and Lexis Nexis

Please note: Lexis Nexis has a wide variety of information types; at this time, RefWorks is not able to handle all of them. The example below uses a newspaper article from Lexis Nexis, a type of publication that will work in RefWorks.

Major types of Lexis Nexis records that RefWorks currently cannot handle include citations for law statutes or law cases. You will need to enter these into your documents' reference lists manually.

These instructions assume that you have one or more periodical articles in Lexis Nexis.

Gathering Citation Information from Lexis Nexis

Lexis Nexis does not allow you to import citations automatically nor to create a download file of citation data which could be imported into RefWorks. You will need to enter data manually from a Lexis Nexis article into the appropriate fields in RefWorks. To save re-typing, you may wish to have the Lexis Nexis page open in one browser window, and RefWorks in another. Then you can copy and paste information, one field at a time.

1. Note all the fields that you will need for the particular type of source you are using. In the case of a newspaper article these would be:
   • Title of the newspaper
   • Date of the issue you are using
   • Pagination
   • Headline (title of the article)
   • Byline (author)

Importing References into RefWorks

Go to RefWorks at www.refworks.com. At the RefWorks login page:

1. Enter your login name
2. Enter your password
3. Click Login

If you need to create a new account for RefWorks, click on the link immediately above the space for your login name. See also our separate instructions on RefWorks accounts.

Please note: Ignore the link that says "Athens Users"; it has nothing whatsoever to do with Ohio University!

1. In the References dropdown menu, choose Add New Reference

The next screen that appears is a blank work form, into which you will need to enter appropriate information about the record you are creating.

1. If you know what style requirements you are likely to need for final publication, you can choose the appropriate Style Guide here. Note, however, that this only changes the designation of required fields, not the contents of the work form itself.
2. Use this menu to file the record into a folder for a specific project, if you have set that up.
3. Choose the type that matches the source you are working with.
4. Enter information from the source either by rekeying or, if you have the source document open in another browser window, by copying and pasting information from it one field at a time. Note that the fields marked with a are those required for proper citation style according to the Style Guide indicated in Step 1, above.
5. Once you have completed all the required fields, and any additional ones you wish, be sure to click on the Save Reference button.

At the bottom of the work form (not shown) there is a table the provides more information about each of the required fields and how to use them.