Zotero at Temple

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

1. Drag and drop or Store Copy of File
2. Link or Attach any file type from anywhere
3. Search and add by Identifier (ISBN, DOI, PMID …)
4. Download with Zotero browser connector
5. Find Full Text or Library Lookup
6. Import RIS files
7. Manually add new item and files
8. RSS feeds

You can add PDFs, Epubs, webpages, social media, datasets, images, PowerPoint slides, audio, video and more!

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 7 sentence case in Info (click on the three dots)

Converting title case to sentence case demo

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

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

Select the magic wand icon (Add Item by Identifier button) in the middle section 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 a DOI entered.

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.
    

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 6 Library Lookup location

Zotero 7 Library Lookup location

Use the database "Send to" or "Export" option to directly download records into Zotero. You will often need to sign in or log in to export from a library database.

The GIF demonstrates how to export citations as a RIS file from EBSCOhost and import the RIS file into Zotero.

Steps to export citations from EBSCOhost databases

1. Login to your EBSCOhost account, if you have not done so.
2. From the page with your search results, click on one or more records or create a list of records.
3. Click the Projects icon to add to Project.  You can add to an existing project or create and name a new project.
4. Click on Projects. Click on the project file to open it.
5. When you select on citations to export, the export icon will appear. 
6. Select the RIS file option.
7. Save to your device.

Steps to export citations from ProQuest databases

1. Sign in to your ProQuest account, if you have not done so.
2. You have three options:
   a. From the page with your search results, click on one or more records. You can also check the box at the top to select all citations on the page, and do this for every page you want to select. Go to next step.
   b. Save to a folder.  From the folder, select items to export. Go to next step.
   c. Click Export Results icon. You have a limit of 10 exports per day with this method. Go to "Saved Searches" and continue with next step.
3. Click on three dots for all save and export options.
   
4. Under Export, select RIS
5. Leave default for citations and abstracts and link.  Click Continue.  
6. Download and save to your device.

Steps to export citations from PubMed

1. Select items to export or check the top box.
2. Select the tab “Send to”, located below the search box.
3. Select "Citation manager"
4. The dialogue box "Create a file for external citation management software" appears.  Select All results if you want all results. 
5. Select Create file.
6. Save to your device.

Steps to import citations into Zotero

1. In Zotero File tab, select “Import”
2. When Import dialogue appears, click Next.
3. Select the saved RIS file and click Open.
4. Leave "Copy files to the Zotero storage folder" checked.  Click Next.
   If you want the citations to go into an existing file, select the collection first, before starting Step 1.  When you are here, uncheck "Place imported collections and items into new collection." Your imported citations will go in the selected collection (folder).  
   If you don't want to copy into Zotero, you can select "Link to files in original location."

The instructions below are for creating an RSS feed in PubMed and ProQuest databases. RSS feeds allow you to automatically download results based on the saved query.  Check other platforms for RSS Feed instructions. Read more at Zotero online documentation for 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.

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.

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

.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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."

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.