the most up-to-date research and new publications in their fields. Your complimentary, organization- wide trial has been activated, and it will expire on 5/17/2008.
In an effort to assist you and your users in getting quickly started, below we have highlighted a number of key features of the service:
Creating an Account:
1. Go to: http://www.refaware.com
(Note: In order to sign-up for an Account, a first-time user must do so with an email address of the organization’s domain name.)
2. Click on Create a New Account.
3. Enter user information and create password.
4. Click on the Create Account button to finalize.
5. An email will be sent confirming registration.
Setting up User Profile:
Once the registered user has created an account, they can customize their “Account Preferences� under the User Profile area within the program. The preferences include the ability to:
* Change Password and Login Information
* Set-Up Email Alert Frequency
* Select Discipline Specific Coverage
* Link RefAware to a RefWorks Account.
* Change User Default Settings
The user is now ready to create their search strategies.
Creating Search Strategies:
· Click on Create Search Strategies, and then type in the Strategy Name.
· Select the first criterion (Term, Author or Journal) that you want to include in your strategy by clicking on the Search Criteria drop-down box. Enter the information in the text box.
· Click on Add Search Criteria. Your criteria will be displayed in the Criteria List. Add additional criteria by making a new selection in the Search Criteria drop-down box. Each line is separated by a logical “OR�; in other words, the results of your Strategy will include all articles that meet ANY of the criteria on individual lines of your strategy.
· Once you have completed your strategy, click the Save or Save & View Results button.
Further assistance on establishing search strategies can be found via online Help.
RefWorks Team, WSSC:
FYI -- some release info, effective this Friday, from RefWorks and RefAware:
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On Friday, May 2nd, RefWorks will release new feature upgrades to the service. These May, 2008 enhancements will be made available instantly to all RefWorks users. A notice of the new feature upgrades will also be posted within the program for all users to review. The release message will appear in a “tool tip box� at the top of the page within the program and will be enabled for a few weeks.
Detailed information about the new enhancements for the May release is available at: http://info.csa.com/refworks/feature-release/may2008.html
RefWorks Enhancement Highlights:
* Write-N-Cite III for Windows with Off-line Capabilities
* Write-N-Cite v2.5 for Mac is Now Available
* Attachment Feature Available to All Users
In addition to the RefWorks release; we will also be releasing feature enhancements to RefAware! As you may recall, this past March, RefWorks released RefAware - a new current awareness service designed to provide researchers and other members of the academic community with immediate access to new research and publications in their field. This simple-to-use service allows researchers to be alerted when new articles are available - most within hours of publication and many even pre-publication. Harnessing the speed and accessibility of the Internet, RefAware provides a comprehensive, real-time picture of today’s global research. The new feature releases include the following:
RefAware General Enhancements
* Ability to Create Custom Source Sets for Searching
* Links to Author(s) Profiles in COS Scholar Universe
* Automatic Display of Images
* Increase in Number of Search Strategies per Account
We will also be conducting our first RefAware training webinar on Thursday, May 8 at 12:00 pm (EDT/GMT -4, New York). This session is open to RefWorks Administrators in addition to current RefAware users. Registration is required. To sign up for this session or to request more information on RefAware, please go to www.refaware.com.
As always, we hope these new feature enhancements to both RefWorks and RefAware will provide you and your users with a number of new ways discovering and managing your personal research data in an easier, more efficient manner. If you have any questions regarding these enhancements, please contact our Technical Services Team at support@refworks.com.
Thank you for your continued support!
We have heard from a couple of patrons that the new Write N Cite III for RefWorks does not work with Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. I have written to RefWorks and confirmed that this is indeed the case. I asked specifically about any workarounds. Here is the reply I received from RefWorks:
"Unfortunately there is currently not a work around for users with Word 2008. We will be releasing a beta for this in the future ... We have not found that WNC III or WNC II is compatible with this Word Version. The only thing I could suggest at this point is to create the bibliography from within RefWorks, and use the One Line Cite to insert in text citations."
One Line Cite is an option in the Switch To menu, which is to the immediate right of the folder name. Next, click on "cite" to the immediate left of the citation. This will open up a separate pop-up window that includes the RefWorks tag. One can copy this entire tag (including the squiggly brackets) and paste it into the MS Word document. Then, in order to format the citations in the MS Word document, one has to do it from the Bibliography option in the main RefWorks toolbar. Browse for the file and use the Format Paper and Bibliography option to create a new formated version of the document. This sounds like it should work, but I haven't been able to test it. If anyone has Office 2008 on their Mac, perhaps you could give this a try and let us know.
I hope that this information is helpful.
