Zotero - Citation Management Software

Importing Citations

Importing Citations from Search Results 

To import citations, open Zotero (either desktop or web version), and conduct a search. ln your search results, look for icons in the top right of your browser. These will vary depending on the type of source.

Click the icon to add the item to your Library.

Above, see the small folder icon (in the yellow box) at the top right. The folder icon appears because there are multiple articles listed in the results. To add some or all items in a search results list, click on the folder icon and select which items you'd like to add.

Importing a Citation From a Search Record

Above, see the small article icon (in the yellow box) at the top right. The article icon appears because this is the record for one article. To add the article to your Zotero library, click the icon. You will be able to choose where you would like to save the article.

Importing Citations from Websites

You can add websites to Zotero by clicking the icon (above) that appears in the top right.

Not all websites will provide enough information for Zotero. If the page is not recognized, the icon will be gray (instead of blue).

If "Automatically take snapshots when creating items from web pages" is enabled in Zotero > Preferences > General, a snapshot of the webpage can be saved to your computer and added as a child item. You will see it listed below the record for the initial item. The snapshot will show you the page as it appeared at the time of the snapshot.

To add citations manually, click the green + sign at the top of your library. Select the type of citation you would like to make from the dropdown menu, and provide in the requested information.

Note: Your citation will be incomplete if you cannot provide all the requested information.

Dragging and dropping PDFs

To add PDFs from your computer, drag them into the Zotero pane.

The first time you do this, Zotero will prompt you to install "pdf tools," which allow Zotero to extract text from PDF files.

Saving PDFs from Searches

You have the option to attach associated PDFs when you save citations.

To do so, go to Zotero > Preferences > General, and click where it says "Automatically attach associated PDFs and other files when saving items."

You can also choose to save metadata by clicking "Automatically retrieve metadata for PDFs."

You can also choose not to save PDFs.