Zotero is a free bibliographic software tool that can be added as a browser plugin to easily insert citations into documents. It allows users to search for references on sites like Google Scholar, import citations into Zotero with one click, and organize references with tags and notes. When research is complete, Zotero can export selected citations into a file in a format like Wikipedia citation templates, so those references can be copy and pasted into a Wikipedia article with reference tags.

1. Wikipedia Research Tools
Using Zotero
31 August 2015
Shyamal

2. Zotero is an free bibliographic software utility
It adds to your browser as a plugin, you can also add the standalone
software with plugins that allow you to insert citations into documents.

3. Let us say our task is to look for research reviews on a
book.
We now search for references to this book on Google Scholar
Zotero
toolbar

4. Google Scholar shows up some scholarly reviews

5. It is paywalled, but let us make a note of the reference
Look for the export citation

6. Zotero supports several bibliographic formats
Here we choose EndNote

7. Zotero may prompt once for permission to be your
reference manager
Accept this and continue – you should see a little status message while
the citation is imported

8. Click on Z to get the Zotero pane
You can add research notes and classify your bibliography – you can also
keep links to downloaded PDF files. Search by keyword and tags.

9. You can keep notes on the reference
You can also tag, create directories and organize your references as they
grow.

10. Once you have completed your research
You may want to export the citations to enhance our target Wikipedia
article. Choose the references of interest (multi select by mouse clicking
while holding Ctrl key) and then right click – choose the Export item

11. Choose Wikipedia Citation Template

12. Choose a file to save to
We have chosen just a single reference

13. Open the file in a text editor to find the citation
Copy and paste between reference tags as needed –
use the <ref name=“X” > … </ref> if you are citing it at multiple locations.

14. What if I wanted to research a
good Wikipedia article?
Examine the scholarly references
mentioned in a Wikipedia article

15. Zotero can extract all the references cited in an article
Magic done using COinS metadata hidden into the citation templates

16. Choose the references you want to import

17. The selected references are saved

18. Click Z to open up the Zotero pane
If the references are properly entered using Wikipedia citation
templates. All the details of the references should show up in the details
pane.