Citation Management Tools

Technical Compatibility

• Platforms: Zotero has full support for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
• Synchronization: Data syncing allows you to work with your data from any computer that has Zotero installed.
• Mobile access: The mobile version of zotero.org allows you to access and edit your Zotero library on your tablet or mobile phone.
• Multiple computer access: Install Zotero on multiple computers to access your Zotero library.

Reference Management

• Full-text search: Zotero extracts full-text content from PDFs for searching.
• Metadata retrieval: Zotero automatically retrieves metadata from the PDFs you import.
• Highlight/annotate: Highlight and annotate your files before sharing them with others.
• Organizational flexibility: Choose how to organize your files with groups, tags, and filters.

Groups and Sharing

• Sharing: Share your own work or sources you have discovered with others who are working in related areas.
• Groups: Collaborate with colleagues, publicly or privately, on ongoing research.
• Networking: Discover other people with similar interests and the sources they are citing.

Integration

• Word processing: Zotero makes inserting bibliographies created with Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and other programs simple.
• Import/export formats: Zotero can import and export BibTeX, EndNote, RIS, and other formats.
• Zotero API: Zotero's API is completely open source and can be used by third parties to build applications using Zotero's data.

There are a few different ways to add citations to Zotero.

1. Magic Wand Tool

If you click the magic wand icon (Add Items by Identifier) at the top of the dashboard, you can enter ISBNs, DOIs, PMIDs, or arXiv IDs to automatically add items to your library.

2. Manual Creation 

Another way to get citations into Zotero is to create them manually. If you click the plus icon at the top of the dashboard (New Item), you can choose a source and then type in information about the citation in the right pane of Zotero.

3. Drag and Drop

If you happen to have any PDFs on your desktop or in your downloads, you can simply drag them into Zotero, which will extract citation information from them.

4. Zotero Connector

The simplest way to add citations to Zotero is to use the Zotero Connector that you downloaded earlier. It should appear as a small icon at the top right of your browser window. You can use the Connector to add citations and, when they’re available, PDFs.

If you have a whole page of results, the icon will appear as a folder. When you click on it, you will be able to add any of the citations from your page of results to Zotero.

If you are looking at a single result, the icon will appear as a paper. When you click on it, you will be able to add that citation to Zotero.

You can collect citations in this way from any of the library’s databases, Google Scholar, Wikipedia, or other places on the web where you can find articles, books, archival materials, websites, etc.

In Zotero, citations are organized in folders that are called “libraries.”

Any time you add a citation, it is automatically added to your “My Library.” You can then create additional libraries and copy any or all of the citations in “My Library” to other libraries that you create.

You can create a library for a specific paper or writing project and fill it with all the citations that you might need for it. 

You can also add tags to individual citations and then search by those tags. When you add new citations to Zotero, many of them come with tags that were assigned by authors or publishers.

If you click on a citation, you’ll see a pane on the right side of Zotero that shows “Info,” “Notes,” “Tags,” and “Related.”

You can add new tags here, as well as write notes about each citation for your own personal use.

When you downloaded Zotero, you downloaded a Zotero tab for Word. (If you used Chrome, you also downloaded a Zotero tab for Google Docs.)

1. Open a New Document

When you open a new document in Word, you’ll see a tab for Zotero. If you click on it and then on “Add/Edit Citation,” you can begin adding in-text citations to your document.

2. Set Up a Citation Style

The first time you click it, you will set up which citation style you’ll be using in your document. While there are about twenty preloaded citation styles, you have access to thousands more. You can also change the citation style you’ve chosen at any point, including after you’ve completed your document.

3. Insert Citations

Once you’ve set up your preferred citation style, you insert each citation by clicking the “Add/Edit Citation” button and beginning to type a title or author. Once the correct one appears, click enter and an in-text citation will appear. You can continue adding citations as you write.

4. Add a Bibliography

Once you’ve added at least one citation, you can put your cursor near the end of the document and click on the “Add/Edit Bibliography” button to add a bibliography. Even after doing this, you can continue to add new in-text citations and they will appear in the bibliography.

While you must have a desktop version of Zotero on your main computer, you can also link your account to an online version.

Online Zotero allows you to sync all of your citations so that they’re also stored in the cloud. In addition, you can create groups to share citations with others.

1. Go to the Zotero website.
2. Click on “Log in” and then “Register for a free account.”
3. Once you’ve done this, you can click on the curved arrow icon in the upper right corner of Zotero desktop and follow the instructions to link your desktop and online Zotero.

Whenever you add new citations to Zotero, you can click the curved arrow to sync your accounts.

You can also create or join groups to share citations with others using online Zotero.