Citation Management Tools

1. If you already have PDFs saved to your computer, you can easily add them to your Zotero library. First, locate the PDFs on your computer (e.g., in your downloads folder). Select the PDFs, then drag them into the center pane of a Zotero folder.

2. Zotero will automatically search the first few pages of a PDF to find the metadata (or citation information) for that PDF.

3. Sometimes, as with the example PDFs shown below, Zotero can't find any information for the PDF.  There are several reasons why this happens - the PDF may be too old, the PDF's publisher may not have included this behind-the-scenes metadata or they kept it hidden, or the PDF may have been scanned in such a way that this metadata was lost (i.e., without the OCR information).  You can still manually add the citation information or do a database search for the citation yourself, then drag and drop the PDF onto that citation information to keep the PDF together with its citation information.

Annotating PDFs

1. You can highlight and annotate PDFs you have saved in your Zotero library directly within your Zotero library.  Begin by double clicking the PDF you want to read and annotate in your Zotero library. A new tab will open with your PDF attachment. You may also right click on the document and a list of tools will open. Select Open PDF in New Tab. 

2. Within your Zotero library, click on the tab with the PDF. Use the highlighting, notes, or screen capture tools to track key information.

3. To pull all your notes, annotations, and screen captures from a PDF into a single note within your Zotero library for easy viewing, right click on the source title within your Zotero library. From the right click menu select Add Note from Annotations.

4. Re-open your PDF any time from within your Zotero library to access your PDF and your highlights and annotations again.

1. If you are unable to automatically find the citation information for your sources when you drag and drop PDFs into your library, or if the "add to Zotero" icons are not available on the URL address bar, or if you just want to add the citation information for a print item that is sitting on your desk, first click the "New Item" icon on the Zotero toolbar to manually add items to your Zotero library. Second, choose the item type that matches your source.

2.  You will be given blank fields in which to enter the information about your item (in the right-hand pane).

3.  Click on the fields and/or use the tab key to navigate through the fields. Only add as much information as is needed to create a correct citation. Some fields are optional.

If the Browser Connector isn't working or you need to export a large number of records, you can save your sources in a generic format that you import into your Zotero library. Note: this option is not available with all types of search results.

1. Search for and select or mark sources within the chosen database
2. From the selected/marked list, export or save the sources either as an RIS or other file format*
   • Note: Wording differs among databases but is most often labeled as Export or Save
3. Within Zotero, choose the Import… option from the File menu.
4. Choose the A file (BibTex, RIS, Zotero RDF, etc.) option and click the Next button
5. Browse to your RIS file, select it, and click the Open button.
6. If you do not have a collection/folder created, check the Place new collections and items in a new collection option
7. Select the Copy files to the Zotero storage folder and click the Next button
8. Once the file is imported, click the Finish button to close the Import window
   • If you checked Place in a new collection option, the collection will be given the RIS files name.
   • If you didn't check Place in a new collection option, they are added to the main library and you will need to drag and drop them into an existing collection

*Note: you can also open the RIS file with Zotero directly. See this list of standardized file formats supported by Zotero.

1. Zotero works with the word processing tools Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs to create bibliographies based on the sources you added into your Zotero library. When you install the Zotero library, this bibliography functionality is automatically added. In Word, find the Zotero citation tools in the Zotero tab.  

2. To insert an in-text citation, click where you would like the citation to go within the text of your document, and then use the add citation icon.

3. Next, choose your preferred citation style and hit the "OK" button. 

4. Then choose the appropriate item to cite your idea.  You will be prompted with a search box in which you can enter any information you know about the citation you are looking for, e.g., the keywords from the title, tags, or an author’s name.  After you choose the appropriate citation, click enter on your keyboard.

5.  If you would like to add a page number or suppress the author's name (if you have already used the author's name in the sentence), click on the citation within the Zotero "add citation" box.  A dialog box will appear.  You can now make the relevant changes to your in-text citation.

6. You may add also citations another way, via "classic view."  After choosing the "insert citation" icon, click the red Z on the search bar, then choose "classic view." Classic view allows you to browse through the citations in your library. You can also omit the author's name or add page numbers from this view.

7. You may also add multiple items to the same citation.  You may add multiple sources in either the search bar or in classic view.  In the search box view, simply choose as many citations as you need, then hit enter on your keyboard when you are finished. 

8. Now add the bibliography or references list.  Start your bibliography below your text, then choose add bibliography from the Zotero icons.  The bibliography will be automatically generated in the citation style you earlier chose.  As you add more in-text citations to your text, these will be added automatically to your bibliography.