Skip to Main Content

Zotero Tutorial

Editing Citation Information

To edit a citation

  1. Click on the citation in Zotero
  2. The bibliographic information will show up on the right Info pane
  3. Click on any field to add, edit, or delete information

Special Tool for Titles

Sometimes Zotero will import a citation with the Title or Publication (journal title) fields in ALL CAPS. The ALL CAPS will be transfered to your bibliography, so you'll want to change it.

  1. Right click on the Title or Publication Field
  2. Choose Title Case or Sentence Case (this choice doesn't matter, Zotero will reformat between these depending on the citation style chosen)
  3. Zotero will reformat the title in Title Case (most words capitalized) or Sentence Case (only first words and proper nouns capitalized)

Editing Authors/Contributors

  • Authors should be added one per line with Last Name, First Name format
  • To add another author, click the Plus button icon of a plus icon in a circle next to the last author
  • You can change the contributor designation by clicking on the dropdown arrow next to Author (a black down arrow before the word Author)
    • Choices include Author, Contributor, Editor, and Translator
  • You can rearrange the order of the authors by clicking the Author dropdown (a black down arrow before the word Author) and selecting Move Up, Move Down, or Move to Top

Citations for Book Chapters

Often you want to cite a book chapter instead of the entire book, especially if it is a chapter from an edited book. You can easily change a book record in Zotero to a chapter.

  1. Add the book to your Zotero Library (see Collecting Sources)
  2. If you want a citation for the book and one of its chapters, or multiple chapters, right-click on the book citation in Zotero and select Duplicate Item. Use the duplicate for the chapter.
  3. Select the book title so you see the bibliographic information in the Info pane (the right column of Zotero)
  4. In the Info pane, select Book in the Item Type row, and change it to Book Section
  5. The info form will change, adding a Title field (for chapter), and Book Title.
  6. Add the title of the chapter to the Title Field
  7. Change the Author field to Editor for the book editor
  8. Add an Author field for each chapter author