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Loyola University Chicago Libraries

Zotero

Zotero is a free citation management software to manage research materials.

Inserting Citations and Creating a Bibliography

Using the Zotero Microsoft Word Plugin

You should now automatically have the Zotero Word Plugin, which adds a Zotero tab to Microsoft Word on your computer (outlined in red). 

Zotero Microsoft Word tab

 

Add/Edit Citation (Add/Edit Citation icon)

This icon is for adding and editing citations. When you initially click this icon, you will be asked to select a citation style (demonstrated below).

Choose a citation style Zotero pop-up

When you select the Add/Edit Citation icon, a window will pop up like the one displayed below.

Add/Edit Citation pop-up window

 

Add/Edit Bibliography (Add/Edit Bibliography icon)

This icon is for inserting a bibliography into your paper. To edit your bibliography, click the Add/Edit Bibliography button again, which will open the Zotero bibliography editor.

 

Document Preferences (Document Preferences icon)

This icon is used to open a Document Preferences window, which allows you to update the following preferences:

  1. The citation style.

  2. The language used to format citations and bibliographies.

  3. For note-based styles (e.g., “Chicago Manual of Style (Note)”), whether citations are inserted in footnotes or endnotes.

    • Note that Word, not Zotero, controls the style and format of footnotes and endnotes

 

Refresh (Refresh icon)

This icon is used to refresh all citations and the bibliography in your paper. The Refresh icon will update any item metadata that you have changed in your Zotero library. 

 

Unlink Citations (Unlink Citations icon)

This icon is used to unlink Zotero citations in your document by removing the field codes. This will prevent any further automatic updates of your citations and bibliographies. Exercise caution when unlinking citations in Zotero; this action is irreversible and should only be done in the final copy of your document. 

Using Zotero with Google Docs

When you use Zotero with Google Docs for the first time, you will need to authenticate the Zotero Connector with your Google account. You should be automatically prompted to authenticate upon using Zotero with Google Docs.

Much like the Zotero Word Plugin, the Zotero Connector adds a Zotero menu to the Google Docs interface (outlined in red). 

Zotero Google Docs tab

It also adds a toolbar button for one-click citing and the same functions listed above in the section of Word.

Add/edit Zotero citation toolbar icon in Google Docs

 

Once you have inserted citations into your document, you may customize them using the citation dialog box. Click on an existing citation in your document and select the Add/Edit Citation icon (Add/Edit Citation icon) to open the citation dialog box. Then, click on the citation again to open the cite options window to customize your citations (demonstrated below). 

If you want to add page numbers to your citation, you may so do by typing in the desired page number or page range into the dialog box below.  

If you want to write a sentence that only includes the year of the citation because you have used the author's name previously in the sentence, you may do so by checking the box next to "Suppress Author." 

If you need to add multiple authors to your citation, you may do so by adding them one after the other in the citation dialog box. After you select your first item, type in the name, title, or year of the additional item(s) you would like to cite. Press Enter/Return whenever you are ready to insert the citation into your document.