Zotero Citation Management

Both the Zotero Desktop app and the Zotero Connector (browser extension) should be installed. Open and run the Zotero Desktop app in the background.

The Zotero Connector icon, located in the upper-right corner of your browser, allows for a single click to add bibliographic information to Zotero.

The Zotero Connector icon changes depending on the type of source or information you are viewing and saving, for example, the webpage or book icons below.

Once the Zotero icon has been clicked, a new item should appear in your library. It is a good idea to confirm each reference as some sources may not import properly or (particularly websites) may not have full citation information in its coding.

When a PDF is viewed from a web browser and the Zotero icon is clicked, Zotero will also import or save the PDF along with the reference information. Sometimes Zotero is unable to retrieve information from the PDF. In those cases, it is recommended to save the source from the abstract page rather than the PDF.

Zotero Connector and a web browser is the default way to use Zotero as much of the manual data entry is eliminated. However, there are times entering items from within the Zotero Desktop are necessary or preferred. 

Zotero Desktop has two main methods to add items, Add by Identifier and New Item. 

Add By Identifier

The Add By Identifier icon looks like a magic wand near the top of the Zotero screen. It allows a user to add items by ISBN, DOI, PMID, arXiv, or ADS bibcodes. Click the icon, type or copy/paste the appropriate bibcode, and press enter or search.

The desired resource should appear with appropriate citation information. In this case, the Full Text PDF was also attached to the record.

New Item

When identifier information is unknown or incomplete, the New Item button can be used to manually create any source. Click the icon at the top and a list of source types will appear

Select the appropriate source type to populate a blank template. The source will be created on a new line with the cursor automatically ready in the Title field of the data section on the right side of the screen. Complete the rest of the necessary fields.

Export EndNote References

To import citations into Zotero from EndNote, you must first export your EndNote citations. Open EndNote and click File, then Export.

Choose XML under Save as type, and click the save button.

Import into Zotero from EndNote

Open Zotero, click File and Import...

Choose a File and click Next.

In the file explorer, navigate to your exported EndNote XML file. 

Choose your options (default is recommended), click Next and then click Finish once the import has completed. 

If you chose the default options, then the imported titles will show up under a new collection called My EndNote Library.