Zotero

The easiest way to save a citation to Zotero is to use your browser extension. To save a citation from your browser, select the icon displayed near the URL bar.

This will work for articles in Library databases and anything on the internet, including websites, videos, PDFs, etc. 

The icon will look different depending on the type of document you're looking at. 

The icon may also be different in other browsers.

Have a book or other resource you'd like to enter manually? You can do that in Zotero, too. 

Choose the Add Item button in Zotero, then select the resource type you want to enter. Fill in as much information as you have for the resource you are entering. 

You can also export citations to your Zotero account using the Export feature in many literature databases. 

Example using Ebsco databases:

After completing a search, select the articles you want to save using the checkboxes, then select the dropdown arrow and choose Export up to 25,000. Select RIS as the export option. Enter your email address to receive the file via email. Download it and import it into Zotero, using file (Zotero if you are on a Mac) > import.

To edit citation information, select the resource you want to edit, then the field you want to edit. 

To add an item (or a group of items) by identifier, click the wand icon at the top of the second pane in Zotero. Then insert the identifier for the item. Zotero will search the item in a database based on the resource type and gather the citation information. If available open access, Zotero will also gather a PDF. 

Adding items via identifier will work with:

• Books that have an ISBN (International Standard Book Number)
• Articles or other resources that have a DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
• Articles that have a PMID (PubMed Identifier)

To drag and drop items into Zotero, simply have a folder with PDFs open, select one or more, and drag them into your Zotero Library. 

Zotero will attempt to gather the PDF metadata and search it in a tool called CrossRef. CrossRef is an authoritative source for citation information about journal articles. If a record has been retrieved it is likely to be very complete in nature. Sometimes, Zotero is unable to retrieve item information. This might be the case with older PDFs or those created from scans - both of which may not have embedded metadata.