…or how I learned to stop worrying and love referencing
Kevin Wilson, May 2016
Summary
1. What is Zotero?
2. Installing Zotero
3. Registering an account with Zotero
4. Using Zotero on different computers – syncing
5. Adding references into your Zotero library
6. Adding PDFs into your Zotero library
7. Organising your library
8. Sharing references
9. Getting started with Word
10. Creating in-text citations
11. Creating bibliographies
12. Zotero style repository
13. Backing up references
1. What is Zotero?
Zotero is free open source reference management software created by the George Mason
University. It is a community-based project and not owned by publishers like other similar
software. Improvements and updates are regularly made and tested by its members.
Zotero can be integrated with web browsers through plug-ins. It allows you to develop a
permanent online library of all the resources you use, as well as create in-text citations,
footnotes and bibliographies in your assignments. Once the plug-ins are installed,
whenever you use resources such as library catalogues, databases (such as JSTOR or Google
Scholar) or even websites, the full reference information of your results can be saved in
your Zotero library.
2. Installing Zotero
Zotero can be installed as a standalone programme or as an extension to Firefox, Chrome
or Safari. Downloads are available from the Zotero website - https://www.zotero.org/.
Click on Download Now:
On the next page, you will see the options for downloading, depending on your browser
choice:
If you use Firefox, first download Zotero 4.0 for Firefox. This may restart the browser, but
it will re-open the tabs you were using. Then click the link for the plug-in for Word or
LibreOffice. This directs you to the downloads.
If you use the Chrome or Safari browsers, then download Zotero 4.0 for Windows
(Standalone), followed by the Chrome or Safari browser extension. The plug-in for Word
and LibreOffice will be automatically included in this download.
Zotero only supports Word and LibreOffice. If you use different word processing software
such as Pages, you will still need to manually type your in-text citations, but you can create
bibliographies from your Zotero library that you can paste into your assignment, so it will
still save you time.
3. Registering an account with Zotero
You’ll need to register an account with Zotero. Use the ‘register’ option at the top of the
homepage.
On the registration screen, choose a username, enter your email address (it doesn’t have to
be your
Goldsmiths email address, a personal email address is fine – and possibly better), create a
password and enter the CAPTCHA code. You should receive an email validating your
account. Then you can sign in via the link next to the register link.
4. Using Zotero on different computers – syncing
You can use Zotero on different computers and still access the resources you have saved
through syncing – it’s similar to how you’d sync through iTunes.
If you are using Firefox, access Zotero from either the Tools menu or the ‘Z’ at the top of the
browser
If you use Standalone, open it. However you access Zotero, you need to look for the
green clockwise arrow in the top right corner.
When you click this, Zotero might ask you log in again, so enter your username and
password. This ensures that any items you save to your library on one computer will still
be visible when you log into another.
5. Adding references to your Zotero library
You can add references from almost anywhere. Here are some examples of how to
save from resources you might use.
Library catalogue – access this at libra.gold.ac.uk and choose keywords to search for, e.g.
Iran cinema. When your results appear, there should be a small folder icon in the address
bar. When you click on this, you can save the results on this page that you would like to add
to your library.
Click
here
to
save references
to your Zotero
library
Article Search+ - access this from the library homepage at www.gold.ac.uk/library. Click
on Resources, followed by Article Search+. Search by keywords, e.g. Iran cinema. Again,
click on the folder icon in the address bar to save results for your library. If you use Google
Scholar for journal articles, then the process is very similar. When you save articles, it
might save the PDF as well. Whilst this is useful, you only have a limited amount of storage
for a free account – this will not amount to many PDFs. If you delete the PDF but keep the
reference, the reference will identify where the article can be found in future (e.g. it might
provide a stable URL link to it).
You can also save videos from Youtube or from websites such as the Guardian easily as
well. When you find something you want to save, an icon should appear in the address
bar that allows you to save it.
If you do not see an icon to save a website, this will be because the metadata cannot be
extracted in order to create a record of it. It is still possible to save the website to your
library. Regardless of which browser you’re using, right click on the page anywhere and
you should have an option to ‘Create Web Page Item From Current Page’.
6. Adding PDFs to your Zotero library
If you have PDFs on your hard drive and you don’t want to go through the process of
having to search for the original articles in order to create a reference, then there’s no
need to.
First, just drag the PDF into your Zotero library.
It now appears, but there is no reference attached to the PDF.
Right click on Retrieve Metadata for PDF.
This process usually takes a few seconds. The first time you try it, Zotero might prompt you
to go to your Preferences menu to check PDF Indexing. You’ll now see a reference for the
article, plus the full text PDF attached.
7. Organising your library
Initially your references will be ungrouped and in the main ‘My Library’ folder. Your
references will probably be a range of different types of item – you can tell what they are
by the icon to the left of the title (book, article, video, website etc.). Click on a reference to
see the metadata for this item – this is what Word will be able to use to create the
citations/bibliography. This will give information on item type, title, author, place,
publisher etc. The library catalog entry will remind you where this information was taken
from, e.g. Goldsmiths’ library catalogue, Google Scholar, etc. It might be useful to use the
notes/tags fields too.
You will find that creating groups of your references will allow you to keep track of them
better. If you are writing a dissertation for example, you might want to create separate
groups for each of your chapters and add the references you plan to use in the
appropriate groups. Use Zotero in Firefox or Standalone and click on the icon that
resembles a folder with a green arrow (New Collection) – it should be in the top left
corner.
Give the group a name, e.g. Cinema of Iran. Then drag and drop items from your main
library into this folder. You can even create sub-groups of a group; just right click on your
group folder and choose New Subcollection.
8. Sharing references
You can share your work or the resources you’ve used, collaborate with colleagues on
research and discover like-minded individuals with similar research interests with Zotero
Groups. This can be accessed on the Zotero homepage - https://www.zotero.org/. Then
click on Groups.
You can browse or search for groups in your subject or create a new group. If you create
a new group, you can choose the type of membership, e.g. public and open to all or
private with membership by invite only. For example, a seminar leader could create a
Zotero group, invite their students and ask them to share resources across a term/year.
9. Getting started in Word
Once you’ve saved references and arranged them into groups, you can start using them
to create citations and bibliographies in your assignments. First, it is worth seeing
whether Zotero has installed correctly for Word.
When you open Word, the Zotero toolbar might be obvious to see – it should look like this:
If it is not visible, then depending on which version of Word you have, you might be able to
locate it in the following places:

