Libraries FAQs: Research and Instructional Services

Zotero is a citation manager. Citation mangers help you organize and cite your sources, whether or your own work or for a group project.

Zotero can help you:

• Save the sources you find,
• Edit their citation information,
• Organize them,
• Add notes to them, and
• Create citations for them.

Zotero can also help you share your own research!

There are three different versions of Zotero: desktop app, mobile app, and web library. These different interfaces all allow you to do the tasks above. There are a few differences in how they work, which you can see below.

• Desktop App
  • App that downloads to your desktop or laptop computer.
  • Has access all Zotero's citation management features, including word processor integration, making it the most complete version of Zotero.
  • Does not require creating an account.
  • Stores files locally on your computer unless you create an account. Then you can sync files across computers using cloud storage.
  • Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Not available on Chromebooks.
• Web Library
  • Accesses Zotero from your internet browser.
  • Has most of Zotero's features for saving, annotating, and sharing citations but cannot work with the word processor plugins, so you will need to generate a citation to copy and paste when citing.
  • Requires creating an account.
  • Can access files from anywhere using cloud storage.
  • Available on any web browser, including mobile browsers.
• Mobile App
  • Allows for using Zotero on iOS and Android mobile devices. The iOS version is optimized for both iPhone and iPad.
  • Has most of Zotero's features for saving, annotating, and sharing citations but cannot work with the word processor plugins, so you will need to generate a citation to copy and paste when citing.
  • Requires creating an account.
  • Can access files from anywhere using cloud storage.