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Zotero at Temple

guide for installing, setting up, using Zotero and getting help

Ways to Quickly Add Sources

Adding Items to Zotero  provides detailed explanations on how to bring in different sources to your Zotero program.  They include:

  • Drag and drop or Store Copy of File
  • Import with Zotero browser connector
  • Link or Attach any file type from anywhere
  • Search and add by Identifier (ISBN, DOI, PMID …)
  • Find Full Text
  • Import RIS files
  • Manually add new item and files
  • RSS feeds

Store Titles in Sentence Case

Some citation styles, such as APA, require the use of sentence case for titles (e.g., “This is sentence case”). Others, like the Chicago Manual of Style and Modern Language Association (MLA), require title case (“This is Title Case”).

Tip: Store titles in sentence case in your Zotero library and let Zotero automate the conversion to title case if necessary. Zotero will also automatically capitalize the subtitle for styles that require it.

Steps to automatically convert a title to sentence case

  1. Right click on the title in Info and select Sentence case. Warning: This will uncapitalize proper nouns.
  2. Check for proper nouns and manually capitalize the first letter of proper nouns.

Zotero 6 sentence case in Info

zotero 6 setence case

Zotero 7 sentence case in Info

zotero 7 sentence case

Converting title case to sentence case demo

The image GIF demonstrates the steps listed above.  Refresh to play the GIF.

converting title case to sentence case

Download with Connector

Use the Zotero browser connector to capture citation information and download web pages or one or more records and files into your Zotero library. The icon will change depending on the source.

Download one record and file with the Zotero connector

  1. Click on the Zotero icon in the browser.  Citation information and available PDFs will automatically download, depending on your setting.
  2. To add tags or select the collection or folder for the download, click on the arrow down at the end of the Sending to box.
     

zotero connector one record download

Download multiple records with the Zotero connector

  1. Click on the browser folder icon.  When there are multiple items to select, a folder icon will appear in the Zotero browser connector.
  2. Select the record by clicking the box.  You can also Select All.
    Available PDFs will also be downloaded, depending on your setting.
  3. Click OK.

Zotero Connector

Direct Export from Database

Use the database "Send to" or "Export" option to directly download records into Zotero.  The steps below demonstrate with EBSCOhost but are generally applicable for most databases.

Steps for direct export from EBSCOhost databases

  1. Click on an individual record or create a list of records.
  2. Click on the Export button.
  3. Select the option for RIS file.
  4. In Zotero, click on File in the upper left, and in "Where do you want to import", select import, then "A file..."
  5. Zotero searches your computer, most likely your Download folder. Select the file and open.
  6. Select "Copy files to the Zotero Storage folder".
  7. Look for the folder under My Library and rename it if you want.

Add Item by Identifier

Get the ISBN, DOI, PubMed ID, arXiv ID, or ADS Bibcode.

Click the Add Item by Identifier button ( in Zotero 6) in the toolbar, type or paste in the identifier, and press Enter/Return.
To add more than one item, separate identifiers by spaces, commas, or line breaks.

The figure shows Zotero 7 with DOI entered.

zotero 7 add by identifier

Find Full Text & Library Lookup

Zotero "Find Full Text" feature searches for available PDFs. Try this first and if it does not work, try Library Lookup.

Library Lookup locates physical or online items in the online library catalog that you have added in settings. You can select Temple University libraries' OpenURL resolver or other library's from the Advanced tab of the Zotero preferences (or the General tab in Zotero 7).

Steps for "Find Full Text"

  1. Select the item that needs a full text from the middle workspace
  2. Right-click and from the menu, select "Find Full Text." 
  3. If available, the PDF will be automatically downloaded.  You may see the message "Full Text PDF."
  4. If not available, you may receive a message, "No File found".

zotero 7 find full text

 

Steps for using Library Lookup to find full-text in a library catalog

  1. Select the reference, in the middle workspace, for which you need to find a full text
  2. Click on Library Lookup.  This will appear after you click on the green right arrow in Zotero 6, and in Zotero 7, the grey arrow in the information pane.
  3. You will be redirected to your library catalog for available PDF and online full text.
  4. Depending on the catalog record, you may be able to
    (a) download the PDF and then attach the file to the existing parent item, or
    (b) link out to the publisher cite and use the Zotero connector to download both the bibliographic information and PDF or save online text as a snapshot.  As needed, you can merge references into one item.

Zotero 6 Library Lookup location

Zotero 7 Library Lookup location

Zotero 7 Library Lookup

RSS Feeds

The instructions below are for creating an RSS feed in PubMed and ProQuest databases. Check other platforms for RSS Feed instructions. For more information and online Zotero documentation visit Feeds.

PubMed RSS feeds steps

Step 1.  Enter your search terms in PubMed and click Search.  (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) . (A proxy URL may not work) 

On the results page, select Create RSS link, located below the search box.

PubMed Create Rss link below search box

Step 2. Enter a name.  You will overwrite existing text.  Name cannot include a symbol. 

Leave the number of items to be shown as is or change.  Click Create RSS.

your rss feed box with a box for name field and creat rss button

Step 3. Click "Copy" to copy the RSS URL

. create rss link

Step 4. Go to Zotero desktop

Zotero 6:  Click on dark brown folder and select "New Feed" and "From URL".
Zotero 7: Click on File tab. Select New Library. Select "New Feed" and "From URL.

new url feed

Step 5. Paste the RSS URL from PubMed into the top URL box. If you are successful, the Title box will show the name that you had created. Click Save.  If you do not see anything in the Title, and you see proxy in the URL, try the search at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ without a proxy.

rss setting zotero

ProQuest RSS feed steps

Step 1.  Enter your search terms in ProQuest and click Search.  On the results page, below the search box, toward the right, select "Save Search/alert link and select Create RSS feed.

create RSS proquest

Step 2. Enter a name in the "Name this Feed" box.   You will overwrite existing text. You can leave the other settings as is or change.  Click Create Feed.

RSS feed settings Proquest

Step 3. Copy the URL from "Your RSS feed" at the very top.

copy feed url proquest

Step 4. Go to Zotero desktop.
Zotero 6:  Click on dark brown folder and select "New Feed" and "From URL".

new feed zotero
Zotero 7: Click on File tab. Select New Library. Select "New Feed" and "From URL."

Zotero 7 New Feed

Step 5. Paste URL into the top URL box. If you are successful, the Title box will show the name that you had created. Click Save. 

feed settings proquest