Zotero: Making Research Easier

A sometimes frustrating part of the research process is tracking all the literature you find when searching and then compiling it into the necessary bibliography. Fortunately for UND students and employees, we have access to unlimited storage through Zotero with our @UND.edu e-mail address.

What is Zotero?

Zotero is free open-source citation management software created by an independent, nonprofit organization. Citation managers are software programs which let you save, sort, and generate citations. Citation managers also let you create formatted bibliographies and in-text citations.

Zotero is best used as a desktop application along with the Zotero Connector extension. Create your account using your UND e-mail and add the extension to your favorite browser to begin organizing your citations.

Zotero also allows you to create shared folders so that you can work together with your colleagues, and the desktop version includes a Microsoft Word plugin which will automate the creation of your citations and bibliography. Zotero is compatible with Google Docs, Open Office, and other free word processing programs as well as screen reading software.

We have created a useful guide to using Zotero, including videos and hand-outs, which can be found here. Please note that after adding the browser extension you’ll likely see a yellow “proxy” notice at the top of your browser indicating that an extension is being used.

For additional help completing literature searches or using Zotero or any library resources, contact us for assistance!