Managing References and Citations with Zotero

Installation

1. Download Zotero here.
2. Follow the appropriate instructions below. More detailed instructions are also available here.

Mac

Windows

Linux

Chromebooks

Creating an account

Registering for a free account allows you to sync your library across devices, access your library from the web, and organize groups to collaborate and share resources with colleagues and co-authors.

Register for an account here.

Once you have a Zotero account, you’ll want to link your desktop application to this account. Open Zotero on your desktop and bring up the preferences window (on Windows: Edit/Preferences, on Mac: Zotero/Preferences) then click on Sync. Select Link Account and enter your account credentials.

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Overview of the Zotero interface

The desktop application is organized into three main panes. The leftmost pane is how you build and organize your library similar to folders on your computer. These folders are called collections. The center pane displays the contents of whichever collection you have selected. The items displayed here are the bibliographic references and in some cases, the actual sources themselves. The pane on the right is the detailed view of the selected item. The fields displayed here are dependent on the type of item (i.e. journal article, book or book chapter, periodical, etc). These fields can be edited, added to, or removed. Additionally, the other tabs in this pane allow you to record notes, add tags, and link related items.

Adding collections

Collections can help you organize sources related to specific projects or publications, around topics, or however you choose to structure your library. Collections are organized alphabetically by default in the left pane.

New collections can be added using the folder icon on the top left or through the File menu.

Collections can be organized hierarchically with collections contained within other collections referred to as subcollections. You can right click on a collection and select New Subcollection or create a collection then drag and drop it into another collection.

Adding items

Items can be manually added using the green circle with a + at the top of the center pane. The type of item can be selected using the drop down, with the most commonly used types available in the top level and the full list of options under More >

Let’s add a book now!

1. The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press recently published a book on archaeology in southern Yemen called Landscape History of Hadramawt. The record can be found in Melvyl here. Note: you may need to have your UCLA VPN connection active to access Melvyl. Alternately, you can see the item details here.
2. Back in Zotero, click on the green circle for a new item and select Book.
3. Copy and paste the title from the record into the right pane in Zotero.
4. Do the same for the first editor and be sure to separate their first and last name. The default option is author but in this case the book is an edited volume with two editors. Select Editor from the drop down that currently says Author.
5. Add the second editor by clicking the small + icon to the right of the first editor. Copy and paste their name into the new entry.
6. Add the publisher, location and year of publication to the appropriate fields.
7. If desired, copy the Summary to the Abstract.

Zotero automatically saves changes so if you click out of this record then return, your latest edits will still be there! That helps when you’re switching between your browser and Zotero but as we know, manually entering information can introduce typos and/or errors. Fortunately, there are ways to save a record to Zotero with just a click of a button!

Installing the Zotero browser extension

Zotero makes it easy to add resources to your library through their “connector” plugins. These browser extensions or plugins “connect” to your desktop application and add new items when asked.

Connectors are available for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Edge. If you frequently work off a mobile device such as a phone or tablet or are using a browser that does not have a connector, you can also install a bookmarklet that will operate similarly.

Visit the downloads page and select the appropriate connector for your browser of choice!

You’ll notice a new icon at the top of your browser. Depending on the type of page you are currently on, the appearance of this icon will change to reflect the type of resource it will save to Zotero when clicked. Let’s test it!

1. Be sure Zotero is open on your computer! The connector won’t be able to save unless the application is running.
2. In your browser, navigate back to the Melvyl record for Landscape History of Hadramawt.
3. You’ll notice the icon is now a little blue book! And when you click on the icon, you’ll see a small pop up informing you the item is being saved and to which collection.
   1. The connector will save the item to the collection that is currently open in Zotero.
4. Switch back to your Zotero application and you should see a new record for Landscape History of Hadramawt.

Editing an item

Using the connector to save an item is a lot faster! However, you might notice inconsistencies or want to add additional details to the item record. For instance, in the book record we saved, the editors have been mistakenly tagged as authors. Be sure to check each record saved with the connector!

1. In Zotero, select the book record so the right pane shows the full details.
2. Change the drop down from Author to Editor for both editors.

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Citations

In addition to the browser connectors, there are a range of other plugins that give Zotero additional functionality. One of the most popular categories are those that allow you to integrate Zotero into your word documents. With these plugins, not only can you search your Zotero library and embed an in-text citation all from your word processor, but you can also generate a list of all the referenced cited at the end!

Installing the word processor plugin

Plugins are available for Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and even Google Docs now.

1. In Zotero, navigate to the Preferences window (on Windows: Edit/Preferences, on Mac: Zotero/Preferences)
2. Select the Cite tab or icon then click on Word Processors.
3. Click on the button to install the plugin for the word processor you typically use.

