Using RefWorks Citation Manager
RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) is an app available from the Microsoft Office Store which can be used in Word 2016 and above for Windows or Mac to insert citations and create reference lists.
To install RefWorks Citation Manager in Word:
- Open a new Word document and select the Insert ribbon and Get Add ins or click on the Add-ins icon on the Home ribbon
- Click on Get More Add ins and enter RefWorks in the search box
- Select the RefWorks Citation Manager app and click on Add
- The RCM app will now be available in a new tab and under the My Add-ins menu
- Select the RCM tab and click on the RCM icon to open it
- Log in using your Imperial username and password
If you are unable to log in with your Imperial username and password you can create a RefWorks password for use with RCM.
- Open your RefWorks account, click on your name at the top of screen and select Settings
- A log in box will appear, select Log in via my Institution, select Imperial and log in with your Imperial username and password
- Scroll down the page to the Alternate Password section and click on Change Password
- Enter a new password (this should not be the same as your Imperial password)
- In Word, open RCM and log in using your Imperial email address and the RefWorks password you created
Creating a reference list in your word processing document using RCM
- Select your preferred output style from the hamburger (three lines) menu.
- Use the Search box to locate specific citations, or click on All references to view the citations in a folder
- Place your cursor where you want to cite a reference within the document and hover over the reference you want to cite in RCM. The Cite icon (which looks like a quotation mark) will appear, click the icon to insert the citation into your document
- To insert additional references into a single citation, tick the box next to each citation. A preview of the citation will appear the top of the RCM window. Click on Insert citation to insert the citation. The order in which references appear in the citation is determined by your output style
- Click on the hamburger menu and toggle Bibliography to On to insert and automatically update your reference list
If you have a large number of citations in your document you may wish to toggle Bibliography to Off temporarily to avoid Word running slowly while it formats your references.
If you are using Harvard, or a similar author-date output style, you can edit your in-text citations and add or remove text. This is useful if you wish to add a page number or hide the author’s name.
- Open your document and click on the citation you wish to edit and the Edit box will appear. Alternatively, click on the Citations tab and see all the citations in your document, hover over the citation and click the pencil Edit icon
- In the Edit Citation window use the options to hide the year or author, or add a page number
- Click Update Citation to update the citation in your Word document
- To remove the citation from your document click on Delete Citation
If you have a large number of citations in your document you may wish to toggle Citation formatting to Off temporarily to avoid Word running slowly while it formats your citations. This option can be found by clicking the three line hamburger menu.
Note that any new citations you add will be unformatted and look like this {Smith, 2025, #23}. The citations will be formatted according to your selected style once Citation formatting is toggled back to On.
