Zotero Essentials
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Install the Zotero software on your computer
- Register for a free account – recommended if you work on multiple computers
- Utilize basic features for adding, organizing, and sharing resources
- Use Zotero to create citations and reference lists in Word and/or Google Docs
Zotero is a free and open-source citation management software. The program is intuitive and conveniently integrates with your web browser to help you collect, manage, and cite sources for your research. This includes allowing you to easily save references from library catalogs, research databases, and websites.
Keeping track of your sources as you work through the research process can save you a lot of time later on. As graduate students, this will be especially helpful when conducting research for long papers that require the use of many sources, like literature reviews, capstone papers, dissertations, etc.
Zotero?
- it’s an open source software that is free to use and install
- it’s easy to use
- it resides in your web browser and “watches” the sites you visit to see if any of them contain citations to books, articles and other sources
- you can save resources while you find them by pulling in relevant metadata
- Zotero works on Mac, Windows, Linux, and even mobile devices
- it comes with easy-to-use plugins for Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs which allow you to create dynamic in-text citations and references when writing papers using these tools
and it enables you to…
- import, manage, and annotate citations from various sources
- include PDFs and website snapshots so you can take your research with you
- handle research and citation management in the same place
- easily generate bibliographies in a wide range of styles
- access your Zotero library from any computer with an internet connection through its useful syncing features
- share libraries and create groups to collaborate with others
Installation Overview
