Using Zotero

If the "Magic Wand" button is unable to create a citation or if you are collecting information on a source that is not digital, you may have to enter the citation manually into Zotero.

To start, you must click the + button in the toolbar and select the type of source you are citing. This is an essential step because Zotero will customize the form for you to create your citation to include the necessary details. For example, a newspaper will have a different list of details than an interview.

Begin entering all of the information you have about the source in the form on the right side. NOTE: You do not need to use every field provided by Zotero. Enter as much as you can and that is relevant for your study of the source.

At the bottom of the citation, enter a note in the Abstract field. This information is valuable for 1) reminding yourself of important aspects of the source, 2) summarizing the source content, 3) connecting the source to others in your collection.

By creating folders, you can organize your citations into meaningful categories.

To create a folder, click the + sign next to your library name on the left side column.

You can create multiple individual folders or you can create sub-folders nested under one another.

One of the key features of Zotero is being able to create in-text citations and bibliography references.

1. For in-text citations, select a single or multiple citations (select a citation, click "shift" on your keyboard, and then click another citation to select a range). Then click the button that looks like text + a quotation mark.

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2. In the new window that pops up, you will see an in-text citation(s) in the selected style in the blue box. To change the style, click the name of the citation style (here pictured as Modern Language Association). Copy and paste the in-text citation(s) into your paper.

3. For bibliography citations, select a single or multiple citations (select a citation, click "shift" on your keyboard, and then click another citation to select a range). Then click the button that looks like a shelf of books.

4. In the new window that pops up, you will see the citation(s) in the selected style in the blue box. To change the style, click the name of the citation style (here pictured as Modern Language Association). Copy and paste the citation(s) into your paper.

1. Add a citation manually

2. "Magic Wand" function creates a citation via link or other digital identifier

3. Create a standalone note that will exist in your list of sources

4. Add the selected citation(s) to a collection

5. Remove the selected citation(s) from a collection

6. Delete the selected citation(s) from your library

7. Export the selected citation(s) to a different file type

8. Create in-text citation(s)

9. Create bibliography reference citation(s)

10. Open a new menu to click "View Online" or "Duplicate Item"

In the information menu for each citation (select a citation and see the menu on the right), there are multiple options to add information about the citation to add value to your collection.

 1. Info: This is the tab which holds your citation information. 

2. Notes: In this tab, enter additional information outside of the Abstract field in "Info". In shared libraries, these notes can be added by multiple people.

3. Tags: Tags can be added to each citation to group them by topic. For example, tags like "college life" or "zine" or "student government".

4. Attachments: Content like PDF's, screenshots, or related URLs can be added in this tab. NOTE: The web-version has a very low storage amount so this feature is better used in the desktop version.

5. Related: You can create "relationships" between individual citations.