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Zotero

Use Zotero to organize your research and create bibliographies.

Zotero logo

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. This research tool automatically detects many types of content as you browse, allowing you to add it to your personal library with a single click. Zotero is used by researchers in many academic disciplines, especially social sciences and humanities.

  • Collect references and add full-text PDFs, images, A/V files, snapshots of web pages, and other sources.
  • Organize your references into collections. Zotero automatically indexes the full contents of your library, enabling you to find exactly what you're looking for with a few keystrokes.
  • Cite sources in a bibliography and in-text citations using the style of your choice. Use a plugin to work in your favorite word processing program or simply drag one or more references into a message or document.
  • Share your collections of references by creating or joining groups on the Zotero site. Groups can be private or public, open or closed.

At this time, the Library, Museums and Press does not have an institutional subscription to Zotero due to ongoing budget constraints. 

Zotero does offer a Zotero Lab option for smaller institutional access to take place at the lab or department level. For more information, visit Zotero's website. 

Zotero Documentation & Troubleshooting

Zotero includes extensive support documentation on its site. Some highlights are listed below.

Please note: If you are having technology issues with Zotero (i.e. in-text citations are not updating in your document; you are having trouble exporting citations), please visit the Zotero Discussion Forum BEFORE contacting us to see if your problem has a solution already. Since we do not work for Zotero, Librarians at UD will first look up the issue in Zotero Discussions to see if has been resolved. You can also post questions in Zotero yourself to troubleshoot problems. If you are still having problems, you are welcome to reach out to us. 

How does Zotero work?

This series of videos from Idaho State University Libraries offers a quick and informative overview of how Zotero works, including installation and setup, importing items, and creating bibliographies and in-text citations.