Add Ins Menu

Tools Menu, followed by Templates and Add Ins

File Menu, followed by Options, then Add Ins
If it has not been selected, make sure it is. If it is not visible in any of these places, then it is
possible it did not install properly; in which case reinstall. The easiest means of doing this is
to open Zotero in either Firefox or Standalone. Click on the icon that resembles a cog and
then choose Preferences.
Click on the Cite menu and install the Microsoft Word Add In.
10. Creating in-text citations
When you reach the point in your assignment where you want to add a citation, click on
the first Zotero tool titled Zotero Insert Citation
When you reach the point in your assignment where you want to add a citation, click on
the first Zotero tool titled Zotero Insert Citation
Click here to choose a
citation
First, choose the citation style you want to use. Zotero’s default settings include the
most used styles, and if the style you wish to use is not there, it is possible to add
more from the style repository (see later).
Tip: if you choose Harvard, untick the option to abbreviate journal titles. This is often used
in Science publications and there is no guarantee that the marker would appreciate the
abbreviated titles.
You should then see the following Zotero bar:
If you know the exact reference you are using, you can start typing in the author or title
and Zotero will predict it. If you want to double check, click on the ‘Z’ and choose Classic
View:
This will bring up your library and you can choose your reference. Use the Page option if you
wish to add individual page numbers. Repeat this step throughout your assignment for your
in-text citations.
11. Creating bibliographies
You can create two types of bibliographies in Zotero.
The first is a very simple bibliography that does not reflect your in-text citations, but just the
references in your library or group. To create this, right click on the library/group and
choose Create Bibliography from Collection.
You will be asked which citation style you want to use, as well as the output mode. If you
just want to paste it into a document, choose Copy to Clipboard and paste. This is useful if
you use word processing software Zotero does not support, e.g. Pages.
Second, you can create a bibliography based on all your in-text citations. Go to the Zotero
toolbar, and choose the third tool titled Zotero Insert Bibliography.
Click here to create a bibliography
Your bibliography should be automatically generated. You can create this bibliography at
any point – it will automatically update when you add new in-text citations.
You might not need the other options in the Zotero toolbar. The second and fourth options
are for editing in-text citations and bibliographies; these can also be done manually. Any
citation or bibliography Zotero generates can easily be changed. The sixth option, which
looks like a cog with a number two, is Zotero Set Doc Prefs, which you can use to change
citation style if you realise you had chosen the incorrect style before.
12. Zotero Style Repository
Even though Zotero’s default settings include around ten different citation styles, there are
potentially more than 7,000 styles that you can use. There are over 60 variations on
Harvard, for example. If you are not happy with the default styles, use the repository to find
the style you want to use. Zotero’s default Harvard style does not put dates in brackets or
italicise titles but Harvard Cite
Them Right does. Hover over a citation style to see a preview. Click on the style you wish to
use and install it.
13. Backing up references
You might wish to make a back-up of your references, or maybe you want to try
another online reference management software and import the references you made
in Zotero.
To save your references in Zotero, click on the icon that resembles a cog (‘Actions’).
Choose export library and save in the appropriate format.
If you import from EndNote Web or another software, save your references as an
appropriate file type, e.g. RIS, BibTeX, etc. Then open Zotero in Standalone or Firefox,
then click on the icon that resembles a cog (‘Actions’). Choose import and find the file
you had previously saved. This will import your references.