Citation Management Software: Zotero

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Citation Management SoftwareZotero
Online guide http//www.lib.ncsu.edu/guides/zote
ro

• Josh Wilson
• Physical and Mathematical Sciences Reference
  Librarian
• North Carolina State University Libraries

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Keeping track of all of your research

• How do you save all your research work?
• Bookmarking webpages is unstable, no easy way to
  organize
• Large Word or Excel files
• Notecards are great until one day you leave them
  on the bus
• Citation management software
• Saves all references from most databases in ONE
  place

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How Citation Managers Work
Agricola Web of Science Saved citations
Other websites and sources Saved citations
Books from catalog Saved citations
Export

• Zotero
• Access from anywhere
• Links back to articles, saved PDFs
• Organize citations into multiple folders
• Create bibliographies

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Different products

• Zotero
• Free, browser-based, works with Firefox
• Library support available!
• RefWorks
• Free for NCSU students, internet-based, available
  through Libraries site
• Library support available!
• EndNote
• Costs 100, standalone software installed on
  your computer
• No choice is permanent! Easy to export between
  them if your needs change

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Different products

• Well talk about Zotero today
• Easy to use and demonstrate
• Stable
• Free
• Recommended for Firefox users
• If you think another product suits your work
  better later on, its easy to change

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Zotero setup

• Lets take a few minutes now to install Zotero
  and talk about setting up an account
• Firefox is requried (sort of). Zotero is a
  browser plugin a piece of software that extends
  the functionality of your browser.
• Setting up an account is required for syncing
  between computers, using Groups, and backing up
  references

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Zotero setup

• Start Firefox
• Go to http//www.zotero.org/
• Download latest version
• May need to Allow pop-ups/install
• Will require restart of Firefox

• Now use the Zotero button to open the pane

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Getting citations into Zotero

• All citation managers work mostly the same
• Export from database, catalog, webpage, etc.
• Import into citation manager
• Most modern citation managers work with nearly
  all databases
• Zotero has a one-click function that makes this
  even easier for most databases

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Saving a website
Save several citations
Save an individual citation
Saving a book
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Organize using collections and subcollections
(they look like folders) Drag and drop imported
citations easy!
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Zotero also saves snapshots and/or attachments,
which you can annotate
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Add notes and tags to citations to better
organize them. Sometimes Zotero will capture
subject terms as tags.
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Not all is happy rainbows

• Some databases do not support Zotero
• You may be able to export/import manually
• Export as an RIS or BibTeX file (or an EndNote
  format?)
• Import into Zotero
• Last resort
• Create a New Item in Zotero
• Fill in fields you need

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Citations imported now what?

• Organize
• Add to appropriate collections/groups
• Add notes
• Expand citation to see these
• Add tags
• Sometimes Zotero captures subject terms
• Add attachments
• Expand citation to see these
• NOT BACKED UP!

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Creating a bibliography

• Eventually youll write something and need to
  cite all the references youve collected
• Zotero automatically creates bibliographies for
  you
• Hundreds of styles available
• A few different ways to do this

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Drag and drop from Zotero/Firefox into Word
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Or right-click selected citations to create a
bibliography.
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Or install the MS Word plugin to create a
bibliography while you write.
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Extra stuff you can do

• Configure preferences
• Enables you to locate full text online
• Simplifies saving items
• Create a Zotero account
• Turn on syncing
• Use Groups to share references
• Work with others on a research project
• Everyone can save to the same account, create a
  shared literature database
• Annotate screenshots, manage PDFs

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Group libraries work just like collections They
appear along the left You can drag and drop
items from them Requires a Zotero account, and
syncing