Zotero: Home

What is referencing?

Referencing is a standard way of acknowledging the sources you have used in writing your assignment. Reasons to reference your work include:

• To validate what you are writing, by referring to documented evidence.
• To enable the reader to identify and locate your sources quickly and efficiently.
• To avoid passing off someone else’s ideas as your own. This is known as plagiarism.

Referencing - a 2-step process:

• In-text citations indicate in your work where you have used ideas/material from other sources.
• Everything you have cited in the text of your work should be listed in alphabetical order at the end of your paper. This is called a reference list. If you also include items that are not specifically cited but were sources consulted, then that is called a bibliography.

Reference/citation managers: why use them?

• Can create instant bibliographies in standard formats.
• Can insert in-text citations.
• Can create personal citation database of articles on your topic.
• Can share your database of citations/articles with others.

To download both the Zotero programme and the Google Chrome connector, go here. I strongly recommend using Google Chrome as your browser for referencing via Zotero. You also need to register for an account with Zotero which, if you have not done already, can be done here. Once you open the software for the first time, you need to sign in to the Zotero programme. Go to Edit, then Preferences and, in the Sync tab, enter your username and password and then click on the “Set Up Syncing” button.

If you want to download a PDF version of this guide you can do so below.