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Citation Management

How do you keep all those citations straight? With a citation manager, of course.

Creating folders

You can organize your library by creating folders, which are called collections in Zotero. You might find it helpful to organize items by theme/topic or by a specific research project you are working on. You can create a new collection by clicking on the "New Collection" icon or right-clicking on "My Library" and clicking on "New Collection." 

Screenshot of New Collection icon in Zotero

You can also create subfolders by right-clicking on a collection and clicking on "New Subcollection." Right-clicking on a collection will also give you the option to rename or delete a collection. 

Adding notes and tags

You can add notes and tags to items in your Zotero library. There are tabs for notes and tags in the right-hand pane next to the "Info" tab. 

Screenshot showing Notes tab with "Add" button

Tags provide another way for you to organize your library. You can search by tags using the "All fields & tags" search box. Some databases will automatically provide tags (or keywords) when you add an item to your library. You can disable automatic tagging by going into your Zotero preferences.