Skip to Main Content
Boxer Library

Library Guide for Dr. He's Team

Importing Citations

Zotero makes it easy to import citations. There are three main ways to add citations to your Zotero:

  1. Zotero Browser Connector to save sources with the click of a button
  2. Download citation files from any database and import the citations into Zotero
  3. Manually add citations into Zotero

Download Browser Connector

The Zotero browser connector allows you to easily save any type of citation with the click on a button. In addition, you can select which folder you would like the citation to be imported into right from the browser. This is available for Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox. 

Screenshot of browser plug in with red arrows

Saving Citation Files

Zotero supports many common citation files including RIS, XML, BibTex, and more.

The process of saving a citation file is slightly different for each database, but the basic idea is the same. The following are the instructions for saving a citation file for PubMed and LibrarySearch, which is on the EBSCOhost platform (other databases like CINAHL will be the same). You can save individual citations or multiple citations into a file. 

PubMed:

  1. Select any citations you would like to save and select EITHER Save or Send To

PubMed has Save or Send To options at the top of the search results

For either option, you will be able to choose your Selection (All results on page, All results, or a Selection). The Send To option will only allow you to export citations in an nbib file. The Save option will allow you to select the citation file type.

Manually Add Citations

You can also manually add citations. This option takes longer as you have to type in all of the information about a source. This can be used when there isn't an online version of your source, like an oral presentation or if you are citing lecture notes, for example. 

You can manually add a source by clicking on the green circle with a plus sign in Zotero and selecting the type of source you would like to add.

Selected green circle with a white plus sign and a drop down menu of source types.