Citing Sources

Open Chrome or Firefox; close any Microsoft Office programs. (Zotero does not work with Chromebooks or Office 365.)

Go to the Zotero Download page where you can download the current version of Zotero and the Zotero Connector; the Connector is an extension that lets you load material to Zotero from your browser.

If you want to use Zotero on more than one computer, you must download the software onto each computer, then sync your account so that any work you do on one computer will be reflected on the other.

There are four ways to add references to Zotero:

• the Zotero Connector browser extension
  • Always have Zotero open on your computer before you use the Connector
  • Find a page on the web and click the Zotero Connector icon
• using an identifying code, for example:
  • PMID, PubMed identifier
  • DOI, Digital object identifier
  • ISBN, International Standard Book Number
• importing an RIS file
  • a collection of references from a database
    • conduct a search, select the references you want, and use the database's EXPORT function to create a file to IMPORT into Zotero
  • your complete library from another citation manager
• manually
  • key in all the information you want to save

Regardless of how you load a reference, all of them can be edited. While the Zotero Connector and the codes will load a substantial amount of data, references loaded in these ways may require some editing.

All the references you collect go into your Zotero account's My Library, a master file of references. You can then sort the references into any number of collection files and sub-files. You can add and remove material from collections, but do not send items to Trash unless you want to delete them fully. Sending to Trash removes references from all collections, as well as the Library.

In-Depth Guides from Other Universities