RefWorks Transition Guide

Learn about alternate citation management tools like Zotero, Mendley, and EndNote. Then follow step-by-step directions to migrate your citations out of RefWorks to your new citation manager.

Library Research Guide

Alternate Method and Feedback

If the RefWorks 3 Export Bookmarklet is not working for you, please email us at refworks@ksu.edu and provide details (for example: How many references do you have in Zotero? What steps did you take to export references? Did you receive an error message at any point?).

Follow the RefWorks 3 Alternate Transition instructions to manually export your citations.

Ask a Librarian

Stuck or confused? Please contact us via phone, email, chat, or in person. We will troubleshoot the process and assist you with your new citation manager.

Either JavaScript is disabled in your browser or our chat service is unavailable. For chat hours see Hale Library's calendar. If you like, you can leave us a message at 785-532-3014 or e-mail your question to <a "mailto:libhelp@k-state.edu"=""> libhelp@k-state.edu.

Acknowledgements

The RefWorks 3 Export Bookmarklet was developed by Kansas State University Libraries' IT department.

Step-by-step directions were adapted with permission from Arizona State University Library's Change Citation Management Tools.

Transition from RefWorks 3

To get started, you’ll need to export your references out of RefWorks. Once that process is completed, you can import them into your new citation manager.

Step 1: Install the RefWorks 3 Export Bookmarklet

We’ve created the RefWorks 3 Export Bookmarklet to export all of your references (with tags, notes, and PDFs) from RefWorks 3 with one click.

A bookmarklet is simply a browser bookmark that includes computer code. We recommend using this bookmarklet with Google Chrome. It will not work with Safari, Internet Explorer, or Microsoft Edge.

To use a bookmarklet, make sure your browser is configured to:

allow pop-up windows
accept third-party cookies
enable JavaScript

Also make sure your bookmarks or favorites bar is visible:

Chrome (recommended): Ctrl + Shift + B will show or hide the bookmarks bar
Firefox: Alt will display the menu bar. Select View > Toolbars > Bookmarks Toolbar

Click and drag the bookmarklet below up to your browser's favorites or bookmarks (see image):

RefWorks 3 Export Bookmarklet

To manually create this bookmark, select and copy the text below, then right click the bookmark toolbar to create a new bookmark (Add Page in Chrome), and paste the copied text in the url field:

javascript:function initiateIt(){var script = document.createElement('script');script.src ="https://www.lib.k-state.edu/refworks_bookmarklet/refworks.js";document.head.appendChild(script);}initiateIt();

Step 2: Export using the RefWorks 3 Export Bookmarklet

Login to your RefWorks account.
Click the RefWorks 3 Export Bookmarklet. If you have many files this may take time. If you click it more than once you may need to log out of your RefWorks account, clear your browser's cache (Ctrl + Shift + Delete in Chrome), and log in again.
Remember the location of your saved files.

Importing citations (Step 2): Select your new citation manager (Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote) and follow the directions below to import these files to your new citation manager.

Importing PDFs (Step 3): Follow the directions in Step 3 to add PDFs to your imported citations.

Step 3: Import citations to your new citation manager

Create an account, download Zotero 5.0, and open it.

Zotero login page
To create an account, click "Register for a free account" above the username/password login on this site.
Zotero download page
Download Zotero 5.0 to your desktop and add the Zotero Connector to your browser (Chrome, Firefox, or Safari).

Ctrl+Shift+I to import

In the Zotero installed on your computer, select File from the top bar, then Import. When the Where do you want to import from? box appears, select a file type (BibTeX, RIS, Zotero RDF, etc.).
Select the file that you exported from RefWorks and select Open. All done!

Note: When using Zotero Desktop on a public computer be sure to sign in and out of your account in Edit > Preferences > Sync.

Create a Mendeley account then download and open Mendeley Desktop

Mendeley registration page

If you do not have an account, register for Mendeley on this page.
Mendeley download page

Download the desktop program and web importer.

Select File, then Import, then the RIS - Research Information Systems (*.ris) option.

Importing by selecting File, Import, and RIS

Find the RIS (*.ris) file that RefWorks exported, then select Open. All done!

Create a paid EndNote Desktop account (student and upgrade discounts for EndNote x9 available here) and log in.
Select File, then Import, then File:
Select Choose to browse for the file you exported from RefWorks, select the Import Option for your exported file, and then select Import. All done!
If you are a Mac user, you may be unable to import RefWorks citations directly into EndNote Desktop. You can import citations to EndNote Online (see the tab above) and then sync your accounts so that the citations also appear in EndNote Desktop.

Create a free EndNote Online account (select EndNote from the tools menu) and log in.
Select Collect and then Import References.
Choose File to browse for the file you exported from RefWorks, select RefMan RIS as Import Option, select New group from To, and click on Import. All done!

Step 4: Import PDFs to your new citation manager

The RefWorks 3 Export Bookmarklet saves your files in a compressed or zipped folder. To extract these files right click on the zipped folder and select "extract all" or select "extract all" from the Compressed Folder Tools menu.

Open the "archive" folder containing the downloads created by the RefWorks 3 Export Bookmarklet and the your new citation manager side by side.
Click and drag each PDF from the folder on your computer to the record in your new citation manager.