Capturing Citation Information

Zotero and other citation managers save metadata (information about works) such as title, creator(s), year of publication, ISBN, and URL (location on the Web) in a database. This information can then in turn be composed into citations in various formats such as APA, MLA, and others for use in Works Cited sections, bibliographies, or other contexts. You may enter this information yourself manually, but you will find it much easier to import or capture the information in the course of research. See Adding Items to Zotero for information about ways to build your citation library.

Using the "Magic Wand" Tool

You can capture an online citation if you know a unique identifier for the item. From either the Zotero desktop application or the Web Library when signed into zotero.org, use the "magic wand" icon to enter a URL, DOI (Digital Object Identifier), PubMed ID, or other identifier. If Zotero can find structured data it will create a citation.

Using the Zotero Connector Browser Extension to Capture Citations

Zotero Connector is a "helper" browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and other browsers that allows you to capture bibliographic information embedded in Web pages, e.g., an article in an electronic journal or an ebook on a vendor platform such as EbookCentral. With the extension installed, whenever you are viewing an article or citable source, either in OneSearch or on a publisher’s site, an icon will appear next to the address bar allowing you to save the citation (note: the icon differs for different content types). 

If you have Zotero desktop installed and running, you should be prompted to save it to an existing collection (if there are any) and to optionally add keywords:

If you do not have Zotero running, you will be prompted to start the application and given the option to save it to your Web Library instead:

Once you have saved the citation, you can then further organize it within the application by grouping it in a collection, adding keywords, amending metadata, or adding notes. 

Note that the metadata captured depends on what the Web page offers; some sites have better embedded bibliographic information than others, and in many cases you will want to review and modify the information before using the citation in your work.

Using Chrome Browser Extensions at Adelphi

It is important to note that Adelphi’s provision of Google Suite (including Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets, Calendar, etc.) comes with security restrictions. When your Chrome browser session is logged into Google Apps via your Adelphi credentials, third-party browser extensions are blocked and cannot be installed. For this reason you may prefer to use another browser such as Firefox to best make use of third-party extensions for research at Adelphi. To use Zotero Connector or other extensions in Chrome you will need to do the following:

1. In your browser, open a session in a profile other than your Adelphi user. You can optionally be signed in as a different Google identity, or not be signed in at all. (See profiles documentation for Chrome and Firefox.) 
2. Go to the Zotero Connector download page and install the extension for your browser. 
3. In order to make use of Adelphi Library resources, you may sign into OneSearch after you do a preliminary search.
4. Use this profile to do your research, and a different one to check Adelphi email or use other Google Apps administered by Adelphi. 

In this way you can make use of third-party Chrome extensions while conducting research in Adelphi Library systems.

Using Zotero Save Page

While logged into Zotero, you can use the Save Page to quickly add a citation via URL, DOI, or other identifier.

Importing Citation Data in Bulk

If you have references already saved in another system or in a common interchange format such as BibTex or RIS, you can import them into Zotero (or other systems) easily. See Adding Items to Zotero: Importing from Other Tools for more information.