On 31 August 2024, Birmingham Newman University's subscription to the RefWorks reference management platform will end. After this date, the Library will no longer have access to, or be able to support, Library users on the use of RefWorks.
Staff or students with a RefWorks account will need to take action if they wish to preserve their RefWorks data or transfer their data to one of the new platforms that we will be supporting. Please read on for further information.
The Library believes that the needs of the Newman community have changed since we took on RefWorks as our reference management platform, with new undergraduate programmes and an increasing focus on research. We feel that RefWorks as a 'one-size-fits all' solution is no longer the right fit for the Birmingham Newman community.
For our undergraduate and taught postgraduate students, we now recommend and support use of Zotero.
Zotero is a free, open source reference management application with many of the same features of RefWorks. It is available as desktop application and as a web-based service.
For our advanced researchers we have a subscription to Endnote 21, the most commonly used reference management solution in the academic research community.
Our EndNote subscription gives us access to both Web and Desktop applications and advanced features geared towards high-level research.
Staff can download the EndNote Desktop application from the Company Portal. If you wish to install EndNote on your personal device, please contact the IT Service Desk.
When our RefWorks subscription ends, it is likely that your access to the platform will end, this will mean that you no will longer have access to the reference data, files, notes and attachements that may be stored there.
In the first instance, if you wish to save this data, you will need to create an exportable backup of it. You can then use this backup to relocate your data to either Zotero or EndNote 21.
You can export your reference data all in one go, or, if you have several projects or folders of data and you want to keep them organised in this way when you export them, you can export each folder one-by-one.
A pop-up window will appear with two options. Under the heading 'From', "All references in [folder name]" should already be selected. Under 'Format' there will be four options.
The data file will download to your device. By default, it will be called 'export.ris'. We strongly recommend that you rename this file to the name of the folder you have exported them from before you continue.
If you just wish to export all the references to one file, you can follow steps 1-6 with 'All references' selected in your RefWorks library.
Unfortunately, this data will not be saved with the export file. You will need to download any attachments seperately.
We recommend you rename downloaded attachments and store them with the data files so that they are easily identifiable. When you import your references to Zotero or EndNote, you will then need to reattach the files manually.
Last reviewed: 23 April 2024
