Question

How does RefWorks handle imported PDFs?

Answer

RefWorks attempts to create a reference by capturing and parsing the metadata from a PDF that has been uploaded. When successful, the newly created reference will be populated with the following data from the PDF (where available):

• Title
• Author(s)
• Abstract
• DOI
• Volumn
• ISSN
• Publication Year
• Keywords

The PDF will be attached to the newly created reference.

Some PDFs may appear to be text but are merely images of text. In those instances, RefWorks is unable to capture the necessary metadata to create a complete reference. When this occurs, a brief generic reference is created using the PDF file name as the title and attaching the PDF document to the reference.

Common reasons a PDF is prevented from creating a reference or uploads metadata into the incorrect fields:  

• The PDF contains images of text instead of text.
• The initial page of the PDF contains a library-generated copyright page.
• The initial page of the PDF is an image and the rest of the document contains text.