Introduction to Zotero
About Zotero
Zotero is a Firefox addon that collects, manages, and cites research sources. It's easy to use, lives in your web browser where you do your work, and best of all it's free. Zotero allows you to attach PDFs, notes and images to your citations, organize them into collections for different projects, and create bibliographies using Word or OpenOffice. It is easier to use than EndNote and surprisingly powerful.
Since it's a Firefox plugin, it automatically updates itself periodically to work with new online sources and new bibliographic styles.
Zotero will run on any operating system. It requires the Mozilla Firefox browser (Version 2.0 or greater). Installation only takes a few seconds.
Firefox Campus Edition comes with Zotero pre-loaded!
Otherwise, open http://www.zotero.org/ and click the red "Download" button. Click "Install Now" and follow the instructions. If you see the message “Firefox prevented this site from asking you to install software on your computer," click "Edit Options," then "Allow" and "Close." Download Zotero again and it should work. Restart Firefox and you're all set! You'll see a small Zotero button at the bottom of your Firefox window.
If you have any problems, check the Zotero installation page.
You'll probably also want to download and install the Microsoft Word citation plugin (or the OpenOffice plugin if you're using OpenOffice). These allow you to easily cite items from your Zotero library in your papers.
If you install Zotero in the portable version of the Firefox browser, you can carry your collection of citations around from one computer to another and add new entries at any computer.
- Go to http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable and dowload Portable Firefox.
- Open Portable Firefox, navigate to http://www.zotero.org and download Zotero onto it.
Connecting Zotero with 
If you click the gear icon in the Zotero Window and choose Preferences, you can show Zotero where to look for MU-subscribed full text. In the Resolver field, paste the following: http://mulibraries.1cate.com/.
Collecting References
Zotero provides the ability to save references from most library catalogs (including MERLIN) and databases, and even some regular web pages, with one click. (Zotero publishes a list of compatible sites, and many sites not on this list also work.) If Zotero detects that you're looking at a book or article on a catalog, database, or a site like Amazon.com, LibraryThing or the New York Times, you'll see a book or page icon appear in the address bar of your browser. Just click the icon and Zotero will automatically save the citation.
If you're on a page of search results with many items, you'll often see a folder icon instead. Click this to get a list of all the items on the page, and check off the ones you want to save.
Zotero can't automatically capture citation info from some web pages, but you can still add them to your Zotero library.
Click the Zotero button at the bottom of your browser to access Zotero's controls.
Click either the chain link button to save a link to the page
, or the camera button to save a "snapshot." A snapshot is a copy of the page saved to your local computer. It includes the page's text and images, so if the page is removed later you'll still be able to refer to it.
Organizing Your Library
Click the Zotero button at the bottom of your browser to open your library. At the top left is a folder button with a green plus sign. Click this to create a new "collection."
Create collections to organize your references. Collections are like file folders on your computer, but a reference can be in more than one collection at a time. In other words, a book on the Civil War could be filed in your "Civil War" collection, your "Missouri History" collection and your "19th Century America" collection without having to make three copies of the reference.
Creating Your Bibliography
It's easy to create a bibliography from your Zotero library.
Select the references or collections you want to include. Hold the control key and click to select multiple items. Right-click one of the selected items and choose Create Bibliography. Choose the bibliographic style you want, and select the output format: Save as RTF or HTML, copy to clipboard or print. (The RTF file format is compatible with all word processors.)
Or you can just drag and drop references from Zotero into your document! They'll turn into fully formatted citations. This works with any word processor including Google Documents.
Zotero offers word processing plugins for Word and OpenOffice. The plugin adds a Zotero toolbar to your word processor that allows you to add citations to your document while you write.
To add a citation, click the first button ("Insert Citation") on the toolbar. Select the reference you want to cite and click OK. Zotero will add the citation at your cursor.
At the end of your paper, click the third button ("Insert Bibliography"). Your bibliography will appear, and new citations will be added automatically. Change bibliographic styles with the last button on the toolbar ("Set Doc Prefs").
Zotero + EndNote
Zotero is a great piece of software, but there are a few things that EndNote does better (so far). Fortunately, it's easy to use the two of them together and take advantage of the best features of each, or to share Zotero libraries with colleagues using EndNote or vice versa.
At this writing, Zotero can create bibliographies in 20 different citation styles. EndNote version X1 includes over 2900. Zotero also lacks EndNote's capacity to edit existing styles and create custom ones. If you're writing in a style Zotero doesn't support, you may want to use Zotero as your citation collector and export your library to EndNote when you're ready to write. Both programs can read and write a standard citation file format called RIS, which means references can be converted back and forth with a few clicks.
Zotero to EndNote
To save your Zotero library for importing into EndNote, click the Zotero button that looks like a gear and choose "Export Library." Choose RIS as the file type and pick a filename.
In EndNote, click "File" and then "Import." Click the "Choose File" button and select the file you just exported from Zotero. Set Import Option to "Reference Manager (RIS)" and click Import.
EndNote to Zotero
To export your EndNote library for use in Zotero, click "File" and then "Export." Set the output style to "RefMan (RIS) Export" and save it as a text file.
In Zotero, click the button that looks like a gear and choose "Import." Just double-click the file you exported from EndNote. The new references will be added to a collection named "Imported" followed by the date and time.
This guide is based on Emory University’s Zotero Research Guide by Jason Puckett. Zotero screencast tutorials are available at: http://www.zotero.org/documentation/screencast_tutorials
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