Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. - from www.zotero.org
At the most basic level, it is a reference manager. It is designed to store, manage, and cite bibliographic references, such as books and articles. In Zotero, each of these references constitutes an item. More broadly, Zotero is a powerful tool for collecting and organizing research information and sources.
Zotero works within your web browser and allows you to collect research. You can collect PDFs, images, audio and video files, and snapshots of webpages. It will index what you captured and then allow you to search the full-text content. Your files are organized into "collections" and every item can have "tags" assigned to it. When it is time to create citations in your Word document, Zotero can add them in a couple of clicks. And because Zotero is cloud based, your data is available on any device any where there is internet connectivity; you can sync and collaborate with others.
HINT: When capturing/exporting PDFs it is a good idea to double check the metadata (author, title, database, etc) in Zotero. Theses and dissertations may appear as "journal articles". "Journal articles" appears to be Zotero's default for PDFs.
On this page are links to instructions on how to do everything in Zotero. I thought about making handouts, but why, when all those things are discussed in detail on this page. Find what you want to do and click the icon/image on this page. You will be taken to full page instructions about that topic.
1 - Go to www.zotero.org.
2 - Click the red button, "Download". This will take you to the download page.
3 - Click "Download" to begin the installation process in Windows or the other platforms available. Zotero is a standalone program, but it also has extensions available in various browsers. So, after the installation and setup of the standalone is complete, go back and add the "Connectors" to the browsers that you use.
4 - Register your Zotero.
5 - Open Zotero and set up "sync" so that the work you do on one computer will be synced to any other computer you use.
1 - While in the database, after opening the article (pdf or html viewer), click the Zotero plug-in icon in your browser.
2 - The article and all its metadata (author, title, and stuff) will be downloaded into your Zotero library.
1 - While in the database, after opening the article (pdf or html viewer), click "export", if that feature is available.
2 - Choose the option for "RIS format". This is a standard format for extracting metadata (author, title, and stuff).
3 - Confirm the export to your Zotero library, if it asks.
1 - While in the database, after committing a search, click the Zotero plug-in in your browser.
2 - Select which articles you would like to download and they with their metadata will be downloaded into your Zotero library.
1 - Search for and open the desired entry
2 - Next to the title of the entry, select "Print/Export"
3 - Choose the option to "Download PDF for Printing". The entry will now be a PDF in your "Downloads" folder.
4 - At the bottom of the article is the citation generator. Use, copy, and paste the format that is required for your project.
1 - Drag the PDF file into the Zotero library.
2 - If necessary, you may have to "Retrieve Metadata for the PDF". This is one of the options when you click on the title in Zotero. Again, you may have to go back to where you got the PDF and find the missing metadata yourself. Zotero doesn't pick up all the metadata from the PDF. This is especially true for PDFs that are scans of originals.
1 - With Zotero on, click the Zotero icon in the broswer bar.
A cached version of the webpage will be saved to your library. Most of the metadata will be saved/captured by Zotero. It has a hard time finding the creator of the web-page. You will need to find that yourself and add it to the "info" for the item in your library.
After you have installed Zotero, whenever you open MSWord, you will find a new "Zotero" tab along the tool bar.
While writing, once you have made a comment that needs a reference, just place cursor at the proper location and click the "Zotero" tab. Once in the tab, click "Add/Edit Citation". This will open a small search box that will search your Zotero library. Select the appropriate item, then select the style and form of the citation (MLA and in-text, or Chicago and footnote, etc.). Zotero will create the citation for you.
When you are finished writing in MSWord, just click the Zotero tab and select "Add/Edit Bibliography". The Bibliography will be created matching the style used for citations and will be placed where the cursor was.
Your "library" can be divided into "collections". Each "collection" can be named for the project or course you are working on. To move an item into a specific collection, just drag it from the center panel into the folder for the "collection". The actual file does not move to the collection, but resides in the library. Each collection is just a list of the resources you wish to include in that list.
You may also add "tags" to your items. Those tags can be used to sort your library or sort items in collections. You can tag them with subject headings or tag them with practical things like "to read" or "read already" or "use in intro".
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