Martha
Hello all,
One of the features of Write-N-Cite III (WNC III) is the ability to download your RefWorks records so that you can use WNC when you're not connected to the internet. It's pretty slick! However, it's fairly easy to miss the little checkbox that allows you to enable this feature - it happens during the WNC III download process.
About halfway through the installation process for WNC III, you'll come to the "installation options" screen. You need to check the "allow working offline" box for the offline database feature to be enabled. As far as I can tell, this is the only place you can enable the feature, so if you accidentally downloaded WNC III without checking the box, you need to download and reinstall to be able to work offline.
From there it's fairly intuitive - you can download your RefWorks database using the "create/update offline database" option under the tools menu in WNC III. One confusing thing is that even if you didn't allow working offline in the installation, you still get that option in the WNC tools menu. However, when you try to create the offline database, it will tell you the feature isn't enabled. If you get this question from patrons, just have them reinstall WNC III and be sure to check the box.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Liz
Hello all,
In last week’s reference training meeting, I mentioned that a new version of Write-N-Cite (WNC), with full compatibility with Vista and Word 2007, has been released in Beta form. I hadn’t actually downloaded it and played with it at that point, and now that I have I’ve found it has a lot of different (and AWESOME) features! Also, it's not just for Vista/Word 2007 users. I’ll give a quick recap below, but I definitely recommend downloading it and trying it out.
Write-N-Cite III is ALSO compatible with Windows XP and Word 2003, so this is an upgrade of interest to almost all users. A notable exception is that there is not yet a Mac version, so Mac users will need to stick with the current WNC release for now.
The citing functionality (inserting the codes into the paper) works the same as the previous version, but there are some significant upgrades in the bibliography feature. The major change is that there is no longer an original and final version of the paper. All the formatting happens in the original document, and you can keep adding citations and reformatting without a problem after you’ve changed the code snippets to citations. It also formats much faster than the previous version.
Another major upgrade is the Edit Citation feature, which allows you to do easily do things that you used to have to use “switches� for – like suppressing an author name, inserting a page number, etc. To use this feature, go to the paper and click on the citation you want to edit, then click the Edit Citation link in the upper right corner of the Write-N-Cite window. Aside from that step being completely non-intuitive, the rest of the process is pretty easy.
Because WNC-III is still in beta, and since we don’t want to make any big changes at the end of the semester when people are in the middle of writing papers, we aren’t planning on doing a big rollout yet. We’re planning on making a bigger splash next semester, but we have mentioned the new version on our website and in the stall flyers, so you should be prepared to answer questions.
Lisa is working on updating the RefWorks step-by-step guide to mention the new version, and we’ll probably develop a WNC-III handout. In the meantime, RefWorks does have a handout detailing the new features on their Write-N-Cite page.
There have been a few isolated incidents of funky stuff happening in 2003 documents when you format using WNC, like the font or alignment of the paper being changed. Overall, though, it’s worked pretty smoothly. RefWorks does recommend users work with a copy of their document, however, so they have something to fall back on in case a major error occurs.
Anyway! Check it out – I think it’s a really exciting upgrade, and makes WNC a lot more user-friendly. You’ll likely be able to figure out everything you need to know by playing with the new version, but let Lisa or me know if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Liz
In case you get any questions about it, there are a few compatibility issues with the new Windows operating system (Vista) and RefWorks Write-N-Cite.
Write-N-Cite is compatible with Office 2007, as long as you select the Word 97-2003 format (*.doc) instead of the Word 2007 (*.docx) format in which to save your document. This is known as "compatibility mode" in Word 2007. If you save your document in the Word 97-2003 format first, then you should not get an error message when you go to cite a document.
There a problems in submitting a document for bibliographic formatting due to the increased Internet security in Windows Vista. The work around is to submit the document from the RefWorks browser session instead of directly from Write-N-Cite.
A newer version of Write-N-Cite that is compatible with Windows Vista is due to come out this summer--so you'll only have to use these work-arounds for a short while.
Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
Liz
Hi all,
I got an email question from someone who had created a new output style in RefWorks (by editing an existing style), and was having some problems making the bibliography come out right. When she previewed the style in the Output Style Editor, it looked like everything was formatted correctly. However, when she actually created the bibliography, it didn't reflect any of the changes she had made to the style. This is especially puzzling because it looked like the style should be coming out fine based on the preview.
I've had this problem in the past, and the solution just dawned on me. When you create a new style, the default is to change the output style for Reference Type "generic [defined]". Since most things imported to RefWorks from an article index end up being defined as Reference type "journal [defined]", it doesn't apply the new style to them because they're not defined as "generic."
