English 406: Digital Design

How to Add Sources to Zotero

Make sure you have installed the Zotero Connector.

Once installed the connector will appear as an icon in your browser toolbar.

To add a source to Zotero, click on the Zotero icon in your browser toolbar.

Zotero will save relevant information about the source into your Zotero Library, such as:

• Author name
• Item title
• Page numbers
• Journal title/volume (if applicable)
• URL
• PDF (if it is available from where the item was saved)
• Tags and subject terms relevant to the item

This information will help you organize and access the source at a later time and provide citation informaiton.

Note: Depending on the website/database you are using, the information saved from Zotero might not be perfect. It is important to check what is saved into Zotero to make sure it is accurate.

Citing with Zotero

There are two ways to cite references using Zotero: Quick-Citing and the Word Plug-In

Word Plug-In

This Zotero feature requires Microsoft Word (if you do not have Word, skip to Quick-Citing below)

1. Open Word, or restart Word
   • Once you install Zotero, the Word Plug-in will cite automatically)
2. Locate the plug-in in Microsoft Word
   • Look for a toolbar, similar to the ones below
     • Depending on your version of Microsoft Word, this might be in different places—look either under Add-Ins, under Tools, or for a small pop-up window

3. Start citing
   • Create an in-text citation using the insert citation button [#1 in figure above]
     • Select a citation style
     • Search or select the citation in your Zotero Library
   • Generate a bibliography [#2 in figure above] (this requires at least one in-text citation)
     • To change the style you cited in, click on the Doc Preferences [#3 above]
     • If you need additional styles you can download them at the Zotero Style Repository: https://www.zotero.org/styles

Quick-Citing

1. Right-click or Control click on a source in your Zotero Library (use shift to select multiple sources) 

2. Select “Create a Bibliography from Item” from the drop-down list 

   • To create an in-text citation, use the Citations output
   • To create a reference list, select the Bibliography output
3. Choose an output method (Copy to Clipboard is easiest for pasting directly into a document)
   • ​​Paste into a document or open the document (if output was RTF or HTML)

ZoteroBib

ZoteroBib is a interactive web tool that lets you create citations using a title, URL, ISBN, DOI or other identifiers to create citations and bibliographies.

Go to zbib.org to use the tool.