Inserting citations

Let’s test the new plugin!

1. Open Word or LibreOffice Writer and find the new Zotero menu item.
2. Click on the Zotero menu to see the available options.
3. Let’s try to insert an in-text citation. Type a sentence into your word document and at the end, before you place a period, click on Add/Edit Citation from the Zotero menu.
4. The first time you click on this, a window prompting you to select the bibliographic style will pop up. Zotero comes with a range of default styles but you can also add new styles using the Manage Styles… link just below the list. Many publishers will provide style guides that have been prepared for Zotero and other bibliographic reference systems. We’ll add a new style later! For now, select Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (author-date) and click Ok.
5. A new window with a thick red border will display – you can type author names or titles into this box and it will search through your Zotero library. Try typing “Land” then select the first Landscape History… from the list.
6. It will format the citation according to the bibliographic style selected. If you want to specify a page number or page range, simply type the numbers after and it will incorporate them into the citation. You can add additional citations after or press enter to save the citation.

If you wish to change the bibliographic style, in the Zotero menu, select Document Preferences and choose the appropriate style in the window that pops up.

Editing citations

You’ll notice when you click on the inserted citation in the word document that it highlights the entire citation. That is because the citation is being tracked by Zotero for a variety of reasons. If you notice that the entry is incorrect, editing it inside your word document will only change that occurrence. However, if you update the record in Zotero, not only will that citation be corrected, but so will other citations.

If you simply want to add an additional citation or replace the one that is currently in your text, you can use the Add/Edit Citation option again. Insert your cursor anywhere within the citation, then click on Add/Edit Citation and the red box will pop up once again.

Additionally, Zotero is tracking each reference so that it can produce a full list of all references cited in each word document. Let’s do that next!

Adding a list of references cited

In the Zotero menu, you’ll notice another option – Add/Edit Bibliography. This can be used to insert a list of all references that have been cited in a document.

1. Add a new section to your word document titled References Cited.
2. Press enter or return to add space between the title and where the cursor is currently placed.
3. Click on the Add/Edit Bibliography button. It may take a few seconds depending on the size of your list but eventually a list of sources will appear in the bibliographic style you selected for this document!
4. Similar to the in-text citations, the list can be edited individually here or (preferably) within Zotero. You may need to click Refresh in the Zotero menu to view changes.

Adding a bibliography

In some instances, you may want to prepare a full bibliography of resources, not just those that are cited. In that case, follow these steps:

1. In Zotero add all of the items you want to include into a single collection.
2. Right click on that collection and select Create Bibliography from Collection.
3. Select the appropriate style then select Copy to Clipboard and click OK.
4. You can then paste the formatted bibliography into your word document. Alternately if you select Save as RTF, the bibliography will be saved as a Rich Text Format file – save this in a location you can easily navigate to then open the file with your word processor.

Adding additional bibliographic styles

Zotero allows you to expand the list of styles and as many publishers recognize the benefits of using a reference management system like Zotero, they have produced style guides that integrate directly into Zotero. Let’s add the style guide for the Society of American Archaeology!

1. In Zotero, open the preferences window again.
2. Select Cite then make sure the Styles section is open.
3. Under the list, there will be a link that says Get additional styles… click on it.
4. A new window will pop up that provides an interface for searching all of the available style guides (over 9000 of them!).
5. Search for “SAA” and select the style “Society for American Archaeology” from the list that is returned.
6. It will be added to your list and available for the next time you are writing an article for one of the SAA journals or a book for the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press!

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Collaborating with Zotero

Much of our writing is collaborative though and Zotero can make that easier also! Collaborative collections are called Groups and are initially managed through the online interface.

• Using the account your created at the start of the workshop, log into Zotero online.
• Navigate to a new group by clicking on Groups then clicking Create a New Group.
• Each group needs a name – let’s use “DAL Workshop” and select Private Membership.
• You can select who is able to view the contents of the group as well as make edits. Let’s keep this private to just you and your co-authors so select “Any group member” under Library Reading and “Any group members” under Library Editing and File Editing.
• Click Save Settings then click on the link to Members Settings towards the top.
• Click on the Send More Invitations link under Member Invitations.
• In the box provided, you can add the email addresses or Zotero usernames for your co-authors.
• When you switch back to your Zotero application, you’ll notice the new group under Group Libraries in the left pane (you may need to sync using the green circular arrow on the top right before this will show up).
• Now you can add resources and use this collection just like we did with the Workshop collection but your co-authors will be able to see the saved resources and add their own!

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Interested in more? Dig into the Zotero Documentation! I especially recommend checking out the plugins section!