Do I really have to delete duplicates? Is it okay to insert citations with two different records for a single reference?

I wish I could say that it would be okay to keep duplicates, but, unforunately, using both members of a duplicate pair of RefWorks records to insert citations in a single paper does cause major problems. The reference will be listed twice in your bibliography, and, if you are using a numbered in-text citation style like the NEJM or AMA style, the in-text citations created using the different members of the duplicate RefWorks record pair will get different reference numbers.

Because of these potential problems, it's best to check for duplicate records every time you bring a new set of references into RefWorks-- do this immediately after importing the references.

If you organize your references in folders, I would recommend turning off the RefWorks' automatic duplicate marking feature to make the duplicate deletion process easier. To turn off the automatic duplicate marking, use the RefWorks "Tools" menu to select "Customize", mark "No" next to "Automatically mark duplicates" and then click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. There are many reasons to turn off the automatic marking. One of these is that both members of a duplicate pair or the wrong members of a duplicate pair (the older members) are sometimes marked for deletion. Also putting references you wish to keep into additional folders before deleting the newer pair members is made much more difficult by automatic duplicate marking.

To check for duplicates, as you probably know, you use the RefWorks "View" menu to select "Duplicates" and then either "exact match" or "close match". Check the duplicate pairs that are lined up by RefWorks to make sure they are really duplicates. You will usually want to keep the pair member with the lower Ref ID number as you might you have already used this pair member to insert a citation. Check to be sure that this pair member is represented in the folder into which the pair member that you plan to delete was imported. If not, you can put the older pair member(the member you plan to keep) in the additional folder by checking the box in front of the older pair member and using the "Put in folder" drop-down menu to select the folder in which the newer pair member is housed. Finally, decheck the references you wish to keep and check the pair members that you need to delete (usually the members with the higher ref ID numbers are deleted), and then click on the "delete" button. Deleted references can be accessed and restored for 30 days. To access deleted references hover over the "Folders" menu , then hover over "View", and select "deleted references" in the submenu that appears.