Here's what you do. Through the bibliography button, choose the new style and click "edit" (if the patron has the problem described above, s/he already knows how to edit a style). Change the Reference Type from "Generic [defined]" to "Journal [defined]". Then, underneath the output field order section, choose "copy fields from... generic" (since that's what all the original changes were set under). Click "copy", and it will apply the generic settings to the journal article format.
You basically have to define the bibliographic format for each Reference Type you're going to use. People are often only using journal articles, so it's not usually a big deal. But remember that the changes need to be copied to (or created specially for) any type that's going to show up in the bibliography (book chapter, website, etc.)
A few common questions - if the patron wants an abbreviated journal title to appear in the bibliography, the abbreviated title has to appear in the RefWorks record. Sometimes it comes over from the article index, and sometimes it doesn't. If articles show up in the bibliography with the full title instead of the abbreviated title, figure out which articles are missing the abbreviated title, and find each record in the RefWorks account. Edit the record (link on the right side of the screen, by the FindIt link) and fill in the "Periodical, Abbrev" field with the abbreviated title. It will then insert it into the bibliography.
This goes for any information that is output strangely in the bibliography - double-check the source information in the RefWorks record. If it's incomplete or incorrect there, it's not going to magically come out right in the bibliography.
You can also define a reference type by editing the record - if you're still experiencing strange results with a new output style, double-check the defined Reference Type for the problematic citations.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks,
Liz
Hi all,
I got a question from a user about whether citations from Ovid auto alert emails can be imported into RefWorks. After some experimenting and talking to RefWorks support, the answer is yes! It's pretty easy, too.
When users set up the auto-alert in Ovid, they should choose "email includes records only" for the report type, and "Ovid" for the result format (which is the default). Then, when they get the email, they can go into RefWorks, select "import" under the "references" menu, and use the "Ovid" import filter/datasource and "mixed databases" for the database. Paste the text of the email into the "import data from the following text" box, and the references will be imported, including the FindIt links. Yay!
I got thrown trying to do this on my own because I figured the result format in Ovid would have to be one of the tagged options. But no, just leave it as the Ovid result format and it works fine.
Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
Liz
I sometimes get questions from people who want to print out a list of citations and abstracts from their RefWorks account. It's easy to print a list of citations in various styles, but more difficult to get the abstracts to appear in the list (because it's not something that would show up in a bibliography).
I recently discovered an output style that does this quite nicely. When creating the bibliography, scroll down into the "other" section and choose "APA, annotated with abstracts." This creates a bibliography with the citation and the abstract. Since people are usually doing this for their own use, the citation style (APA) shouldn't matter too much.
However, if people need the cites in a different style (AMA, Chicago, etc.), any output style can be modified (keep this in mind if patrons want a custom output style to include RefID, notes, etc.). So, people can choose the style they want, and follow these instructions to add an abstract to the list: http://www.refworks.com/Refworks/help/Creating_an_Annotated_Output_Style.pdf
Also, here's a PDF with general instructions for creating custom output styles: http://www.refworks.com/Refworks/help/Modifying_an_Output_Style_User_Guide.pdf
Creating a custom style is a bit cumbersome, so I recommend using the APA annotated style if it works for the patron's purposes.
Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
Liz
I got a question yesterday from a professor in the School of Nursing who was trying to get her RefWorks references into EndNote (version 9). We exported them into a text file and followed all the instructions to get them into an EndNote library, but when we chose the filters and clicked "Import" nothing happened - the process very quickly completed, but no references appeared. We tried importing references from a different database (CINAHL) using the same method, and that worked just fine.
She contacted EndNote support, and it turned out that she needed an additional filter to get the references in correctly. In case you encounter anyone with the same problem, here's the filter: Download file
I know we don't support EndNote, but if you run into this problem the new filter might help. If not, EndNote support was very responsive: http://www.endnote.com/support/entechform.asp
Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
Liz
If patrons are using RefWorks to create a bibliography in APA style, they may notice a common formatting problem. In RefWorks' default APA style, RefWorks formats the title of the article in a citation so that the first letter of the title is capitalized and all the other letters are lower case. This becomes a problem when there are proper nouns in the title that need to stay capitalized.
To solve this problem, you should choose the style "APA - No Title Casing Applied, American Psychological Association, 5th Edition," which is down in the extended list of styles. With this format, the title will appear in the citation with the letter cases exactly as they appears in the RefWorks account. So, the patron should make sure that the title appears in the RefWorks record as he or she wants it to appear in the bibliography.
It's surprising that this isn't the default for APA style, but now you know how to get around it if people ask. Let me know if you have questions!
Liz