Skip to Main Content

Zotero: Not just a citation management tool

Use Zotero to collect, manage, cite, and share research sources for FREE!

Find Recently Saved Items

Where did I save that?

Sometimes you add new items without worrying about tagging or putting them in collections. To find recently added items:
  1. In the Zotero App, from the top toolbar click Edit > Advanced Search

  2. Change the drop-downs to:

    • Date Added

    • is in the last

    • Enter the # of days/months in the desired period; then save the search.

This gives you an overview of your latest additions so that you can go back to add tags as needed and organize your files. 

Edit a Reference

Not all references are perfect

When you select an item in the center pane, you can view and edit its citation information in the Info tab of the right-hand pane. Most fields can be edited and changes are saved automatically.


Fields with special features: 
Journal Abbreviations

Journal articles are often cited with the abbreviated journal title. Zotero stores the journal title and journal title abbreviation in separate fields (“Publication” and “Journal Abbr”). 

Titles

In English, titles are typically either Title Cased or Sentence Cased. Because citation styles differ in their casing requirements, and because automatic conversion from Sentence case to Title Case is much more accurate than the other way around, we recommend that you always store titles in your Zotero library in sentence case. Zotero can then reliably convert titles to Title Case in bibliographies when the chosen citation style calls for it.

Rename a Collection

Edit or change the name of a collection

  1. Right-click on the collection folder and select Rename Collection

  2. Type in the new collection name and hit Enter

Saving Webpages

Save a snapshot of a webpage

Zotero can't automatically capture citation info from some web pages, but you can still add them to your Zotero library.

  1. Right-click in your browser and select Save to Zotero.

  2. Select the collection you want to save the page to

This will also attach a snapshot of the page to the citation. It includes the page's text and images, so if the page is removed later, or if you're offline, you'll still be able to view your copy.

Zotero on Your Phone

While Zotero does not offer a mobile app you can:

  • Access and view (but not edit) your Zotero library through mobile web browsers

  • Try out the Zotero bookmarklet to save items you find while browsing on your mobile device

You can always find out the latest on Zotero add ons and apps from their mobile support page.

ZoteroBib

Need to create a quick bibliography?

ZoteroBib will quickly generate a citation or bibliography in any citation style. 

  1. Go to ZoteroBib

  2. In the search box, paste in a URL, book ISBN, DOI, PMID (PubMed #), book title, or article title. 

  3. Click Cite 

For more information go to https://zbib.org/faq 

ZoteroSync

Sync and save your collections across multiple computers

If you're regularly using more than one computer in your research, Zotero's sync feature can keep your library up to date on all of them. Zotero can store a copy of your library on the Zotero.org server and check it for updates whenever you open your library on a different computer.  

To use Zotero Sync
  1. Set up a Zotero.org account

  2. Open Zotero preferences (via the gear menu) and select the Sync tab

  3. Enter your Zotero user name and password

  4. Check the sync automatically box

  5. Check both boxes under File Syncing and choose Zotero storage for My Library

  6. This will sync your PDF attachments as well as citations

  7. Click the green circular arrow button at the top right corner of the Zotero window

  8. Zotero will upload your library to the server

Now any updates you make on one of your computers will be reflected on the others. This even works to synchronize your library among Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.