Zotero is citation management software that allows users to collect, organize, and share research sources. It facilitates information literacy skills like collecting and organizing metadata, exporting references in different styles, and sharing citations online through groups. As an open source plug-in for web browsers, Zotero makes it simple to download metadata from PDFs and websites. Users can also import references from other formats or retrieve citations using identifiers. The Zotero plug-in for Microsoft Word streamlines in-text citations and bibliographies. In addition to managing references, Zotero enables skills like creating public profiles, curricula vitae, and collaborating through shared online groups.

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Collecting, Managing, and Sharing
Information and its Sources with Zotero
John Pell
Assistant Professor
Hunter College Libraries

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Resources for this Workshop:
 http://libguides.library.hunter.cuny.edu/zotero

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Scholarship in the Digital Age:
 The Internet made a lot of things very simple.
Bibliographies aren't among them.
J. Kronholz
Kronholz J. Bibliography mess: the Internet wreaks havoc with the form: how do you cite a Web page? that's
a matter of debate; arguing over a period. Wall Street Journal. May 2, 2002:A1, A6. As cited in:
Iverson C, Christiansen S, Flanagin A, et al. AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors. 10th ed.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2007.

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The Big (Information Literacy)
Picture
Why teach or learn about things like Zotero?

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Information Literacy
Zotero is just one example of a family
of software for citation management.
Using technologies like Zotero to
extract, record, and mange information
and its sources is an ACRL Information
Literacy Performance Indicator.
 “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education”, n.d.
http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.

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What’s Special About Zotero?
 It is open source.
 Its functionality is largely tied to a browser plug-in.
 It offers social networking tools.

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Citation Management
Competencies Facilitated by Zotero:
 Collecting and Organizing Metadata
 Exporting and Formatting References
 Sharing and Collaborating Online

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Collecting and Exporting Metadata
 Downloading Metadata for PDFs
 Scraping metadata from websites
 Importing Metadata from a text file
 Retrieving
Metadata with an Identifier such as an
ISBN, DOI, or PMID

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Downloading Metadata for PDFs

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Downloading Metadata for PDFs
You can add PDFs to your
Zotero library and have Zotero
retrieve the metadata.

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Downloading Metadata for PDFs
Once you have the files in your
library, select them, right click,
and chose, “Retrieve Metadata
for PDFs.”

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Downloading Metadata for PDFs
Zotero will attempt to retrieve
metadata for your files from
Google Scholar using the
article’s DOI. (note that the file
must have OCRed text.)
Once the data is retrieved, the
PDF will be associated with the
article’s author, title, etc. in your
Zotero library.

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Scraping Metadata from a
Website

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Scraping Metadata from a Website
As a plug-in for Firefox, you can view your
Zotero library as a section of your browser
window by clicking this icon.

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Scraping Metadata from a Website
When Zotero recognizes data
that it can capture, you can
click this icon to save a record
of the data.
With web pages, the record
will include a snapshot of the
page.

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Scraping Metadata from a Website
Zotero also works with many
web-based databases (Web of
Science shown here.)
You can attach files to your
records in order to keep
articles handy- right click the
record and select “Add
Attachment”

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Importing Metadata From a
Text File

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Importing Metadata From a Text File
If you have a text file of
citation data (from RefWorks,
for example) You can import
that into Zotero.

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Importing Metadata from a File
To import the file, select “Import”
from the action menu.

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Importing Metadata from a File
 Importing works for the following file types and can be quite
useful for transferring citation data from other software
platforms such as RefWorks, EndNote, and Mendelay
 Zotero RDF
 MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema)
 BibTeX
 RIS
 Refer/BibIX
 Unqualified Dublin Core RDF

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Retrieving Metadata with an
Identifier

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Retrieving Metadata with an
Identifier
It is possible to retrieve metadata
using an identifier such as an
ISBN, DOI, or PMID. This feature
is very useful when you want to
cite books.

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Zotero Competencies:
 Collecting and Organizing Metadata
 Exporting and Formatting References
 Sharing and Collaborating Online

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Exporting and Formatting
References
 Quick Copy and Paste a Bibliography
 Export a Bibliography in HTML or RTF
 Using the Word Plug-in

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Quick Copy and Paste a
Bibliography

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Quick Copy and Paste a
Bibliography
It is possible to quickly create a
bibliography by selecting items
from the Zotero library and hitting
control + shift + c and then pasting
into a Word document or text file.
(The output style for the copy and
paste bibliography can be set in the
Zotero preferences menu.)

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Export a Bibliography in
HTML or RTF

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Export a Bibliography in HTML or
RTF
Right-click the selected items and
click “Create Bibliography…” to
create a new file with a formatted
bibliography.

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Using the Word Plug-in

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Using the Word Plug-in
You can download and install a plugin that
integrates Zotero with Microsoft Word
For Windows: http://download.zotero.org/integration/Zotero-WinWord-Plugin-3.1.5.xpi
For Mac: http://download.zotero.org/integration/Zotero-MacWord-Plugin-3.1.10.xpi

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Using the Word Plug-in
Once the plug-in is installed. You can access Zotero
options from the Add-Ins tab in Word for Windows.
Mouse over the icons for a text tip. (Zotero options
will appear in the scripts menu in Word for Mac.)

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Using the Word Plug-in
To insert an in-text citation, click the “insert citation”
option and then select the record that you want to
cite.

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Zotero Competencies:
 Collecting and Organizing Metadata
 Exporting and Formatting References
 Sharing and Collaborating Online

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Sharing and Collaborating Online
 Creating a Public Profile and CV
 Creating and Joining Groups
 Sharing your Notes

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Creating a Public Profile and
CV

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Creating a Public Profile and CV
You can create a public profile
to share your research
interests; you can even share
your CV!
Through your public
library, you can share
reading lists, and your
thoughts about what you
are reading.

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Creating and Joining Groups

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Creating and Joining Groups
Zotero hosts thousands of
Groups where members can
share articles and ideas.

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Types of Groups
 Private
 Completely hidden from group searches. They are not shown on
members’ public profile pages and will not appear in search engine
results.
 Public, Closed Membership
 Anyone can view the group page, but the only way to join the group
is by invitation or by requesting an invitation.
 Public, Open Membership
 The group page is public, and anyone who wants to can join
instantly (File sharing is disabled.)

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Trouble Shooting and Keeping Up
The Zotero site contains a great deal of help
documentation and if you do not find what you need,
there are discussion forums where you can seek
support for unique problems.