Reference Management

Getting Started

Zotero logo

Zotero is an open-source citation management tool that is designed to store and manage bibliographic references. 

Tutorials and Help

Adding References to Your Library

There are multiple ways to add citation information to your Zotero library. Here are four common ways:

  1. Use the browser extension to add citations from any website, including PubMed
  2. In databases like PubMed, export your results and import them into Zotero
  3. In Zotero, use the wand tool to look up references by unique identifiers such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or PubMed IDs (PMID)
  4. If you have saved PDFs, you can drag and drop them into Zotero to automatically search for citation information

Creating Citations

You can use Zotero to create bibliographies in multiple ways:

  • Word Processor Integration: Use plugins for Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, or Google Docs to insert in-text citations and bibliographies in your manuscripts
  • Quick Copy: Select items in your Zotero library and drag them into any text field. This will create a bibliography in your default export format. Set your default format in your Preferences menu under Export.
  • Right-Click to Create Citation/Bibliography: Right-Click on one or more references and select Create Bibliography from Selected Item(s).

Finding Full Text PDFs

You can use Zotero to store PDFs and find full-text from our library subscriptions. 

Instructions to Connect Zotero to Lane Library

  1. Go to your Preferences in Zotero. For Windows: Edit/Preferences, For Mac: Zotero/Preferences
  2. Navigate to Advanced in the Preferences menu
  3. Insert this link in the Open URL/Resolver box: http://sfx.stanford.edu/local?sfx.directlink=off&

Finding Full Text After Initial Set-Up

  1. Highlight a reference and click on the small green Locate arrow in the upper right corner
  2. From the pull-down menu, choose Library Lookup to locate and download the article
  3. You can then drag and drop the PDF file onto the reference in Zotero

After you attach a PDF to a reference in Zotero, you will see a blue dot in the PaperClip column. Click on the blue dot to open the PDF.

Collaborative Work

You can use Zotero Groups to:

  • Collaborate with colleagues on ongoing research and manuscripts
  • Share your collections of resources with others working in related areas
  • Explore public collections of resources 

To create groups, login to the web version of Zotero, and select Groups in the top navigation menu. You can set groups to be either public or private depending on your needs. Please note that you can not share PDFs in public groups.