A Group Library is a collection of Zotero source items managed through your online Zotero account that you can share with others. You can also use a Group Library to create and share a live web-based bibliography.
Because Group Library sharing is managed from data stored in Zotero cloud (and not directly from data stored on your local computer), you need an online Zotero account. This is the same Zotero cloud account recommended for backing up your Zotero library in "Register and Sync a Zotero Account" of this Zotero guide.
Specific collaborators will be notified via email that you have invited them to access a shared Group Library. Because each collaborator must have a Zotero account for Group Library sharing, the Zotero email invitation includes links for either signing into an existing account or registering a new one.
You can learn much more about Zotero Shared Groups from the documentation provided at the Zotero website.
After entering collaborator email addresses, they will receive an invitation email containing a link to your Shared Library online. Once there, they will be prompted to either Login to their existing Zotero account or Register a new account for access to your Shared Library.
The simplest way to migrate the citation information from an EndNote library into a Zotero library is to export your existing EndNote library as a single XML file and then import that file into Zotero.
If your EndNote library has a lot of structure (i.e. folders), you will need to create, and subsequently import in Zotero, an XML file for each folder.
In addition to migrating the citation information from your EndNote library, you can also migrate files attached to those records (e.g. a PDF file of a journal article).
When choosing to migrate citation information AND file attachments to a Zotero library, it is helpful to know the two major ways Zotero handles file attachments.
Attaching A FILE To An Item: With this method, you are actually adding the attached file to your Zotero library. This has very practical implications, because your free online Zotero backup has a maximum size of 300 MB. Assuming an average PDF size of approximately 3 MB, this would allow you to attach ~100 files.
Attaching A LOCAL LINK To An Item: Instead of attaching a file to your Zotero library, you can attach a link to a file stored locally on your computer. Because, relative to the size of a PDF file, these links require very little space in your Zotero library, your capacity for attaching links is very large.
Best practice for this option is to store all of your Zotero-related PDF files in the same local folder. This allows you to easily backup the files in that folder using third party cloud storage (e.g. Google Drive, DropBox, etc.).
Refer to this Zotero Help page for a more detailed description.
Attaching PDF files directly to items in your Zotero library can significantly increase the size of your library. Instead of attaching the PDF file itself to an item in your Zotero library, it is also possible to attach a link to the file on your local hard drive.
These instructions assume that your EndNote library is named "MyEndNoteLibrary" and that the associated My EndNote Library.enl file and the My EndNote Library.Data folder are located in "Documents" directory.
They also result in creation of a new directory in your "Documents" folder called "Zotero PDFs".
Make a copy of your "My EndNote Library.Data" folder in your Documents directory and rename the duplicate folder "Zotero PDFs".
From the Zotero Application:
Select File → Import.
Select "A file (BibTex, RIS, Zotero, RDF, etc.)" from the "Where do you want to import from?" dialog box.
Then, select the "Next" button.
Navigate to your "Zotero PDFs” directory and select the appropriate XML file.
Note that your new Zotero collection will have the same name as the XML file.
From the import "Options" pop-up, select "Place imported collections and items into new collection" and "Link to files in original location".
Then select the "Next" button.
Spot check the newly imported Zotero sources and their attached PDF file links.
Because the locally stored PDF files are not stored as part of your Zotero library, it is important that you use an alternative form of cloud storage to back them up. Consult your cloud storage provider (e.g. Google Drive, DropBox, OneDrive, etc.) for directions for backing up contents of a local folder.
Refer to this Zotero Help page for a more detailed description of Alternative Syncing Methods:
For Zotero libraries with smaller numbers of attached files, it is convenient to attach files directly to items in your Zotero library. Because these attached files are part of your Zotero library, they are synched with your library sources in your Zotero cloud storage.
Zotero provides 300 MB free total library storage. Given an average PDF file size of ~ 3 MB, you should expect the number of attached files to be approximately 75 - 100. If you anticipate creating a Zotero library with a larger number of sources with attachments, please see "Migrating an EndNote Library With Local Links to File Attachments" for another option for Zotero source file attachments.
Refer to this Zotero Help page for a more detailed description of Importing an EndNote library into Zotero.
It is generally possible to export a reference library from many citation managers as an intermediate file type (e.g. XML, RIS, BibTeX, or CSL JSON) file which can then be imported into Zotero. Although this can be a time saver for large libraries, it is likely that this transfer will introduce changes that you will need to correct.
Given the large number of citation managers, we recommend that you consult the documentation for your present citation manager for instructions for migrating to Zotero.
The general process involves five major steps.
Refer to this Zotero Help page for a more detailed description:
For more detailed descriptions of how to migrate reference libraries from Mendeley, Citavi, Microsoft Word Bibliography XML, BibTex, LaTex, and JabRef, refer to this Zotero Help page.
The Zotero desktop application comes with a many of the most widely-used citation styles preinstalled, which can be viewed and selected from the Zotero Style Manager. Over 8,100 additional styles can be added from the Zotero Style Repository.
To access the Style Manager, open preferences (on a PC preferences are located under the Edit menu, on a Mac preferences are located under the Zotero menu). Then go to the Cite tab to view the Style Manager.
To add another style, go to the Zotero Style Repository webpage and search for the style you would like to add. When you click on the style name, the Zotero connector will open a prompt asking if you'd like to "Add citation style to Zotero?" Click OK, and the style will be added to the Style Manager in your Zotero preferences.
More information about adding and editing citation styles can be found at zotero.org/support/styles
In general, citation text generated by Zotero is formatted appropriately (i.e. italics, bold, capitalization style, etc). Capitalization rules for a citation source title are applied when you choose a specific citation style (e.g. case capitalization for Chicago Author-Date, or sentence capitalization for American Psychological Association).
However, in some cases, it is important to force Zotero to format your citation text with different rules. For example, Latin binomial names (i.e. Genus species) should be italicized, the first letter of the genus name should be capitalized, and the species name should be lower case.
Italics
To force italics, you can surround the desired text with the <i> and </i> HTML tags.
Avoid Forced Sentence Capitalization or Title Capitalization Rules
To maintain capitalization of your Zotero source, surround the desired text with the <span class=“no case”> and </span> tags.
Example Without HTML Tags
Using the Chicago Author-Date citation style, without the <i> ... </i> and <span class=“no case”> ...</span> tags, your citation would look like this:
Example With HTML Tags
Using the Chicago Author-Date citation style, with the <i> ... </i> and <span class=“no case”> ...</span> tags, your citation would look like this:
