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Drexel Library

Citation Management Tools

Comparison of software and online tools for managing research references.

Creating a collection folder in your library

Organize your results by creating a search folder in your Zotero library.

  • Start by creating a folder in Zotero by clicking the yellow folder with a plus sign New Collection icon and naming your new folder.

Adding items to your library

Zotero can save all sorts of citation records including journal articles, books, websites, and more. Always make sure you have Zotero open in the background when adding material to your library.

Article

If you are viewing a single article record, a white Paper icon will appear in your browser. Click the icon to add the article to your Zotero library or specific collection.

 

 

Book

If you are viewing a single book record, a blue Book icon will appear in your browser. Click the icon to add the book to your Zotero library.

 

 

Website

Zotero allows you to save website metadata, as well.

 

 

 

YouTube video

To save a YouTube video, either click on the video camera icon or right click on the screen and select Save to Zotero, and then Save to Zotero (YouTube).

 

 

Manual entry

In your Zotero library, click the green plus sign icon and from the drop down menu, select the item type you wish to enter. Manually type in the information.

 

 

Adding multiple references to your library

Database search results using the Connector

If you run a search in any database or library catalog, you will notice a small yellow Zotero Folder icon the top right-hand side of your browser.

  1. Click the Folder icon and the Zotero Item Selector will pop up on the screen. 
  2. All the results from your search will appear in the pop-up box. Select specific articles from the search or select all to add items from the search to your library.
  3. Note that you can manually select results within a database search, and then click the Folder icon to have your selections pre-checked off.
  4. Zotero will send the material into the last Collection Folder you had open.

A screen shot of a CINAHL database search with a Zotero Item Selector pop-up

Bulk database search file

Occasionally, you may encounter a database where the Zotero browser connector may not appear to pick up search records. Or you may have run a search and received thousands of results. For large sets of search results, try downloading an RIS, BibTeX, Zotero RDF, etc. of the records from the database. Note that downloading a bulk file will be different depending on what

  1. From your database, save search results into a file and download.

  1. Go into Zotero. From File, select Import and choose the file.

  1. Decide if you want to create the imported items into a new Collection or not.

  1. The file should import into your Zotero library.