RefWorks
About RefWorks
- RefWorks is a bibliographic citation manager; a piece of software that collects and formats the references used in scholarly writing. Using RefWorks, you can save the references you plan to cite in your papers and ensure that they are automatically formatted in the appropriate style: MLA, APA, Chicago, and hundreds more.
- RefWorks is a web-based service, meaning that you can access your account and work with your references from any internet-capable computer around the world. Any member of the BU community (students, faculty, staff) is eligible to register for a personal account: you can sign up at http://www.refworks.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/Refworks.
- After registering, you will be able to sign in through the link on the library home page using the user name and password you choose (for convenience, you may wish to make this the same as your BU login and Kerberos password, although you can choose something else if you prefer). You will also receive an email confirmation from RefWorks listing a Group Code for BU: be sure to save this information, since you will need it if you wish to log in directly at the RefWorks site from off campus, rather than by going through the link on the library page.
- It is also possible to set up group accounts for projects with multiple authors, allowing all the people working on a paper to add to and use the references.
- A printed guide is available here (PDF).
- A series of webcast tutorials explaining the various features of RefWorks is available here (narration and text).
Registering for RefWorks
- Go to http://www.refworks.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/Refworks and click "Login to RefWorks." Be sure that the screen says "RefWorks User Login for Boston University."
- You will see spaces for a log-in name and password, as well as a link to 'sign up for an individual account.' Click that link and enter a user name and password of your choice (can be the same as your BU login and Kerberos password, or different).
- Add an email, your user type and your area of focus, then click "Register."
- You will receive an email confirmation from RefWorks listing the Group Code for BU: save this information if you may want to access your account without going through the library home page. You will need to enter this code, as well as your RefWorks login and password, to sign into RefWorks directly from the company's home page.
- To change your account details (user name, password, email) at any time, go to "Update User Information" under the Tools menu. Make any changes you wish, then click "update."
