Zotero: Getting Started

Add Tags

Tags are keywords you can assign to items that allow you to characterize items and group them together outside of collections.

Tags can be imported from databases along with citation information or they can be added manually.

All tags are searchable through the Zotero search box.

Disable Automatic Tagging

It is highly recommended that you disable automatic tagging. In General Preferences, uncheck the box next to "Automatically tag items with keywords and subject headings." After you disable automatic tagging, your library will only contain tags that you add manually. 

Manually Add Tags

To tag items yourself, select an item in Zotero and then select the 'Tags' tab in the column on the right.

Click on 'Add.' Enter the word or phrase you want to use and press Enter.

Tags can be renamed by clicking on them and deleted by using the 'minus' button.

Your tags will now appear in Zotero's bottom left window pane.

Adding Multiple Items to a Tag

You can add items in bulk to an already existing tag by selecting all of the items within a collection that you want to assign that tag and then dragging them onto the tag in the Tag Pane.        

Color-coded tags

You can assign colors to your tags. Zotero has 9 built-in colors, and up to 6 tags in your library can be assigned a color. 

Right click on the tag you want to assign a color. 

Choose "Assign color" from the popup menu. 

Select the color you want and click "set color."

Colored tags appear next to the item title. 

See also Create Collections or Attach Notes

See also Create Collections or Add Tags

Journal Articles 

You can save an article when viewing its record or abstract page. When on a page for an individual article Zotero will display an icon of a piece of paper  . Zotero will automatically download the full-text PDF if it is available.

Just as with HOLLIS, when viewing a search results screen in a database Zotero will display this folder icon to the right of the address bar.

Click the icon, and a small window will open.

Select which items you'd like to save, and click OK.

See also Check Citations for Accuracy, HOLLIS+, Web Pages, or PDFs

Web Pages

Zotero can recognize descriptive information or metadata from many websites.

To save a website to Zotero just click on the website icon to the right of the address bar.

The metadata and a snapshot of the page will be saved to Zotero.

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See also Check Citations for Accuracy, HOLLIS+, Journal Articles, or PDFs

PDFs

Automatically Retrieve Metadata

Saving PDFs that you already on have on your computer to Zotero is easy: by dragging and dropping them into a collection. Zotero will automatically attempt to retrieve metadata for the item and add it for you. 

1. Drag-and-drop a PDF into a collection:
   
2. Zotero will automatically attempt to retrieve metadata for the item and add it for you:
   
   This metadata retrieval usually works really well when the PDF contains a unique identifier, e.g., a DOI. However, it may only work partially for items such as working papers, preprints, and manuscripts; in that case, you will need to add missing metadata manually.

You can also add PDFs by clicking on the Adobe icon when viewing PDFs in your browser.

Manually Add Metadata

If retrieving metadata does not work, you will only have the PDF itself in your library, without the necessary metadata to generate a proper citation. You will therefore need to manually add this information to the item: 

1. Right click and choose Create Parent Item. 
   
    
2. Now, manually fill in the metadata for the item. 
   First, change the item type to the appropriate type: 
   
   
   Then add the remaining citation information: 
   

See also Check Citations for Accuracy, HOLLIS+, Journal Articles, or Web Pages

Check Citations for Accuracy 

Although most of the citation information that Zotero captures will be correct, it is always a good idea to check every item's author, title, date, etc., and then to correct and/or add data. 

Correcting Information

All fields can be edited by clicking in the field.

• For example, if you need to fix a typo in a record imported from HOLLIS, click in the field and edit as needed: 
  
• If you need to add or remove authors, editors, translators, etc., click on the plus or minus button and (when adding) select the appropriate role of the person from the drop-down menu, then enter their name: 
  
• You can also change the item type (for example, change a record imported as a web page to a magazine article) by selecting the new item type from the drop-down menu: 
  
  Note that in some cases, the fields available in the record—which are determined by item type—may also change, and you may lose data.  

APA Style Title Case

Note that Zotero's output for APA style does not change title casing to sentence style. To change titles that are not in sentence case for APA or other styles with that requirement, right-click on the title > Transform text > Sentence case.

Go to HOLLIS, Journal Articles, Web Pages, or PDFs

Select a Citation Style

The first time you insert a citation in a document you will be required to choose a citation style.

You can change the citation style at anytime.

If you do not see the style you want listed, you will need to click on Cancel and go into Zotero's Preferences.

