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21W.022: Reading and Writing Autobiography: Section 2: Zotero

This is the research guide for Louise Harrison Lepera's 21W.022.

What is Zotero?

Zotero can help you:

  • Annotate and organize research results, including video.
  • Save information about a reference, including author, title, and other publication information.
  • Create libraries and save searches, and share collections with other people.
  • Attach files, links, notes, and PDFs to records.
  • Store a screenshot of a web page.
  • Export information as formatted citations in word processing programs (Word, Open Office, Google Docs).
  • Tag and sort records and perform advanced searches.
  • View records in personal collection when offline.
  • Cite records in any language.

Get Started

1. Go to Zotero.org and click download.

2. Download the program for your operating system AND the browser extension.

3. Open Zotero and the browser for which you installed the extension.

4. Click the Zotero icon to save a citation or web page. The icon will change depending on how many citations are listed on the website. 

See the quick start guide for more information about using Zotero.

Use Google Docs with Zotero

To insert a Zotero reference in Google Docs, use keyboard shortcuts:

  1. Open your Google Doc and your Zotero library.
  2. In your Zotero window, click on the record you want to cite. 
    1. To copy an end-of-document reference, use keyboard shortcut: CTRL+ALT+C. 
    2. To copy an in-text citation, use keyboard shortcut: CTRL+ALT+A.
  3. Paste it into your Google Doc.
  4. To add a bibliography at the end of your document, in Zotero, select the citations you used, right-click, select “Create Bibliography from Selected Items,” and choose “Export to Clipboard.” Then paste into Google Docs.

Learn more on the Zotero help page.