RefWorks

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Moving Citations from Access, Paradox, Excel, and Dbase Databases into RefWorks

These general instructions use MS Word's Mail Merge feature. Specific Access, Paradox, and Excel databases may not be compatible with Mail Merge.

Note: See RefWorks Field Labels and RefWorks Record Types below


In MS Word

Note: Instructions written for Word 2007 (Win). Procedure may vary with other versions.

  1. Open a new document.
  2. Click Mailings.
  3. Click Start Mail Merge.
  4. Click Letters.
  5. Click Select Recipients.
  6. Select Use Existing List and open your source file (e.g. Access *.mdb, Paradox *.db, Excel *.xls, Dbase *.dbf).
  7. (Optional) Click Edit Recipient List and select individual records.
  8. Type the RefWorks field labels you want to transfer, beginning with RT. See field tag labels below.
    • Each label consists of two characters plus a space.
    • Each record must begin with the "RT " field.
    • Each record must include a record type. See types below.

      Example: RT Journal Article

  9. Place your cursor next to the appropriate field label and click Insert Merge Field.
  10. Click the corresponding field to insert from your data source.
  11. Repeat steps 6-7 for all fields you want to import into RefWorks.
  12. Add one blank line after the last field tag entry.

    Sample MS Word Mail Merge main document.
    Shaded text represents data fields in the source file. The term "Journal" was typed in this example because all records in this hypothetical database are journal articles.
  13. Click Finish & Merge.
  14. Click Edit Individual Documents.
  15. Review formatting.
  16. Save document as a text file.

    Example: dbexport.txt

It may be necessary to change some data formats to comply with the RefWorks format (such as author names) or bibliographic output styles. In the above sample mail merge document, the Source field in the orginal database combined jounal name, volume, issue, and page numbers into one field. For these elements to format correctly in an output style, the Source field should be parsed into journal name (JF or JO), volume (VO), issue (IS), starting page (SP), and other page (OP) before importing into RefWorks. Alternatively, you can edit individual RefWorks records after importing. See RefWorks Tagged Format Help for details.


In RefWorks

  1. Login to your RefWorks database if you have not already done so.
  2. Click References then click Import at the top of the screen.
  3. Select RefWorks Tagged Format from the Import Filter/Data Source drop-down menu.
  4. Select Tagged Format.
  5. At the Select Text File box, click Browse and select the text file name.
  6. Click Import.
    Your citation(s) will automatically be imported into the Last Imported Folder.

    You may now view your records and move them to the folder of your choice.

RefWorks Record Type (RT)
Abstract
Artwork
Bills/Resolutions
Book, Section
Book, Edited
Book, Whole
Case/Court Decisions
Computer Program
Conference Proceedings
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/Thesis, Unpublished
Generic
Grant
Hearing
Journal Article
Journal, Electronic
Laws/Statutes
Magazine Article
Map
Monograph
Motion Picture
Music Score
Newspaper Article
Online Discussion Forum
Patent
Personal Communication
Report
Sound Recording
Unpublished Material
Video/DVD
Web Page

 

RefWorks Field Label and Legend
RT=Reference Type
ID=Reference Identifier
A1=Primary Authors
T1=Primary Title
JF=Periodical Full
JO=Periodical Abbrev
YR=Publication Year
FD=Publication Data, Free Form
VO=Volume
IS=Issue
SP=Start Page
OP=Other Pages
K1=Keyword
AB=Abstract
NO=Notes
A2=Secondary Authors
T2=Secondary Title
ED=Edition
PB=Publisher
PP=Place of Publication
A3=Tertiary Authors
A4=Quaternary Authors
A5=Quinary Authors
T3=Tertiary Title
SN=ISSN/ISBN
AV=Availability
AD=Author Address
AN=Accession Number
LA=Language
CL=Classification
SF=Subfile/Database
OT=Original Foreign Title
LK=Links
DO=Digital Object Identifier
CN=Call Number
DB=Database
DS=Data Source
IP=Identifying Phrase
RD=Retrieved Date
ST=Shortened Title
U1=User 1
U2=User 2
U3=User 3
U4=User 4
U5=User 5
U6=User 6
U7=User 7
U8=User 8
U9=User 9
U10=User 10
U11=User 11
U12=User 12
U13=User 13
U14=User 14
U15=User 15
UL=URL
SL=Sponsoring Library
LL=Sponsoring Library Location
CR=Cited References
WT=Website Title
A6=Website editors
WV=Website version
WP=Date of Electronic Publication
OL=Output Language (see codes for specific languages below)
PMID=PMID
PMCID=PMCID

Please send comments or questions to askrefworks@library.wisc.edu

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