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Zotero Citation Management: Tips and Tricks

Adding Items By ISBN

Adding Items By ISBN or Other Identifier
Have the book in front of you and want to add it to your Zotero library without having to search for a citation?

If you have a book's ISBN, an online article's DOI or PMID number, just click the magic wand button: "Add item by identifier." Type in the book or article's number, and Zotero will automatically download its information and save it to your library.

Indexing PDF Files

Indexing PDF Files
It's easy to add PDFs to your Zotero library and automatically import their citation info.

  1. First, enable PDF indexing on the Search tab of Zotero's preferences.  Zotero will download and install a small plugin.
  2. Next, just drag your PDF files into the Zotero pane.
  3. Right-click the PDFs and choose "Retrieve Metadata for PDFs."  Zotero will retrieve their citation data from Google Scholar and turn them into citeable items with PDF attachments.

If Zotero can't find a match on Google Scholar, don't worry -- you can still save the citation from another catalog or article database, then drag the PDF onto the citation to make it an attachment.

Connecting Find It @ MU and Zotero

Connecting Find It @MU and Zotero
You've probably seen the Find It @MU button in some article databases when trying to locate the full text of an article online. Zotero works with this featuer to pull bibliographic data into your Zotero library.

To set up Zotero to access the Find it @MU server, click the gear button on the Zotero toolbar (or the "Edit" menu option),  choose "Preferences" and select the "Advanced" tab. At the bottom of the preferences window, paste this url into the "Resolver" box:

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Or if you're on campus, click the "Search for resolvers" button to enter this URL automatically.)

Then click OK. Once you've set this up, you can click the "Find It" button on any citation you're viewing to search for the item online.

Other Browsers

Internet Explorer Users
If you're using Internet Explorer or a mobile browser, you can still save items to your Zotero library. A free Zotero account is required.

The Zotero Bookmarklet works with all desktop browsers and most mobile browsers (including Safari for iPad and the Android browser).

Visit the Zotero Bookmarklet page for installation instructions for your particular browser or device. You won't have to install any software -- just the bookmarklet!