Unit 3: Managing references

Creating and Deleting References

Importing references, or using a tool like Save to RefWorks, is often much quicker than creating references manually. However, it is sometimes necessary to do so when these options are not available.

This part of the guide will also cover how to delete references, and to restore any references you have deleted by mistake.

Creating references from scratch

  • Navigate to the folder you wish to add a reference to, then above the folder name click 'Add' (+) > 'Create reference manually'.
  • This will open a blank reference for you to add relevant information to. For more information about the reference editor, see our page on editing references.
  • You do not need to fill out every field in the editor to create a reference, only the 'Title' field is essential.
  • Click 'Save' to finish creating the reference. We recommend turning on Citation View to make sure your created reference matches your chosen style.
Create reference manually
The reference editor

Delete references

  • Navigate to the relevant folder, then select the references you wish to delete.
  • Click the 'Delete' option from the toolbar near the top of the screen.
  • From here, you can select either 'Remove from folder' (which removes references from the current folder only), or 'Move Selected to Trash', which removes references from your main RefWorks library and moves them to the 'Trash' section.
  • If you choose 'Remove from folder', the selected references will remain in any other folders they are assigned to. If they are not assigned to any other folders, they will be moved to the 'Not in folder' section.
  • You can also click and drag selected references from a folder to the Trash section.
Delete options

Trash section

  • You can access the 'Trash' section from the left hand side of the RefWorks screen.
  • This section lists all references you chose to delete from your RefWorks library. References remain in your Trash folder until you choose to delete them permanently.
  • If you wish to restore any references back to your RefWorks library, you can do so by making your selection and clicking 'Restore' from the toolbar options above. RefWorks will aim to restore them to the folder(s) they were deleted from, but if this is not possible references will move to the 'Not in folder' section.
  • You can choose to delete certain references or the contents of your entire Trash bin from RefWorks permanently. If you choose to do so, there is no way to retrieve these references.
Click on trash and select references to delete permanently
Select references and click 'Restore' to return them to your RefWorks library