Zotero

Plugin Overview

The Zotero plugin allows you to automatically generate your in-text citations and your full bibliography. The bibliography will automatically update as you add or remove in-text citations. Zotero has plugins for MS Word, Google Docs, and LibreOffice. It only works on computers that have the Zotero app installed.

The Zotero app must be open for the word processor integration to work. Open the Zotero app before opening your word processor. If you already have your document open, save your work and close the app, then open Zotero and then open your document again.

Chromebooks

Because of the requirements listed above, the word processor integration does not work with Chromebooks. However, there are still many features to take advantage of. To learn how to use Zotero with a Chromebook, visit our guide: Using Zotero with Chromebooks, Tablets, and Phones.

Instructions

(Skip to the slides below for screenshots.)

In-text Citations

• Place your cursor where you want the citation.
• Click on the “Zotero” option in the menu.
• Select the “Add/edit citation…” option.
• Select the citation style you are using.
• Search for a source by title or author name.
• Click the source and hit the enter/return key.
• The citation will appear where your cursor is located.

Bibliography

The bibliography is the list of sources that you cited in your document. This will appear at the end of your paper. Zotero will automatically include all of the sources that you added in-text citations for! But you will need to create the list:

1. Place the cursor in the text where you want the bibliography to appear.
2. Click on the “Zotero” tab to open the Zotero dropdown menu.
3. Click on “Add/edit bibliography” in the Zotero dropdown menu.

Updating/Refreshing

When you create your bibliography but later add new in-text citations (or remove any), they will automatically be updated in the bibliography. However, if this does not happen, you can force the update using the “Refresh” option in the Zotero menu.

Manually Typing Citations

If you manually type in your in-text citations, Zotero will not know they are there and those citations will not appear in the Zotero-generated bibliography. But have no fear: you can just delete the typed version and add the Zotero citation to fix this mistake.

Annotated bibliographies include a full citation for a source, followed by a short annotation or summary of the source and how it is relevant to the research topic. Zotero only has auto-generating annotated bibliographies for three styles (MLA, APA, & Chicago notes), but you likely won't find it to be more convenient or faster (and in fact, the Chicago version has some formatting issues you may need to clean up). 

Instructions

(Skip to the slides below for screenshots.)

Write up your annotation in a Google Doc, Word document, or other word processor program.

To create the full citation, go to the Zotero app or visit your Web Library.

1. Find the source you want to cite. 

2. Right-click on the title and select “Create bibliography from item…”

3. Select the options you want:

   1. Citation style

   2. How you want to save the citation. Saving to the clipboard will allow you to paste it into your document.

   3. Click “OK.”

4. Paste the citation above your article annotation.

Tip: control + v or command + v is the keyboard shortcut to paste whatever is saved on your clipboard.

Auto-generating your annotated bibliography

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

1. Download a new style from the Zotero Style Repository.
   • APA: Download the style "American Psychological Association 7th edition (annotated bibliography)."
   • Chicago: Download the style "Chicago Manual of Style 18th edition (notes and annotated bibliography)."
   • MLA: Download the "Modern Language Association 9th edition (in-text citations, annotated bibliography)."
2. Open your Zotero Library and select the item that you want to annotate.
3. In the "Info" tab on the right-hand pane, write the annotation in the "Extra" field.
4. Repeat this step for each item that you want to include in the annotated bibliography.
5. Open your word processing document and follow the standard process for inserting a citation into your document.
6. When prompted to choose your citation style, select the Annotated Chicago or APA style that you just downloaded.

Reusing your annotations

Though it is tempting to want to save an annotation to an article in Zotero, you generally will not need to do this because every annotated bibliography that you write will be different, even if it includes some of the same articles, because the topic for the bibliography will be different.

Not-so-fun fact: if you do end up using the same article and annotation for multiple annotated bibliography assignments,  get permission from your professors to do so. Otherwise, it is a violation of the Academic Honesty Policy.

Article Notes

If you want to save the basic summary of an article, you can do so with the "Notes" field in the Zotero article record. You can then refer back to your notes all within Zotero.

• Zotero app: create a new note using the "New Note" dropdown menu.
• Web Library: click on the source and then click on the “Notes” option in the article menu on the right.