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Citing with Zotero

Zotero and other citation tools are not perfect. They rely on the information you add. You need to check that information is entered correctly. If something is wrong or missing, you will need to fix it yourself.  

Using ZoteroBib

Go to the ZoteroBib website, linked below.

Creating References

  1. Enter one of the following in the Cite bar:
    1. URL
    2. DOI (works best)
    3. ISBN (works best)
    4. PMID
    5. arXiv ID
    6. Title
  2. Click the Cite button to create your reference
  3. Choose your preferred citation style from the dropdown list, found below the search box (e.g. American Psychological Association 7th edition)
Check to make sure the reference is correct! Zotero and other citation tools are not perfect. If something is wrong or missing, you will need to fix it yourself. To make changes, click on the reference from the reference list. 

 

If ZoteroBib can't find an existing reference for your source, you can create one manually.

  1. Click the Manual Entry button.
  2. Enter the reference details into the appropriate fields (e.g. author, date, title, etc.)
  3. Click the Done button to create your reference
  4. Choose the type of source you're citing (e.g. journal article, webpage, book, etc.)

Exporting References

References can exported in a number of ways.

  • Copied to the clipboard and pasted into your document. 
Note: You may have to apply the appropriate line spacing and hanging indent formatting once you paste the references into your document.
  • Exported in various formats, including RTF which will open in Word.
  • Saved to your Zotero application, if you have it installed on your device.

Select the option you prefer by:

  1. Clicking the Copy to Clipboard button, or
  2. Clicking the arrow beside the Copy to Clipboard button

Exporting In-Text Citations

Beside each of the references you will see a quotation mark icon. To copy in-text citations:

  1. Click the icon to open the in-text citation box
  2. If required, enter the page number from where you got the information (or choose Paragraph from the dropdown menu if the source doesn't have page numbers)
  3. Click the Copy Citation button
  4. Paste the copied citation into your paper where you've quoted or paraphrased 

Access Your ZoteroBib References Later

If you want to access your reference list in ZoteroBib in a later session:

  1. Click the Create button, found below the Copy to Clipboard button
  2. Click the Copy URL button
  3. Save, bookmark, or paste the URL into a document so you can access it when you need it