Citation Management

Zotero (pronounced "zoh-TAIR-oh") is a free, open-source citation management tool designed to help collect, organize, cite, and share research sources. It was developed by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and has become one of the most popular citation management tools available.

We recommend Zotero for most use cases due to its ease of use, flexibility, and its free open-source nature. However, the choice of a citation management system is a personal one, and others, such as Mendeley, EndNote Online, or BibTeX, may be better suited for your work. See our comparison page for more details.

*Important: 

Although Zotero has a high degree of accuracy, no citation generator is 100% accurate. It is your responsibility to make sure your citations and references are correct! See the "Editing Fields" page for instructions on editing your entries.

Pros:

• Free and open-source. Completely free to use with no paywalled features, and its open-source nature means transparent development and community contributions.
• Easy to Use. Browser connector efficiently captures citations from websites, databases, and library catalogs with a single click.
• Flexible organization. Powerful tagging system, collections, and saved searches make organizing references highly customizable.
• Word processor integration. Seamless plugins for Microsoft Word (desktop version), LibreOffice, and Google Docs.
• Group collaboration. Robust sharing capabilities through Zotero Groups with no limits on the number of groups in the free version.
• Large citation style library. There are more than 10,000 citation styles available to install if the the pre-installed styles don't meet your requirements.
• Community support. Active user forums and extensive documentation.
• Privacy-focused. Not owned by a commercial publisher, with clear privacy policies.
• Regular updates. Consistently maintained and improved with frequent updatesIt's very easy to use.
• No administrator privileges required for browser plugin. On most systems, the Zotero Connector does not require local admin privileges to install. You can install it on other computers, but it will be deleted when you log off.

Cons:

• Storage limitations. Free accounts limited to 300MB of cloud storage (though local storage is unlimited).
• Less robust PDF annotation. PDF annotation features not as advanced as some competitors.
• Mobile support limitations. No official mobile app (though third-party options exist).
• Occasional metadata issues. Like all citation managers, sometimes struggles with accurately extracting information from certain sources.
• Less social networking. Lacks academic networking features found in tools like Mendeley.
• Resource usage. Can use significant memory when running in the background with browser connectors active.
• No automatic backups. Syncing is not the same as backing up your data. Zotero recommends that if you are working on a large document, you back up your library file manually.
• Admin privileges required. The Zotero app itself requires local admin privileges on your computer to install. If you're using a computer lab or searching databases at another library, you will need to save directly to your online account or email yourself a citation file that you can import into Zotero later.
• Word online not supported. The online version of Microsoft Word is not supported, although citations inserted using the desktop version will display properly in the online version.
• Added code. Code is added to your document behind the scenes. This code may interfere with some publishers' systems. You may need to use Zotero's built-in "unlink citations" feature prior to submitting papers for publication. This step is irreversible, so make a copy of your document first.