Bibliographic management software at the SFU Library: Collaboration and Public Access

SFU researchers (current faculty, students, and staff) who would like to share document citations and make them publicly available over the Web may make use of two tools available via the SFU Library -- Citation Manager and RefWorks.

Both Citation Manager and RefWorks are similar in that each allows researchers to store document references in their own Web-based account or database. In terms of collaborative research and the public display of references, the two programs offer different options.

Collaboration

RefWorks has the following options for collaboration:

• Shared accounts: Researchers may create multiple RefWorks accounts and share their account usernames and passwords with the other current SFU faculty, students and staff. Each person in possession of an account username and password can create, edit, and delete document references.
• Read-only accounts: Researchers may create their own RefWorks accounts, then provide fellow current SFU faculty, students and staff with user IDs that allow read-only access to those accounts. Colleagues with read-only access can view document references in an account but can not edit them.
• Shared accounts across different universities: SFU researchers working with colleagues at other institutions on a collaborative project may create a RefWorks account and share that account username and password with their colleagues at other universities provided that those colleagues either purchase an individual RefWorks account or have access to RefWorks through a university-wide license. SFU researchers must agree to certain terms in order to set up this access. See Agreement -- SFU Library Interinstitutional Collaboration using RefWorks for more information. Each person in possession of an account username and password can create, edit, and delete document references.
• RefShare: RefShare is a tool that comes with RefWorks. With RefShare, SFU researchers can mark specific folders in their RefWorks account as publicly accessibly, allowing the contents of those folders to be searched and viewed (but not edited) by anyone, including colleagues at other institutions, over the Web. See What is RefShare and how do I use it? for futher information.

Citation Manager has the following option for collaboration:

• Shared accounts: At the request of a researcher, SFU Library will create a Citation Manager account for one group. The account username and password can be shared with researchers at SFU and elsewhere. Each person in possession of an account username and password can create, edit, and delete document references.

Public display of references

RefWorks has the following option for making references publicly accessible:

• RefShare: RefShare is a tool that comes with RefWorks. With RefShare SFU researchers can mark specific folders in their RefWorks account as publicly accessibly, allowing the contents of those folders to be searched and viewed but not edited by anyone over the Web. See What is RefShare and how do I use it? for further information.
• Post documents citations on to a Web page: Either export or copy & paste a bibliography generated within RefWorks to a Web page. These references will not be easily searchable nor will the Web page dynamically or automatically reflect changes made to the corresponding RefWorks account.

Citation Manager has the following options for making references publicly accessible:

• Post document citations to a Web page: Copy and paste a list of citations in an account or a folder within a Citation Manager account to a Web page. As noted above, these references will not be easily searchable nor will the Web page dynamically or automatically reflect changes made to the corresponding Citation Manager account.
• Make folders public: From within a Citation Manager account, folders containing document references can be set to display on a Web page. Visitors to the Web page can search for specific citations and view the contents of specific folders but can not change or edit references. The look of the Web page which displays these references is customizable. Changes made in the corresponding Citation Manager account are automatically reflected on the public Web page. For details see Making Your Citations Publicly Accessible.

For more information on these two tools, see the SFU Library's RefWorks page and the SFU Library's Citation Manager User Guide.