2025 RefWorks Release Information
April 8, 2025
RefWorks site rebranded to align with Clarivate
To align with our Clarivate brand, the RefWorks logo, typeface and look-and-feel, have been updated. RefWorks related ProQuest branded content is now updated to reflect Clarivate brand.
Previous logos:
Updated logos:
Check out the new logos on our Knowledge Center site.
RefWorks YouTube channel:
Refworks on X @RefWorks:
Plagiarism and AI content checker (Pilot)
In March, RefWorks added a new feature pilot for plagiarism and AI content checker. This initiative is in partnership with Copyleaks.
Every user was granted 40 credits per month by Clarivate. One credit is equivalent to 250 words. Users who use this feature during the pilot retain access to their documents on the Plagiarism and AI content checker page.
This is a limited pilot to explore user engagement and collect feedback. Clarivate will explore this as permanent integration in RefWorks, followed by other products.
RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Word and Google Docs Improvements
New feature for Citation formatting which allows users to switch citations formatting option off to improve performance. Users who are working on large documents may choose to turn automatic Citation formatting: Off to reduce document processing time. Citations will be inserted into document but only formatted once the option is turned On. This feature is only available in RCM for Word.
RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) Citation formatting: Off
New options for formatting citations now available to use when citation details other than Page are needed.
The following details are available now: Appendix, Article, Book, Canon, Chapter, Column, Equation, Figure, Folio, Issue/Number, Line, Location, Note, Opus, Paragraph, Part, Rule, Scene, Section, Sub verbo, Table, Verse or Volume. This feature is available in RCM for Word, RCM for Google Docs and RCM for Hangul Word Processor.
RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Word citation options
RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Google Docs citation options
Users may now easily see which account they are logged into in RCM for Word. The account info is listed next to Log out, as it is in RefWorks.
RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Word Log out
ProQuest RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Word message
Added and Improved Ref Types
Users can now format their references more easily by using more Ref Types. These are available when creating a new reference manually, during import, in Citation Style Editor and during export.
Ref Types: Computer Program/Software, Figure/Image, Government Document, Lecture/Presentation, Motion Picture/Film, and Video/Streamed
Bug Fixes
Some PDFs failed to show a preview in reference Preview pane.
When sharing a folder as public URL, custom fields were missing in reference details.
When viewing admin usage analytics, end date was sometimes excluded from view due to time zone settings and usage graphs formatted metrics with decimal points on some browsers.
In RCM for hangul Word Processor, the narrative citation formatting was not correctly applied in the document.
Erroneous ending period was inserted next to the URL causing the click through link to become non-functional.
Corrected missing page number detail notation in Cite Them Right Harvard 12th citation style in RCM for Word and Google Docs.
Fixed BibTeX and BibLaTeX export formats issues in Book section Ref Type for Book title and Series Title fields.
Accessibility Improvements
Screen reader improvements in RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Word on references home page.
Keyboard accessibility improvements on reference home page and bibliography toggle.
Keyboard accessibility improvements on Import page.
January 14, 2025
Integration with Paperpal Preflight Pre-submission Check
Users now have access to RefWorks Paperpal Preflight via RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Word and Google Docs. With this new integration, Paperpal will enhance the process by providing language and technical compliance checks, ensuring manuscripts are submission ready.
Preflight Pre-submission Check performs a comprehensive scan of manuscripts for technical compliance and language quality, ensuring appropriate grammar, writing mechanics, readability, and academic vocabulary. It will also review technical aspects related to references, disclosures, limits, figure, tables, etc.
Post assessment, a free submission readiness report will be generated, highlighting areas of compliance and areas needing improvement.
Currently, doc, docx, and PDF file formats are supported.
Institutional admins can enable or disable access to this feature for their users in Admin Settings Preferences.
Institutional Single Sign-On (SSO) Option Added to the RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Google Docs
Users affiliated with institutions that provide OpenAthens or Shibboleth authentication can now log into RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Google Docs using their institutional sign-on. Previously, users had to enter their RefWorks User ID and Password for access. Browser popup blockers must be disabled to allow authentication screen to appear.
RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Word Improvements
Users now have an easy way to view and access references cited in their document in the new My Citations tab. My Citations tab lists all references cited in the document. Users can view references in citation view or in bibliography view and can see how many times the reference was cited, in which citation. When clicking on the citation within list in the RCM add-in, cursor is automatically placed in that citation in the document. Search feature allows users to find references included in the document’s citations.
When editing citations, users can now see the Ref ID. This feature makes it easier for users to identify which references were used in the document.
When editing citations, users can now change order of references in a citation. Changing order of references in citation can be done by using arrows, or by dragging and dropping. Note: if citation style rule mandates specified order, changing order while editing will not affect the citation.
Editing page numbers for in-text citations is now available for superscript styles. Default page number(s) formatting is not affected and follows rules set by citation style.
Import Improvements
Users can now import references into multiple Projects at the same time when using direct export from databases or via Save to RefWorks. The limit is 5 Projects during an import. This enables easier workflows for organizing research and eliminates the need to move or copy references between projects. Checking for duplicates at import is unique to each Project. References in each Project are assigned a unique Ref ID.
Save to RefWorks (StR) Improvements
Save to RefWorks feature has been updated to improve the quality of reference details and now includes more sites.
Users can now minimize the Save to RefWorks Window until ready to import, so the source page content is not obstructed.
Workflow Improvements
When searching for citation style in Citation Style Editor, users may now set a display scope as they can when viewing references in their RefWorks library. Users may set to view from 25 to 2000 records per page. This setting will be retained until user changes the scope.
Users can now quickly recognize if a reference source is in Print or Electronic format without the need to open the reference editor. This is important because style formatting relies on Print/Electronic source designation to create bibliographies.
If reference details are edited in the Reference Editor and the user closes the pane without saving, a warning message is presented to prevent data loss.
Users may switch to view all fields available in Reference Editor or remain in current view showing default fields. This eliminates the need to add additional fields one by one and gives the user a full view of all fields.
Users may search only the Ref ID field in advanced search. Only numeric query string is accepted.
Export Improvements
Users now can export references in BibLaTeX format. BibLaTeX is a powerful bibliographic management for creating high-quality technical documents like articles, reports, theses, and books. This feature is in beta as we gather feedback from users.
Citation Styles Added
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AMA 11th - American Medical Association, 11th Edition (URL)
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Physiotherapy Canada UPD
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Ecology
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Journal of Medical Internet Research (URL)
Accessibility Improvements
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Added the ability for keyboard only and screen reader navigation to the following areas:
- Reference Edit pane
- Left side navigation items
- Utility toolbar dropdown items
- RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Word -
Added keyboard navigation in reference list
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Screen reader prompts added to home menu
Bug Fixes
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Source name corrected from “google” to “Google Scholar” when importing for Google Scholar.
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Updated missing data field information in RCM for Word and Google Docs. Now the message shows “(missing author)” when there is no author information populated in the reference details and “(missing date)” when there is no date information populated in the reference details.
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Removed invalid period at the end of bibliography where URL is present, enabling links to click through.
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Importing references where URLs contained “$” sign were erroneously truncated; this is now fixed.
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Fixed search in tags to ignore casing.
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Automatic trim of reference fields when saving.
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Fixed an outage where sorting by Date Modified criteria failed to execute in RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Word and HWP.