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Zotero: Overview

Learn how to use Zotero to collect and organize your research, cite works, and create bibliographies.

Get Zotero

Download Zotero and associated plug-ins using these links:

Download the Zotero add-on for Firefox

Download the browser plugin to automatically save websites and citations you find on the web.

Download the word processor plug-in to cite Zotero items in your Microsoft Word and/or OpenOffice documents

Download Zotero Scholar Citations to retrieve metadata for your PDFs using Google Scholar

Don't have Firefox? Download Portable Firefox to use Zotero on a flashdrive

iOS and Android developers have been hard at work creating apps so that you can get the most out of Zotero on your mobile devices!

This free add-on makes sites Zotero-friendly if they aren't already

This free program lives in your system tray and offers you quick and easy access your Zotero PDFs and references

Find more plugins here

Zotero Basics

Zotero logo

Zotero is a free, open source that helps you to collect, manage, cite, and share your research sources. It lives right where you do your work - in your web browser. Designed to be intuitive and unobtrusive, Zotero is a powerful and handy tool for any academic.

Zotero works on all three major operating systems: PC, Mac, and Linux.

Zotero Quick Start Guide: The A, B, C's of "Z"

 Zotero is a project of the Corporation for Digital Scholarship, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of software and services for researchers and cultural heritage institutions, and is developed by a global community.

Zotero Benefits

Zotero can support research projects both large and small in scale from wherever you are working. Since Zotero is web-based, it's easy to sync your entire Zotero library to any computer with an Internet connection and Firefox as a browser option. You can use Zotero for collecting snapshots of the web, as you might a bookmark. The nice thing about Zotero is that it's there when you need it and hidden when you don't. With Zotero, citing resources within your work and generating bibliographies are both very easy tasks. You can also easily share your resources and collaborate with other researchers by using Zotero Groups.

Since Zotero works from within your Firefox web browserr, you can use Zotero with any operating system: Windows, Mac, and/or Linux.

Zotero has also overhauled their web interface and you can now edit and collect sources through your Zotero.org webpage. This functionality works great and allows users to sync collections to the cloud and access them with any browser, any time. 

Currently, Zotero is on version 6.

How does it work?

Zotero is comprised of three components:

  • Translators - Interpret meta-data from websites, databases, videos, images, etc.
  • Styles - Choose from over 20 standard citation styles and add more if necessary.
  • Storage - Zotero lives in your browser; you are given 300MB of free storage. You can also store on your computer using the desktop app. Your Zotero library is stored on your computer's hard drive. You can easily export your library; which is good practice if you are using multiple, shared computers and as a secure backup.


Once you get Zotero installed on your Firefox browser, look for the Zotero icon on the lower right side of the browser.

What does "Zotero" mean?

'Zotero' is based on the Albanian word "zotëroj," which means “to acquire, to master,” in terms of learning.  

 

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Zotero Mobile Apps

Zotero Mobile Options

iOS Apps

Android Apps

Other

Zotero plugin to sync PDFs from your Zotero library to your (mobile) PDF reader (e.g., an Android tablet)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This is an adaptation of the Zotero LibGuide by Marie Sciangula licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States License. Re-use of this adaptation is granted under the same Creative Commons Attibution-NonCommerical 3.0 license.