Citation Management Software: Zotero

Get Help from Zotero

Tutorials and Videos

Purchase College Library has created a very thorough LibGuide on Zotero

Other sources for Zotero Guides:

• Eastern Michigan University Library
• Wake Forest University

Zotero can help you:

• Annotate and organize research results, including video and other research materials.  (See a long list of data types that can be added.)
• Save information about a reference, including author, title, and other publication information.
• Create libraries and save searches, and share collections with other people.
• Attach files, links, notes, and pdfs to records.
• Store a screenshot of a web page.
• Export information as formatted citations in word processing programs (Word, LibreOffice, Google Docs).
• Tag and sort records and perform advanced searches.
• Extract citation information from imported PDF documents.
• View records in your personal collection when offline.
• Cite records in any language. 

For many academic databases and publisher websites, the program senses when a list of books or articles is displayed, indicating an icon in the address bar.  You can download the citation information in your Zotero database by clicking the yellow folder or book icon.  On your Zotero Desktop or Zotero Library on the web, ensure that the designated folder/collection is selected before you start the downloading process.

UM Library Search Engine and Zotero (screenshot)

For additional instructions, go to:  http://www.zotero.org/support/getting_stuff_into_your_library.

There are two ways to ensure that you have access to full-text materials from your Zotero records on the Zotero desktop client.  One way is to set up the University of Manitoba Libraries OpenURL in Zotero Desktop client configuration.  With this configuration, you will be able to quickly check a record for each source in your Zotero Desktop using the UML Search Engine platform.  The other way is to install Lean Access Browser Extension.  If your starting point is the UM Libraries system, you might find configuring OpenURL in Zotero Desktop useful.  How to configure the OpenURL is as follows:

For Windows, click Edit pull-down menu, and select Preferences.  (For Mac, Zotero pull-down menu, select Preferences.)  This will open up Zotero Preference window [Diagram I].  Go to the Advanced section and enter "https://search.lib.umanitoba.ca/openurl/01UMB_INST/UMB?" in the box after Resolver as resolver version 1.0.  By setting up the University of Manitoba Libraries OpenURL resolver address, you can right click a Zotero record from the middle Zotero pane and select "Library Lookup" option.  It will open up the University of Manitoba Libraries Search Engine record.  [See Diagram II]

[Diagram I] (Note:  The address shown in the graphic is an old address; please note where you will need to paste the above current OpenURL address.)

When looking at items in your Zotero collection, click on the green "Locate" arrow, which you will see above the third column; then select "Library Lookup" to open it up in the Libraries' Searching Engine.

[Diagram II]

Zotero for iOS

Other Zotero mobile apps

Zotero Plugins

ZotFile - Zotfile is a Zotero plugin to manage your attachments: automatically rename, move, and attach PDFs (or other files) to Zotero items, sync PDFs from your Zotero library to your (mobile) PDF reader (e.g. an iPad, Android tablet, etc.) and extract annotations from PDF files.

Night theme for Zotero UI & PDF

scite - Plugin to see which references in a library have received a supporting or disputing citation.

Other options

Automatically Generate Bibliographies and In-text Citations

Plugins are available for Microsoft Word and LibreOffice. 

Plugins will be automatically installed when you download Zotero Standaline.   Also, refer to Zotero's support site.   

Zotero now works with Google Doc.

Digital Library Federation Digital Accessibility Group maintains the Zotero Accessibility wiki.