From RefWorks to Excel (via Word) to RefWorks:

deleting duplicates made easy?

Judith GulpersErasmus University Rotterdamgulpers@ubib.eur.nl

Why using Excel?

The reason to we tried this:

- Systematic Review by PhD-student, but ‘incomplete’ information downloaded from the sources

- View ‘Duplicates’ – merging of the available data was needed

- View ‘Duplicates’ seemed incomplete

Example search

• Test search:

“Online Social Network*” OR Facebook

AND

Friend*

• Databases:

– Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC)

– PsycINFO (via Ovid SP)

– PubMed

– Scopus

Example of duplicates

Using View Duplicates

• Article from Wilcox & Stephen not in list of Exact Duplicates (136 references)

• But also not in the list of Close Duplicates (292 references)

• On closer look: titles from PsycINFO seldom in list of duplicates

– Month included in Publication Year field?

– Period at the end of the title?

• Which duplicate to delete?

Example of duplicates

Using Excel - I

1. Export All References - tab delimited

2. Open in Excel

Using Excel - II

3. Delete the first and third row

4. Apply filters to be able to sort

5. Freeze top row

6. Search for duplicates

7. Make reference complete by combining the information from the different databases

8. Delete duplicates

Example duplicates

Known problems

• Double issues (e.g. 2/3) are dates in Excel

• Diacretics

e.g. Jónsdóttir's,Birgitta in Excel was Jónsdóttir's, Birgitta

After cleaning in Excel

1. Make sure the first column shows the Reference Type (Journal Article; Book, whole)

2. Change the items in the first row into RefWorks tags

– Reference type = RT; Publication year = YR

– These tags are given in an old RefWorks manual

– Personal notes = PA

Next step: via Word!

1. Use Mail Merge – to get the tags vertically instead of horizontally (Excel) per reference (normally used for addresses)

2. Easiest: use the Wizard

Steps in the Mail Merge Wizard

1. Select the type of document > Directory

2. Select the Word file > use Current

3. Select the recipients > the excel file

4. Arrange the directory > connect the tags with the excel file

5. Preview the directory; OK then:

6. Complete the merge and save the Word-document as a text-file

Step 4 in the Mail Merge Wizard

• Enter the tags and use insert Merge Field to add the Field

• I entered all database fields first and then added the tags

Step 5 in the Mail Merge Wizard

Import in RefWorks

Tips & Tricks

• Save the Word-document with the tags (from Step 4) – you can re-use it!

• Test with ID-numbers unsuccessful: they end up in the Notes field

• You can also do this with Access databases

• We use it also to make downloads from the GGC (cataloging system of OCLC)

Links

• The manual (with tags) from RefWorks: https://www.refworks.com/userlog/support/Converting%20Access%20Excel%20Word.pdf

(missing in the help files of RefWorks?)

• Our manual (in dutch): http://rweur.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/van-refworks-naar-excel-naar-refworks.pdf

Thanks for your attention!