Zotero: Citation management software

​​​​​​Saving citations using Zotero connector icon

1. Open Zotero programme on your computer.
2. Open your browser.
3. Search for articles/information. 
4. When you find an article or list of articles that you want to save, click the Zotero icon in your browser (upper right-hand corner).  The icon will change according to the type of information Zotero identifies on the page.

4. The citation will download and be stored in the folder that is highlighted at the time of import.  If no folder is highlighted, the citation will go into My Library as an Unfiled Item.
5. If there is an available PDF located on the page, Zotero will download it along with the citation.

Building your Zotero Library using PDFs

1. You can import PDFs directly into your Zotero Library by dragging PDFs into the centre panel, or by choosing Store Copy of File from the green icon with the plus symbol in the menu bar.
2. In most cases, Zotero will automatically search for the citation after dragging or uploading PDF.
3. If Zotero does not perform the search, select the PDF in your Zotero Library, and right click.
4. Select Retrieve Metadata for PDF (Note: the first time you attempt this, you will need to install the PDF Indexing Tool.)

5. If the PDF has readable citation metadata, a green checkmark will appear indicating the citation was successfully imported.  The PDF will automatically append to the citation.

6. If Zotero cannot read any metadata, search for the citation information in a Library database or on the internet (e.g. Google scholar, Amazon, etc.)  Alternatively, you can add the citation information manually using the menu options within Zotero Standalone.

Note: Using this method of data entry is not as robust as 'grabbing' data from a database or publisher webpage.  Another method is to grab the article's information from the publisher site, then drag the PDF to the appropriate citation within your Zotero Library.

Adding citations manually

If you are unable to grab a citation or use a PDF, you can simply enter the source information manually.

1. Click the green circle with the white plus symbol in the top menu of your Zotero programme.
2. Select the type of resource. (Note: Only a partial list of resource types displays below.)
3. Click on the fields on the right-hand side to enter the data.

1. Click the magic wand icon in the top menu.
2. Enter ISBN, DOI or PMID.  Zotero will download the citation information if it can identify the item.

• ISBN: International Standard Book Number
• DOI: Digital Object Identifier (usually found on articles, databases and some books)
• PMID: PubMed reference number (associated with records in the the PubMed database)
• arXiv ID: Identification number from arXiv website