Zotero: Tutorial

Zotero is a tool that collects, manages, and cites the sources you find during your research. In addition to saving a citation, you can add notes and images in your Zotero library and in many cases automatically download PDFs.

We use Zotero to...

• Create and organize a personal database of references
• Import references automatically from many websites and library E-resources
• Format bibliographies in your papers
• Why choose Zotero over another tool, like RefWorks or Endnote?

Your Zotero library is saved locally and though it is possible for you to create a cloud space and sync your citations, it requires you to adjust your settings on every computer you use Zotero with. If you do your research and writing mostly on one or two computers, Zotero is a great option.

Zotero can be used offline -- an internet connection is not necessary to work with your Zotero library.

Installation of Zetero

Download Zotero from https://www.zotero.org/download/

Instructions on download page showing how Zotero recognizes the operating system and browser of the user.

1. Download the Zotero application for your operating system. If you plan to use Zotero with a word processor, close all word processing applications before running the installer.
2. When installing the Zotero connector, the option you are given depends on which browser you are using to access the page. In the example above, I used Chrome to access the Zotero site, so it prompted me to install the Chrome connector.  Connectors are also available for Firefox and Edge. Use those browsers to access the Zotero page if you want to install their connectors. You can add as many connectors as you want -- they will all connect to your Zotero application. 

Note: The Zotero Connector for Safari is bundled with Zotero 6.0. After opening Zotero 6.0 for the first time, you can enable it from the Extensions pane of the Safari preferences. The Zotero Connector for Safari requires Safari 15 on macOS 11 Big Sur or later. If you experience issues with the Safari connector, check out the documentation on the Zotero website.

Getting Started with Zotero

Zotero provides the ability to save references from many library catalogs and article databses with one click. Your Zotero library allows you to organize and edit the entries.

The three panes of the Zotero client showing collections on the left, items in the middle, bibliographic informaiton on the right.

Collections: The left column shows My Library, which contains all the items. Clicking the button above the left column creates a new collection, a folder into which items relating to a specific project or topic can be placed.

Below that is the tag selector, where tags assigned to items can be added or removed.

Items: The items pane displays a list of all the items in each collection with icons that indicate the type of item (book, article, thesis, screenshot, etc.).

Item Details: This pane displays the bibliographic information that was imported by Zotero for each item. Each field can be edited. There are also options to add additional notes, attachments, links to the original sources, tags, and subject headings.

Importing Citations

When searching article databases, library catalogs, web search engines, and other resources, the connector in your browser will change to reflect the item type.

The article, book, or page icons in the address bar indicate you are viewing a single item, and clicking on that icon will import the information into your library.		If a folder appears in the address bar when you view a list of results, click on the folder to reveal a list of the items that appear on that page, then check the ones of interest and click on OK. This imports those multiple results into your librar

All the necessary bibliographic elements must be included in the records or the bibliography you output later will be wrong. Double-click on a field to make it editable and make your corrections.

Adding manually

Importing citations into your Zotero collections does not always work without a hitch. If for some reason an icon doesn't appear in the address bar or if the information isn't importing properly, you may want to use another option.

 Use this option to manually add an item. Select the item type from the drop-down menu and enter the item's bibliographic information in the item details pane.

If you already know the ISBN, Digital Object Identifier (DOI), or PubMed ID of the item, enter it using this option.

Importing from other tools

To import libraries from other reference management tools into Zotero, start by exporting the bibliographic data from your other software program. In Zotero, you will find the Import option under File in the menu bar.  Browse to your file, select it, and click the “Open” button. 

The Zotero documentation provides a list of bibliographic formats that can be imported into Zotero.

If you want to transfer entire Zotero libraries between different Zotero installations, you should use Zotero's sync functions, rather than the import/export function. You can also manually copy the Zotero data directory.

Importing web pages

Not all the websites you visit will provide Zotero with what is needed for the application to recognize the bibliographic information on the page.  If the page cannot be "recognized," you'll see a gray page icon:

If “Automatically take snapshots when creating items from web pages” is enabled in the General tab of the Zotero preferences, a copy (or snapshot) of the webpage can be saved to your computer and added as a child item. To view the saved copy, double-click the snapshot.

Right-clicking the Connector save button offers the option of saving a snapshot of the web page or saving the web page without a snapshot. Saving it with the snapshot will allow you to see the page as it was on the day you captured it.

Adding PDFs

If you want available PDFs downloaded to your library along with the bibliographic information, ensure the following is checked in the General tab of the Zotero preferences: Automatically attach associated PDFs and other files when saving items.

When a PDF is dragged into the middle pane, the program will attempt to retrieve bibliographic information for the item through a variety of searches. It will create an entry for the file and then attach the PDF to that entry. If this is unsuccessful, save the citation from another catalog or database, then drag the PDF onto the entry in your library to make it an attachment. In the General tab of Zotero preferences, there is an option to "Automatically rename attachment files using parent metadata." With this checked, the PDF you pull into Zotero will automatically be renamed.

If, when you drag the PDF into Zotero, bibliographic information is not found for the item, search for the item in Google Scholar. If you are able to follow the link to the item and use the Zotero connector to import the bibliographic information. If that link is not live (if the Google Scholar entry is just for a citation), then click on the quotation mark symbol under the entry. A pop-up window with citation style examples includes different exporting options. Choose Endnote to save the citation to your Zotero library.

You can also go to Google Scholar preferences and under Bibliographic Manager, choose the option to "Show links to import citations into" and then select Endnote from the drop-down menu. Be sure to Save your changes. Once you have done that, this option will be added to your Google Scholar results. 

Adding references from an already-created bibliography

If you have a bibliography that was created using Zotero or Mendeley, there is a tool called Reference Extractor that will help you add these references to your Zotero library.

If you have a Word document with citations inserted using Word's built-in citation feature, there are instructions at the Zotero site for extracting these. 

If those methods don't apply to your circumstances, you can read this blog post which describes some options for extracting references and adding them to your Zotero library. I have not updated this since the date it was originally posted.