Citation Management Tools

Some databases, such as PubMed and the OSU Catalog, will have you export your references to a file, which can then be imported into Zotero. See the Exporting Citations from Databases and Catalogs section of this guide for more information on how to create a citation file.

To import citation files into Zotero:

• In the Zotero Application, select "My Library" or a specific folder
• Now click on "File" in the top of the Zotero Application
• Click "Import" in the menu that opens
• In the new window that opens find and select the the export file
• Select "Open" this should import all of the references in the export file
• Attach PDFs to the individual references if you would like
  • Please note you will have to add individual PDFs, they will not attach automatically when batch uploading citations

Some databases, such as CINAHL, give you the option of exporting citations directly into Zotero, allowing you to skip the above step. See the Exporting Citations from Databases and Catalogs section of this guide for more information on exporting references from databases.

While you are browsing resources, Zotero can identify if you are looking at articles, books, and even informational websites and databases. Depending on the resource that you are looking at the browser connector icon will change as seen in the images below.

1. Icon that appears for articles
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2. Icon that appears for books
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3. Icon that appears when looking at a database with numerous resources such as Google Scholar
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To save the citation for the resource(s) that you are viewing simply click on the browser connector icon, and select the folder in which you would like the citation to be found.

To download the Zotero Connector to your internet browser, click here: Zotero Connector Download

While Zotero can not automatically capture citation information from some websites, you can still add citations for these resources to your Zotero library. 

To do this you will right click your mouse on the screen that you want to save. Doing this will save as a web page item in your library. Once saved to Zotero, you can go in and add additional information such as author, date published, website title, etc. to the record.

Depending on your selection, you may also be attaching a screen shot of the website to the citation within Zotero. This can be extremely useful if the webpage is down, deleted, or if you are working offline as your screen shot will remain for your reference.