RefWorks LLC was founded in 2001 as a partnership between Earl B. Beutler (development and customer service) and Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (sales and marketing) from 2002 until being acquired by ProQuest in 2008.
The software enables linking from a user's RefWorks account to electronic editions of journals to which the institution's library subscribes.
The RefWorks software was mounted on data servers belonging to Scholars Portal, which provides the platform for the digital resources licensed by OCUL.
[10] In addition to the software, data in RefWorks users accounts belonging to member institutions are housed on the Scholars Portal servers at the University of Toronto.
A number of other Canadian academic libraries that license RefWorks have since contracted for access through Scholars Portal, so that their data also resides on the servers in Toronto.
According to news reports, this was due to concerns that information about individuals' research interests, represented by data stored on RefWorks servers in the United States, could be vulnerable to scrutiny under the terms of the USA Patriot Act.