Options for importing records
Importing from an online source
When searching article databases, library catalogs, web search engines, and other resources, different icons will appear in the menu bar of your browser
| The article, book, or page icons in the address bar indicate you are viewing a single item, and clicking on that icon will import the information into your library. | If a folder appears in the address bar when you view a list of results, click on the folder to reveal a list of the items that appear on that page, then check the ones of interest and click on OK. This imports those multiple results into your library. | |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
All the necessary bibliographic elements must be included in the records or the bibliography you output later will be wrong. Double-click on a field to make it editable and make your corrections. |
Adding manually
Importing citations into your Zotero collections does not always work without a hitch. If for some reason an icon doesn't appear in the address bar or if the information isn't importing properly, you may want to use another option.
 |
Use this option to manually add an item. Select the item type from the drop-down menu and enter the item's bibliographic information in the item details pane. |
 |
If you already know the ISBN, Digital Object Identifier (DOI), or PubMed ID of the item, enter it using this option. |
Importing from other tools
To import libraries from other reference management tools into Zotero, start by exporting the bibliographic data from your other software program. In Zotero, you will find the Import option under File in the menu bar. Browse to your file, select it, and click the “Open” button.
Zotero can import the following bibliographic file formats:
-
Zotero RDF
-
MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema)
-
BibTeX
-
RIS
-
Refer/BibIX
-
Unqualified Dublin Core RDF
If you want to transfer entire Zotero libraries between different Zotero installations, you should use Zotero's sync functions, rather than the import/export function.
Importing web pages
Not all the websites you visit will provide Zotero with what is needed for the application to recognize the bibliographic information on the page. If the page cannot be "recognized," you'll see a gray page icon:
If “Automatically take snapshots when creating items from web pages” is enabled in Edit > Preferences > General, a copy (or snapshot) of the webpage can be saved to your computer and added as a child item. To view the saved copy, double-click the snapshot.
Right-clicking the Connector save button offers the option of saving a snapshot of the web page or saving the web page without a snapshot. Saving it with the snapshot will allow you to see the page as it was on the day you captured it.
Adding PDFs
Add PDFs to your library by dragging them into the Zotero pane. If you are doing this for the first time, Zotero will prompt you to install “pdf tools” — two small programs that allow Zotero to extract text from PDF files. It will automatically take you to the Search tab of the Zotero preferences, where you can install the tools with one click.
In Edit > Preferences > General check the boxes for "Automatically retrieve metadata for PDFs" and "Automatically rename attachment files using parent metadata." When the PDF is dragged into the Zotero pane, the program will attempt to retrieve the information through a variety of searches. It will create an entry for the file and then attach the PDF to that entry. If this is unsuccessful, save the citation from another catalog or database, then drag the PDF onto the citation to make it an attachment.
Adding references from an already-created bibliography
This blog post describes some options for extracting references from bibliographies you have already created and adding them to your Zotero library.