Metadata

Title: The Sheridan Libraries
Category: general
UUID: 42531e2594244114bfd3faa3ad2a1b0f

Source URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/refworks/troubleshooting
Parent URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/refworks
Crawl Time: 2026-03-23T07:50:56+00:00

The Sheridan Libraries

Source: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/refworks/troubleshooting Parent: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/refworks

RefWorks

Tips and tricks for using RefWorks to manage citations, create bibliographies, and share citations.

RefWorks Help

Questions?

Email the JHU RefWorks support group
refworks.support@proquest.com \ or 775-327-4105 \ (Monday-Friday, 9am-8pm Eastern)\ or (toll free) 800-521-0600 ext 74440
RefWorks CHAT (Monday-Friday, 9am-8pm Eastern time)\ Scoll down to RefWorks -- if it says "available," click on the blue "RefWorks" link

Troubleshooting and Tips

BROWSERS
GOOD NEWS
Annotations / Notes
Capitalization
Casing: "Sentence" vs. "Title"
Duplicates not deleting
Error: the group code...
Folder Order
Google Docs
Import Failed
Institutional Login Not Showing (ALT PSWD)
Login Portal Not Showing
More Than One Account?
Powerpoint
RCM Tip - References "in order of use"
Security Question
Where's My Citation?
Word Freezes
MORE

If something is not working, do these simple things in your browser:

Firefox is a good browser for RefWorks.

Clear your browser cache of cookies\
Turn off any ad/popup blocking or anti-tracking browser plugins – In Firefox, do this:\ --- Tools (top of screen) --> Options --> Privacy & Security (on the left) --> scroll down to Permissions --> UNcheck "Block Popup Windows."\ --- Or, just add an Exception for RefWorks: click the Exceptions box and add https://refworks.proquest.com/\
Make sure the correct login page is used:\ –- For RefWorks, use https://refworks.proquest.com \ -- For Legacy RefWorks, use https://www.refworks.com

Things that have been fixed or improved:

Accents:RefWorks uses UTF-8 import encoding, so as long as the non-English characters are correct in the export, RefWorks will import them correctly.\
Shared folders: The reference count for folders shows references added by the sharer AND by the person shared with.\
Table view: \ From "table view," you can now assign references to a folder using the "Assign to Folder" menu item, or by dragging and dropping.\ You can also delete references from table view.\ "Table view" is at the top right --> Display --> click "Normal View" to change to "Table View"\
Transferring multiple attachments: When you import references with multiple attachments FROM from legacy RefWorks or Mendeley TO RefWorks, OR you upgrade their legacy RefWorks account to RefWorks, they remain as single references with multiple attachments.

No, you cannot print out any notes (annotations) that you make on documents.

Also, if you print the document, the notes will not show.

(Information as of June 2019, from Refworks Tech)

Problem: All of the words in your references are capitalized.

Once you have created a bibliography, always check the capitalization of foreign titles -- often, all of the words are capitalized\
To fix this, choose the output style of "MLA 8th edition, no title casing":

When you choose a style for your bibliography, there can be many options, including some that say "sentence casing," title casing," or "no casing."

"Case" refers to "upper case" (capital letters) and "lower case" (small letters).

RefWorks cannot distinguish a proper noun (usually capitalized) from any other word
Therefore, if citation titles include words that should be capitalized, such as geographic names or biological species, you need to select a style that will do that
Choosing None as an option will print the title exactly as it is cased in your RefWorks account

RefWorks added many choices for what you want the 7th edition of APA to do.

Here are examples of some of them
Here is a video that explains those APA choices and when to use them

This page explains how to get rid of duplicate citations in your folders.

Here are a few more tips:

Your citations can't be de-duplicated until 24 hours after you've added them, especially if it's a big batch (this is an automated process and you don't need to do anything except wait)
The current maximum that can be de-duplicated is 2,000

"Error, the Group code passed in null was invalid"

If you are seeing this error message, clear your cookies and cache
If that does not fix the problem, please email refworks@jhmi.edu

The folders default to alphabetical order.

To put them in a customized order, you should number them.

---Example: 1. Introduction, 2. Analysis.\ \ But if neither of these orders is working, check these things:\ 1. Make sure that you are going directly to https://refworks.proquest.com to access your account, and not through a library portal or VPN

2. Make sure you are not blocking cookies or third-party cookies

Disable any ad blockers on your browser

The Google Docs add-on doesn't recognize my JHED ID.

The problem is that the Google Docs add-on doesn’t like JHU’s Shibboleth\
Easy solution: in Refworks, go into Settings (the drop-down under your name, top right), and scroll down to Alternate Password.\
All you have to do is change your password. It doesn’t matter what it is, and it won’t affect anything else.

More information about using RefWorks with Google Docs here.

Did you move references from a database into RefWorks, but you got a message that said "Import Failed"?

In some SSO (single sign-on) systems, if the token is stripped on the way to the account, the import will fail. But this only happens rarely.
To avoid this, login to RefWorks first, and then open a second tab and search the database.

But sometimes, this does not show, and you must use a password.

To solve that problem, create an alternate password:

Log in to RefWorks.
Go to the upper right corner, and click the arrow next to your name
Choose settings, and scroll down to the alternate password field
Click on "set alternate password" and choose a password

You can use your JHED ID, but you must use the password that you had when you FIRST registered for RefWorks
If you don't know that password, call the RefWorks phone number on the left of this page (775-327-4105), and they will help you

Sometimes the image with the portal link and red bars doesn't display -- this usually happens with newer versions of Chrome or Firefox
Internet Explorer often asks if you want to "Show all content" -- choose "yes," and the box will show

But you don't have to use the box with the red bars at all -- just login on the bottom left, with the Shibboleth link, using your JHED ID:

Are folders or other things missing from your RefWorks?

Or are you seeing that folders from Class A show in RefWorks, but references from Class B show in the RCM panel on the right?

You probably have two RefWorks accounts -- one uses jhu and one includes jh.

Solution: Delete the one you do NOT want.

Log in to the Refworks account that you do NOT want to keep
Click on your name (top right) and then Settings
Scroll to the bottom
Click "remove account" -- this will entirely delete this RefWorks account

RefWorks does not work with Powerpoint.

From RefWorks, November 2023:

"Refworks is only available currently in the browser version and also the Microsoft Word version. We do not support Refworks in Microsoft Power Point."

Are you using a style that asks for reference numbers in text, and a bibliography listed in the order that the references were used?

For example:

It is very important to keep track of which references go with which sentences.

A good way to do that is to use the author/date in the text, instead of the superscripts.\ \ When you are completely finished with your paper, your very last steps should be

changing those in-text author/dates into superscripts
creating your bibliography in whatever style you are supposed to use (more info on this page under "In Order of Use")

If you are off-campus and trying to log in to either RefWorks or Write-N-Cite 3 (which is old), you may be asked a security question.

The question is: Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?
You must answer NO, in order to display the entire login page

Every time you add a citation to RefWorks, ANOTHER RefWorks tab opens.

Therefore, if you cannot find a citation that you know you added, just REFRESH RefWorks in whatever tab you are in

Word freezes every time I add a new reference.

You will need to uninstall and reinstall Write N Cite.
Before uninstalling Write N Cite, you'll need to delete some files. Use these instructions to completely uninstall Write N Cite 4.