Under Cite select Styles. Click on Get Additional Styles

Find the style you want and click on the title. Click on Install.

See also Insert a Citation, Edit Citations, and Create Bibliographies

Edit Citation 

To add page numbers or other information to your citation, place your cursor within the citation (1) and then click the Zotero Edit Citation button (2).

In the pop-up window, make the desired changes (e.g., adding page numbers) and click OK. 

Your citation will automatically refresh and display the edits you made. 

Correct Errors

All metadata errors in a citation should be corrected in Zotero, not in Word.

Only use the Zotero Edit Citation function in the Zotero toolbar if you are making changes like those depicted above.

After you have gone into Zotero and updated the citation, use the Zotero Refesh button in Word to update your document.

See also Select a Citation Style, Insert a Citation, and Create Bibliographies

Create Bibliography from Citations 

After adding citations to your document, click Add/Edit Bibliography.

Zotero will insert a fully-formatted and alphabetized bibliography of all references cited in your document, using the citation style you had previously chosen: 

Note that this bibliography will only contain articles, books, etc. that you have cited in your document. If you would like to add items to your bibliography that you have not cited in the document, place the cursor into the bibliography and click Add/Edit Bibliography again.

You will now see a pop-up window similar to the one you see when adding citations. The area on the right (1) contains all items already included in your bibliography; the area in the middle (2) shows all items in the Zotero collection selected in the area on the left (3). From the middle area, select the item(s) you would like to add to your bibliography, then click on the green right arrow between the middle and right areas. 

Click OK. The additional item(s) should now show in your bibliography: 

Annotated Bibliographies

You can use Zotero to create an Annotated APA or Chicago Bibliography.

Download a new style from the Zotero Style Repository.

APA: Download the style "American Psychological Association 6th edition (annotated bibliography with abstract)."

Chicago: Download the style "Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (note, annotated bibliography)."
 

Open your Zotero Library and select the item that you want to annotate.

In the "Info" tab on the right-hand pane, write the annotation in the "Extra" field.

Repeat this step for each item that you want to include in the annotated bibliography.

Open your word processing document and follow the standard process for inserting a citation into your document.

When prompted to choose your citation style, select the Annotated Chicago or APA style that you just downloaded.

Standalone Bibliographies 

You can quickly create standalone bibliographies with Zotero in three different ways.

1. Creating a bibliography from a Zotero Collection.
2. Creating a bibliography from select items in your Zotero library.
3. Creating a bibliography of select items with drag-and-drop (known as Quick Copy in Zotero parlance).

Note that bibliographies created with any of these three methods are static. In other words, changes you make to a citation in Zotero will not be reflected in these bibliographies; they will be simple Word documents. 

Creating a bibliography from a Zotero Collection 

In Zotero, select the collection from which you would like to create a bibliography. Right-click on it and select Create Bibliography from Collection... 

In the pop-up window that opens, select the Citation Style you would like to use (1), set the Output Mode to Bibliography (2), and select your preferred Output Method (3).

If saving as HTML or RTF, you can open this file in your chosen HTML editor or word processor to edit it further; if copying to the clipboard, you can simply paste the bibliography into a Word (or similar) document. 

Creating a bibliography from select items in your Zotero library 

In Zotero, select the items you would like to include in your bibliography (holding down the CTRL [Windows] or CMD [Mac] keys while clicking on items with your mouse). (If you would like to select items from different collections, select them from the My Library view.) 
Right-click on any of the selected items; then select Create Bibliography from Items. 

Proceed as described under Creating a Bibliography from a Zotero Collection. 

See also Select a Citation Style, Insert a Citation, and Edit Citations

Invite Members

Click Members Settings and then Send More Invitations. You can invite collaborators to your group either by their Zotero user name or by the e-mail address associated with their account. 

Help those who don't already use Zotero by including a link to this guide (http://guides.library.harvard.edu/zotero) in the optional personal message.

Your collaborators will receive an e-mail inviting them to your group.

See also Create Group Library and Storage Limits

Storage Limits

An important consideration: Any PDFs stored within a Group Library will count against the storage limit of the owner of that Group Library. While you have unlimited storage if your Zotero account is linked to your Harvard e-mail, you should bear in mind that this unlimited storage will default to Zotero's free 300MB storage plan once you leave Harvard. 

See also Create Group Library and Invite Members