Citation management tool, RefWorks, to be phased out

McMaster is phasing out RefWorks, one of the University’s primary citation management tools.

As of August 15, 2015, McMaster faculty, students and staff will no longer have access to their RefWorks accounts. In preparation for this, it will no longer be possible to create new accounts as of January 1, 2015.

McMaster’s RefWorks license was negotiated as part of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) consortia. Earlier this year, OCUL announced that its members had opted not to renew this product, affecting a number of universities across the province.

“We understand that this decision will significantly impact our RefWorks users,” says Anne Pottier, Associate University Librarian. “To help ease this transition, McMaster University Library has identified a variety of citation tools that should meet the needs of most of our students, faculty and staff. We invite current users to explore the options and find the tool that works best for them.”

McMaster University Library has created a list of citation management alternatives and is encouraging users to begin the process of exporting their references from RefWorks into another software tool.

Users also have the option of purchasing an individual subscription to RefWorks.

Learn more about how to migrate your references and citations from RefWorks.

For more information contact Ines Perkovic, McMaster’s RefWorks coordinator.