SOCI 100 Social Analysis Paper Jarvi: Citing sources and using Zotero

Citation Managers are applications or websites that store and organize source information. This means that a researcher using a citation manager can quickly find the sources they put into the manager and can easily create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles and even create accurate internal citations while writing research papers. Citation Managers can help you: 

• Cite in all major citation styles, with some specialized or custom styles
• Directly import from databases and the web
• Build bibliographies with a single click 
• Create in-text citations by using the "cite while you write" integrations
• May allow PDF attaching and annotating 
• Allow you to share libraries or folders of citations with other researchers

There are many different types of citation managers. Some are free and some only work with certain sotware and systems. You can use any citation manager that best suits your specific needs, or you can opt to use your own system of organization.  

Zotero is an easy to use, free, open-source citation management system that is available for Firefox and Chrome.  

• Any UST Academic Support llibrarian can assist with installation and use.
• A Quick Start Guide is available.
• It works well with both websites and library databases.
• You can download a plugin that connects Zotero to word and allows accurate in text citations.
• Groups can share their citations.
• The cloud version syncs to the desktop version.
• Additional file storage is available for purchase (300 MG for free).

Saving Citations to Zotero 

Open your Zotero library by clicking on the "Z" in the upper right hand corner of your browser. Zotero can automatically tell if you are looking at a book, article, or website online. In the upper right hand corner of your browser, an icon will display next to the Zotero "Z" icon. Select the icon to save the resource to your Zotero Library. 

Also, if you're on a page with more then one resource, the icon will display as a manila folder. Then you can choose multiple items to add to your Zotero library. 

Zotero can also save newspapers, blogs, audio recordings, artwork and tons more. Usually Zotero displays the icon in the upper right hand corner of Firefox to reflect what the item is, but if Zotero isn't sure what the item you're saving actually is, Zotero will save it as a website and you can edit the details of the item after it is saved. 

Organizing Your Citations: 

Easily organize your citations by creating folders - click on the yellow manila envelope in the top left hand corner of the Zotero panel. Name the collection, and then add the citations to it by dragging and cropping the resource from your main Zotero library. Citations can exist in multiple collections folders at once without you having to save the citation more then once. 

It's also easy to attach files or PDFs to your citations. Simply drag and drop the item into the citation you want it to be attached to, or, to create a new citation, drop them in between library citations. 

Creating Quick Bibliographies: 

To create a bibliography, open Zotero by clicking the "Z" in the upper right hand corner of the browser, then right click on the folder that contains the citations you plan to make into a bibliography. Choose "Create Bibliography from Collection" 

Choose the citation style you want to use, the output mode will automatically be set to "Bibliography" and you can opt to either save the document as an RTF or copy to clipboard. Either method will allow you to copy and paste the bibliography into your paper. 

Zotero also allows you to create in-text citations by using a Word Processor Integration PlugIn. Click here to find out more.