As part of our commitment to providing reliable, accessible, and forward-looking research tools, the NU Library will be transitioning away from RefWorks at the end of this year (12/31/2025). We’re excited to support our community in making the move to Zotero, a powerful, user-friendly citation manager that’s widely used across academic institutions and ensures continued access after graduation. The NU Library currently provides training and support for Zotero users, as well as upcoming webinars on Moving from RefWorks to Zotero. If you decide Zotero isn't for you, we'll provide information on other citation management options. We’re here to help you make the most of your research tools—now and in the future!
There are several ways to move data from RefWorks into Zotero. Here are our recommendations:
1. Users With Citations Only (no full text) in Refworks:
Export & move the citations
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Export citations from RefWorks as a BibTeX or RIS file.
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* This method will allow you to preserve folders if desired *
- Export from RefWorks
- Log into RefWorks
- Choose All References to download all your citations at once OR
- Choose one specific folder to download
- Choose the Share icon at the top of the screen and then Export references from the dropdown menu
- Choose the following options and select the Export button:
- From: All references in 'All References'
- Format: RIS or BibTeX
- ID output: Choose what works best for you
- If you see the popup shown below, choose CANCEL.
- Log into RefWorks
- Save the export file where you can find it on your computer
- Import into Zotero
- Open Zotero. (Install first if needed: zotero.org/download)
- Choose File >Import
- Rename the resulting new Zotero Folder
- Repeat from step 1. Return to Refworks and choose a different folder.
2. Users With Only a Few Full-Text (pdf) Items in Refworks:
Download & move the files
- When you add files to Zotero, it will automatically extract citations and attach files. This method won't preserve RefWorks folders; you'll have to create new Zotero collections and manually organize the sources.
- Log into RefWorks, Choose All References at the top of the left navigation pane
- Download each PDF from Refworks.
- Open Zotero on your computer. (Install first if needed: zotero.org/download)
- Add the downloaded files to Zotero by either:
- Drag your downloaded RefWorks PDFs into Zotero (suggestion: create a new Zotero collection/folder first)
- Or, choose File >Add Attachment >Add File>Select the downloaded PDFs
- Pause - give Zotero a few minutes to import and scan the PDFs to retrieve citation information.
3. Users With 20+ Full-Text (pdf) Items in Refworks:
Download & move all files with Dropbox.com
- When you add files to Zotero, it will automatically extract citations and attach files. This method won't preserve RefWorks folders; you'll have to create new Zotero collections and manually organize the sources.
- Create a free Dropbox.com account.
- Connect Refworks to your Dropbox account
- Log into Refworks
- Click on your name (top right)
- Choose Settings
- Scroll down the Settings page to Dropbox
- Log in to your Dropbox account
- Download PDFs from Dropbox
- Go to dropbox.com/home/Apps/ProQuest%20RefWorks (and sign in to Dropbox if needed)
- Select all PDFs and choose Download. Please note where the .zip file is saved on your computer.
- Extract ZIP file
- Locate the .zip file on your computer
- Extract/unzip the .zip file
- Open Zotero on your computer. (Install first if needed: zotero.org/download)
- Add the downloaded files to Zotero by either:
- Drag your downloaded RefWorks PDFs into Zotero (suggestion: create a new Zotero collection/folder first)
- Or, choose File >Add Attachment >Add File>Select the downloaded PDFs
- Pause - give Zotero a few minutes to import and scan the PDFS to retrieve citation information.
