1 Overview
Zotero 7 released August 2024!
Read about what changed here.
If you’re already running Zotero, you can upgrade from within Zotero by going to Help → “Check for Updates…”
1.1 What is Zotero?
Zotero is a free and open-source citation manager designed to collect, store, share, organize and cite references.
Zotero works with various operating systems or or and allows you to download references into a personalized library and then create properly formatted in-text citations and bibliographies.
There is even an ios app! 
1.2 Why use Zotero?
Any time we use information from an article, report, or other source, it is important to:
- give credit to others work
- add credibility to your work
- provide context for your work
- direct audience to other work
Yet keeping track of our references and formatting citations by hand is one of the most tedious parts of the research and writing process. This is especially true for interdisciplinary fields that use multiple formats and style guides for citations like Psychology & Law.
Citation managers and software-based solutions like Zotero help to streamline this process. Zotero is not the first program of its kind; nor will it likely be the last. But as of the writing of this guide it is the most attractive (and free) citation manager for academics and students to use.
1.3 What does Zotero do?
Most other citation managers require you to purchase licenses to use their features effectively. But Zotero is built and maintained by a community of people who believe in the value of open-source software. There are multiple benefits to this approach including:
- All the source code is available on Github
- You do not need institutional credentials to access your account or export your library
- Harnesses the power of the open-internet and an active world-wide user community that has created a range of plugins and add-ons to extend its functionality
- Provides license-free integration with word processes like LibreOffice, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and RStudio
Zotero also enables you to store all your PDFs, notes, and citation meta-data (i.e., information you include in the formatted APA or Bluebook citation) in the same centralized location (or synced across all your devices using a free online account).
This guide walks you through how to set up Zotero and take advantage of its many features.