How to Use Zotero
1. Zotero : A Bibliographic Reference Manager Software
2. Introduction of Zotero is a free, open source citation manager developed by the Center for History and New Media at the George Mason University. It is designed to store, manage, and cite bibliographic references such as books and articles. In Zotero, each of these references constitutes an item. υ Zotero works as both an add-on for the Firefox browser (that works on many different operating systems) and (via the standalone version) with both Safari and Chrome. First Version of Zotero 1.0 was launched in October 2006. Zotero 2.0, released in February 2010 Zotero 2.1, released in March 2011 Zotero 3.0, released in January 2012 Zotero 4.0, released in April 2013 Zotero 5.0, released in July 2017,currently we are using this version.
3. How to Install
Zotero? Zotero runs on any operating system. Installation only takes a few seconds. To install, go to http://www.zotero.org and click the red “Download” button. Click “Install Now” and follow the instructions. Install the Word Plugin υ Install the Microsoft Word citation plugin . This allows you to cite items from your Zotero library in your papers easily.
4. More about Zotero
What kind of items are there? Every item contains different metadata, depending on what type it is. Items can be everything from books, articles, and reports to web pages, artwork, films, letters, manuscripts, sound recordings, bills, cases, or statutes, among many others. υ What can we do with items? Items appear in Zotero’s center pane. The metadata for that item is shown in the right pane. This includes titles, creators, publishers, dates, page numbers, and any other data needed to cite the item.
5. Organise and Collection
The left pane includes My Library, which contains all the items in your library. Right-click on My Library or click on the New Collection button above the left pane to create a new collection, a folder into which items relating to a specific project or topic can be placed. υ Tags Items can be assigned tags. Tags are named by the user. An item can be assigned as many tags as is needed. Tags are added or removed with the tag selector at the bottom of the left pane or through the Tags tab of any item in the right-hand pane. υ Searches Quick searches show items whose metadata, tags, or fulltext content match the search terms and are performed from the Zotero toolbar. Clicking the spyglass icon to the left of the search box opens the Advanced Search window, allowing for more complex or narrow searches.
6. Collect and Attachments Items can have notes, files, and links attached to them. These attachments appear in the middle pane underneath their parent item. Attachments can be shown or hidden by clicking the arrow next to their parent item. υ Files Any type of file can be attached to an item. Attach files with the Add Attachment (paperclip) button in the Zotero toolbar, by right-clicking on an existing item, or by drag-and-dropping. Files do not need to be attached to existing items. Links & Snapshots Web pages can be attached to any item as a link or a snapshot. A link simply opens the website online. Zotero can also save a snapshot of a web page. A snapshot is a locally stored copy of a web page in the same state as it was when it was saved. Snapshots are available without an internet connection.
7. Capturing Items If you are using Zotero for Firefox or the Chrome, it is simple to create new items from information available on the internet.
8. Manually Adding Items Items can be added manually by clicking the New Item button in the Zotero toolbar, then selecting the appropriate item type. Metadata can then be added by hand in the right column. Apart from the versatility this provides, it is important for adding primary documents. υ Saving a Web Page If the Zotero Connector does not recognize data on the page, you can still click the save button in the browser toolbar to save the page as a Web Page item with an attached snapshot. While this will save basic metadata (title, URL, access date), you may need to fill in additional metadata from the page by hand.
9. Cite υ Citing Items Zotero uses Citation Style Language (CSL) to properly format citations in many different bibliographic styles. Zotero supports all the major styles (Chicago, MLA, APA, Vancouver, etc.) as well as a great many journal-specific styles. υ Word Processor Integration Zotero’s Word plugins allow users to insert citations directly from their word processing software. This makes citing multiple pages, sources, or otherwise customizing citations a breeze. In-text citations, footnotes and endnotes are all supported.
10. Automatic Bibliographies Using the word processor plugins makes it possible to automatically generate a bibliography from the items cited and to switch citation styles for the entire document with the click of a button. υ Manual Bibliographies Zotero can also insert citations and bibliographies into any text field or program. Simply drag-and-drop items, use Quick Copy to send citations to the clipboard, or export them directly to a file.
11. ZoteroBib (https://zbib.org/)
