Skip to Main Content

Zotero

This guide offers instruction and information about this popular open source citation manager available to the Brown community.

Writing with Zotero

There are a few options to know about when you are ready to start writing. There are quick options for generating a bibliography, but the full word processor integration is the most powerful and will save you time and reduce the stress that comes with formatting and keeping track of citations, footnotes, and references in your document.

Simple Bibliographies

Zotero has two options for automatically generating a simple bibliography: "Quick Copy" and "Right-Click to Create." Details are available directly from Zotero:

Quick Copy

  • Highlight the reference to include in your bibliography
  • Drag and drop into the text editor of your choiceanimation of drag and drop from zotero into word and gmail

Right Click

  • Select the items to include in your bibliography
  • Right click and select "Create Bibliography from Item"
  • Choose the style
  • Choose the export format (the example is "Copy to Clipboard")
  • Paste in the text editor of your choiceanimation of right click in zotero to export bibliography to clipboard

Word

Google Docs

Other Writing Tools

Zotero officially supports Word, Google Docs, and LibreOffice.

There are third-party integrations available for LaTex and other text editors, statistical software, and web development tools.

ZBib - for quick formatted citations

If you are looking for a way to instantly generate a bibliography, but are not interested in building a shared library or reusing sources across different projects, ZoteroBib is a great option.