GTY 362: Data & Decision Making: Citation Management

Need a bibliography quickly? A good citation generator is Zbib. 

Zotero is a standalone program that works together with a browser extension. You should download and install both before getting started. 

1. Go to www.zotero.org.

2. Click on the red button "Download Now".

3. Download Zotero 5.0 (Mac version is shown; it's also available for Windows and Linux) for the standalone program and the Word plugin. 

4. Install the Chrome Connector (or Firefox or Safari) for the browser extension.

5. Create a free online account. This creates a space for you on the Zotero server and allows you to add or access your references from any computer through the Zotero interface.​

There are several ways to add references to your Zotero library.  Make sure you always check the references for accuracy, sometimes Zotero can't understand everything.

To Download a Reference from a Library Catalog

1. Find your item in the catalog.
2. At the far right of the url bar is an icon that will indicate what kind of reference you have (book, movie, etc.).
3. Click on that icon and the reference will be added to Zotero.
4. Drag your reference into a folder.

To Download a Reference from a Database

1. Open up the record for the article you want (usually clicking on the title of the article).
2. Again in the url bar far right, is an icon that will indicate what kind of reference you have (book, movie, etc.).
3. Click on that icon and the reference will be added to Zotero.
4. Notice that you will also import the abstract and a link to any full text, if attached.
5. Drag the record into a folder.

To Download a Website Reference

1. Bring up the website that you wish to add to your references.
2. This time there is no icon in the url bar.
3. Open the Zotero window and click on the button with a paper and a plus.
4. Your website will be added to Zotero.
5. Drag the record into a folder.

To Enter Bibliographic Details

1. Click on the Plus (+) button on the Zotero bar.
2. Select the type of document you have.
3. Fill out the bibliographic details.
4. Drag the record to your collection folder.

To create a bibliography from your sources

1. Go to the Gear Icon
2. Preferences
3. Export
4. Select the Default Output Format. If you are just doing a bibliography select "with bibliography" if applicable.
5. Once you have set this, this is the default, unless you change the setting
6. Open a word processing document (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs)
7. Drag your reference to your word document.
8. Double check the format (spaces, spellings, periods). You will have to do the hanging indents, etc. and alphabetize your bibliographic list

Zotero offers plug-ins for Microsoft Word and OpenOffice/LibreOffice that allow you to automatically generate bibliographies.