Modifying The Notes Formatting

Footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page on which the reference appears. Endnotes are similar to footnotes but instead of being added to the bottom of each page they are grouped together at the end of the document. We use the term Notes to refer to a footnote or an endnote.

RefWorks does not actually create the endnote or footnote in the document, but is used to insert and format the citations. You create an endnote or footnote using your word processor.

For information on how to format your paper with footnotes, click here.  

Notes are comprised of two parts:  

Notes Output Settings

We recommend establishing the Note Settings first and then adding the note formatting.

Select the appropriate spacing, single, double or triple.

Option

Description

No Special Handling

All of the information in the reference is repeated.

Show only author & cited pages

Only the author name and the specific pages for this reference are repeated.

Show only author, title & cited pages

Author name, title of the article or book and the pages for the reference are repeated.

Option

Description

No Special Handling

All of the information in the reference is repeated.

Replace repeated data with... ibid

The source information is replaced by the text in this box. The default is ibid., but you may change this by deleting it and inserting a new term.

Omit

Omits the consecutive note.

Option

Description

No Special Handling

All of the information in the reference is repeated.

Replace repeated data with... ibid

The source information is replaced by the text in this box. The default is ibid., but you may change this by deleting it and inserting a new term. Leave blank if required that repeated source information not be shown.

Creating a Notes Format

The Notes Format is where you determine exactly which fields are included for a specific reference type (i.e., book, journal, web page) and you determine the placement of the fields, the punctuation and any formatting.  

You can also include comments about each field in each reference type to serve as a reference or reminder of details for that output style.

Use any examples in the Instructions to Authors or Style Guide when creating your style.

Important Note:  every Notes format style MUST have at least a generic reference type defined.  The generic reference type is used as a default and will be used by any reference in your database that does not find its appropriate reference type.  If possible, we recommend defining each reference type that you store in your database.  

To create a note format:

Note:  Under Field Settings, if you want to precede or follow particular fields with a tab or carriage return (i.e., a new line), enter the appropriate \t (tab) or \n (carriage return) character.

Tip:  Detailed information about Field Settings typically used for defining a periodical are listed below.  This will help you become familiar with the different types of options available for the various fields.

Tip:  A word about punctuation used throughout a reference type – punctuation is normally included with the field it is used with, however, in some instances you will need to include the punctuation with the field that follows.  

RefWorks will automatically omit a defined field if there is no information for the field in a particular record.  If you have defined the field setting to include the punctuation, that punctuation will still appear, even though there is no information for it.  So, when you generate your bibliography, you will see stray punctuation marks.

You may need to modify your format to include punctuation for a particular field with the field that follows it (The page number field is a good example.  It generally appears at the end of a format and if your record does not have this information to display, your format may end with stray punctuation, so include the punctuation for the field before page number in the “precede with” area of the page field setting.).

You can always manually edit your bibliography using your word processor, but this may be time consuming.  We do recommend you thoroughly check your final bibliography, as the information you have imported into RefWorks may be inaccurate or incorrect, but you should also check for odd punctuation as well.

Author Fields (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Compiler and Translator)

Field Comments

Enter any information you would like to include about this field.  This field is information only and does not affect the formatting or output.

Field Settings

Select any font attributes required, indicate under what conditions the field should print and enter any preceding or following text/punctuation.

Author Settings

Title Fields (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary)

Field Comments

Enter any information you would like to include about this field.  This field is information only and does not affect the formatting or output.

Field Settings

Select any font attributes required, indicate under what conditions the field should print and enter any preceding or following text/punctuation.

Title Settings

Periodical Field

Field Comments

Enter any information you would like to include about this field.  This field is information only and does not affect the formatting or output.

Field Settings

Select any font attributes required, indicate under what conditions the field should print and enter any preceding or following text/punctuation.

Periodical Settings

Volume, Issue, Pub Year, and Pages Fields

Field Comments

Enter any information you would like to include about this field.  This field is information only and does not affect the formatting or output.

Field Settings

Options for these fields are very similar. Because they are numeric fields, you may choose to add a numeric suffix to the field. RefWorks adds the appropriate suffix for the number.  Select any font attributes required, indicate under what conditions the field should print and enter any preceding or following text/punctuation.

Add Text to Output Field

Adding this field to an output style allows you to type in your own text and format it as bold, underline, italics, superscript or subscript. Simply type the text in the Text to insert box and click the box next to the appropriate format.

One common use for this is in the Book, Section reference type. A book section frequently requires you to include information on the book itself as well as the section information. You may need to create a format like:

Book Section Title. In Book Title.

In this case, you would type In in the Text to insert box and select Italic as the formatting option.

Other Fields

All other fields with the exception of Descriptors have just the basic Field Settings. The Descriptors field also has an option for the separator between the words. Some of these fields may be useful for various reasons. For example, if you are printing a note from a reference list for a particular class you may want to include the notes field for reference.

Reference Types Not Defined

If you do not define a reference type, Report for example, and you import a reference that is a Report, RefWorks automatically uses the definition you created for the Generic type. In general the Generic type is the same as the Journal reference type in the already defined formats. You can easily change this using the Copy feature discussed above. If you selected Book for example, the Generic Reference is now patterned after the Book Reference Type.