Are you struggling with figuring out the details of how to cite and reference correctly? If done manually, citing and referencing is truly a challenging and time-consuming part of writing your research. I have found Zotero very useful in automatically creating in-text citations and reference lists/ bibliographies. It is a free and easy-to-use tool that generates citations and bibliographies/reference lists automatically saving you much valuable time.
Here are the basics of installing and using Zotero:
- Download and install the Zotero application for your operating system.
- Close your Word application before you run the installer so it can install the Word toolbar/plugin.
- Click the “Install Connector” link for your browser and follow the instructions. The connector appears as an extension on your browser
- Add documents to the Zotero Library by:
- Using the Zotero connector
- Adding PDFs from your computer. Use the option if you already have folders of the documents you are citing. To do this, click on the green icon with a plus
symbol on the Zotero application and selecting the option of “Store copy of file”. For more details on adding files to the library click here
- For details on creating in text citations and bibliography/reference list, go to Zotero word processor
See Basics of Zotero application for more information.