Literature Review Tips & Tools

A freely-available, open-source citation manager that the UMass Amherst Libraries offers support for is Zotero. 

Learn more about Zotero - and who to contact for help - on the Citation Managers at UMass guide.

1. Download Zotero 7 for Windows (or Mac, or Linux) AND the Zotero connector (browser extension) for maximum functionality.  To use Group Libraries for co-authoring or create a cloud library to sync between more than one device, also register for a free zotero.org account.

2. Open Zotero. It must be open to add sources to it.

3. Open a browser and search for an article. 

- Databases, websites, Internet search - however you usually find articles.

3. Click the Zotero icon at the top of your browser to save a citation from that page. It will look different   depending on how many articles there are in your list.

- A pop-up window will appear on the upper right of the screen and will indicate where your citations are being saved in your Zotero library.  You can select a different collection to save to, or move your source later in your library.  

4. To manually add a citation, click the collection you plan to add it to. Click the new item button  and choose the type of item you would like to add. Type in each field necessary for your citation.

- Edit citations added with any method by clicking on a field in the item information.

5. Create collections  and organize them by research topic, class and assignment, sections of your thesis - whatever works for you. 

- Collections act like playlists to your My Library master list so add sources to as many collections as needed to organize your work.

6. Zotero can often find the full text of article of a citation that you have saved in your Zotero collection, but there is a setting that you can adjust to make it more reliable from off campus. To set the UMass Libraries as your favorite library, click on "Edit," "Settings," then in "General," find the Locate tab and set your Resolver to the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  The "Base URL" should be:

https://silk.library.umass.edu/login?url=https://resolver.ebscohost.com/openurl?

Back in your Zotero desktop, click on an article title, then right-click to get the hidden menu.  Choose "Find Full Text" to see if Zotero can now find the PDF of an article it couldn't before.
 

7. Writing your paper, use the Zotero tab in Word  

or Libra Office      

or Google Docs       to insert citations and a bibliography.

For more detailed instructions and descriptions of further features, visit Zotero support: https://www.zotero.org/support/start

Here are a few videos to get you started with Zotero. These are borrowed from other libraries, so just remember to contact Ellen if you have questions!

The first video shows how to download Zotero and the Zotero Connector for your browser.

This video shows how to create an online Zotero account, then how to link it to your desktop Zotero and synch them.

This video shows how to save references to your Zotero library. 

This video shows how to create citations and reference lists in Zotero, and how to cite things while you are writing.

And this video shows how to set up shared group libraries in Zotero.