Zotero is a plug-in for the Firefox web browser.
It is a reference management tool, for collecting and organising references to research papers and other publications.
Note: ISD include discussion of Zotero in their Bibliography lunchtime training session.
Pre-requisites
- Firefox web browser on each computer on which you want to use Zotero
- Zotero extension installed within each instance of Firefox
- If you plan to use more than one computer, a method of synchronising (e.g. Zotero account - see Zotero FAQ)
UCL tools
Proxies
If you are using Zotero from outside the UCL network, you can gain access to the resources to which UCL subscribes through the UCL proxy server (EZProxy). If you access a website through the proxy server (e.g. from UCL Library Services website lists of ejournals or databases) whilst Zotero is active, you will see the pop-up box below. Click on 'Add Proxy' to set the UCL proxy server as your default for future visits to pages on this website.
If you want to set up the proxy server access manually, go to Zotero's Preferences, then click on Proxies, and enter the following, where the website you want to access is listed in the hostnames (the following are examples):
Note that the format of the 'Scheme' may differ from the one automatically saved by Zotero, but the format given above is the official URL which will ensure robust access to the proxy server.
For more information, see Zotero proxies FAQ
Note: if you no longer want to access these sites through the UCL proxy server (e.g. when you leave UCL), you should clear the settings from this screen.
Locate by OpenURL
The 'Locate' button in Zotero can be used to try to find a publication through UCL Library Services, either online or in print. By default, this uses the OCLC OpenURL Gateway, which should detect if you are on the UCL network, and present you with links via UCL's SFX service. If this does not work, or you are off-campus, replace this with the SFX server as follows:
For more information, see Zotero Locate FAQ
Adding references to Zotero
Zotero has 'site translators' which try to recognise when you're looking at a webpage which contains a reference you might want to import - see the Zotero FAQ. For example, there is a translator which works with UCL's Library catalogue, so you will see icons in the Firefox address bar for adding references to Zotero.
In addition, if you have found a reference in any webpage which has a 'UCL SFX' button, you can click on the SFX button and you'll see an icon in the address bar for saving the reference to Zotero. This uses a feature called COInS (Context Objects in Spans) which is encoded into the SFX menu.
