Skip to Main Content

Lehigh University Libraries - Library Guides

RefWorks

How to use RefWorks to organize, store, and share citations and generate bibliographies.

Sharing your Collections

RefWorks allows for sharing outside your institution as well as inside, however, each person you share your collection with will need a RefWorks account in order to view your research (which they can create for free!). You can share with up to 10 people per collection for free account holders or an unlimited number of RefWorks users if you have an Institutional account.

  1. Click the Share & Export icon  or the Sharing menu item to start
  1. Select the collection to be shared and the groups with whom you will share it.

  1. Type the email address of the person (add one at a time) and select the level of access for the person you're inviting:
    • Read – view items and read documents
    • Annotate – view items, read documents, and annotate documents
    • Modify – view/read/annotate documents, edit existing annotations, add documents, remove documents, and add a note to an item

  1. Optionally, add a personal note
  2. Click Share Collection

The person you've invited will get an email notification, and a notification inside RefWorks, where they can accept (or reject) the invitation. If the person doesn’t have a RefWorks account, they will be asked to create one.

Remember, when you share a collection any sub-collections are also shared.

 

Viewing a collection's sharing status

To view what collections you have shared, look for the sharing icon next to the collection name.

By selecting Sharing Settings from the menu, you can access the settings for your shared collection to modify them.

In the Sharing Settings you can also:

  • change the sharing from "private" to "institution" (which gives everyone in your institution access to your collection)
  • change individual access levels at any time after inviting someone
  • remove individuals from your collection by clicking the 'x' to the right of each address in the list

Reading Documents in RefWorks

RefWorks has a built-in reader – no need for a .pdf reader or special app to read your documents.  You can read and access supported documents anywhere, with just a web browser. 

Simply select the reference with the document and click the "Read" button in the viewing pane.  The full document or article will open for you to read and annotate.  If the item does not contain a document, the reference metadata will display.

You have several options, all of which can be found on the tool bar on the top of the page:

  • Return to your collection
  • Zoom in or zoom out on the document for enhanced viewing
  • Print a copy of the document
  • Download a PDF version of the document to your computer
  • Highlight certain portions of the text
  • Comment on the selected text
  • Add notes to the document that you are viewing
  • Edit the document reference data

Annotating Documents in RefWorks

You can annotate any of your own documents saved in RefWorks. You may be able to annotate documents shared with you if you have been given permission to annotate and/or modify the document. 

To annotate a document, select the reference with the document and click the "Read" button in the viewing pane. The document will display in the reader.   Click the Document Notes icon  from the reader menu and enter your notes. 

If you wish to make highlight areas of text, select the text area you wish to make a note for using the Highlight Selected Text icon and select words of text by clicking and dragging through the lines of text.

To remove highlighting, click the highlighted area until the delete option displays.  Click "Delete Conversation".

You may also click and drag using the Comment icon to highlight the text and associate a comment with it.

You can change the color of your note and the associated highlighted text, edit your note or you can delete your note completely by clicking on the three dots at the far right in the note.

A note indicator will also appear to the far right of the selected area and you may access the note in the manner as well. 

Once you type a note, it is automatically saved.