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PT 625: Introduction to Critical Inquiry

Use this course guide to get started with your research for PT625!

The Wonderful World of Zotero

Zotero is a citation management tool that will save you time, and make your life SO much easier. This tutorial will get you up and running with the basic skills of importing, managing, and exporting citations. Zotero has many additional features, such as tools for making notes about citations, plug-ins for Microsoft Word to allow you to directly insert your citations, and options for sharing folders with groups.

Note that  Zotero is downloaded as an app, so if you do most of your research from one computer, it may work best. If you do a lot of switching around between different computers, we can talk about options to keep your library synced across those computers, or you could try a browser-based citation management tool such as Refworks.   

Zotero is a tool primarily designed for storing the metadata (that is, information about something...the information you need to create a citation) for resources, and not necessarily the article (or chapter or book or whatnot) itself. You CAN use either Zotero as a means of storing your article PDFs, and it will try to  automatically import PDFs as it finds  them. You can also manually add your PDFs to your Zotero library later. It does have a file storage limit of 300 megabytes, so will not be able to hold hundreds and hundreds of PDFs (though you can purchase additional storage if you wish). 

This page runs through some steps to getting set up and getting practice with basic skills with Zotero (below). Give it a try!  

If you have ANY questions or need help, please don't hesitate to email Pavel!

 
 

 

 

Install Zotero

Zotero 5.0 is a stand alone application (sort of like iTunes) that lives on your computer and talks to your browser. Go to https://www.zotero.org/download/ to install. Note that it is a TWO PART download...you have to download the app, and then the appropriate browser connector to make the app talk to your browser. [see screenshot to the left]

 

Then go to Zotero.org and register for a free account, and make sure that your account is logged in through your preferences tab so that your library will automatically sync. See below for screenshot of where to enter your username to sync your account. 

 

 

 

 

 

Zotero: MS Word Plugin & Register For an Account

1. Confirm the Microsoft Word Plug-In has Installed: Once you have Zotero loaded, open up Microsoft Word and verify that the Zotero add-in is available. You will likely need to restart Word if you already had it open while you were downloading the plug-ins. Note that the add-in my look different or be in a different menu depending on which version of MS Word you are running and whether you are on a Mac or PC. Poke around if you can't find it! Look under 'tools' or for Mac users, check the little 'scroll' icon. 

If it did NOT properly install, go to your Zotero Library, go to Edit>Preferences (for PCs) or Zotero>Preferences (for Macs) and click on the 'Cite' button at the top, and then the small 'word processors' tab, and click "install" (or "reinstall") to try again. 

 

2. Go to Zotero.org and register for a free account.

 

3. Enter your new account credentials into Zotero: go to the 'edit' menu in your Zotero app (NOTE- may appear in the 'Zotero' menu for Mac users), go into the Preferences menu, select the 'Sync' menu, and ensure that your username and password are filled in so that your library will automatically sync.  

         

Import Articles

Click the link below to access the April 2015 volume of CJOT.  Browse the titles and select one article which appeals to you. Click on 'full text' to read the abstract and introduction. 


a.    Import the article into your Zotero library by clicking the ‘import into Zotero’ icon. Things to keep in mind: the icon will change depending on the page you're coming from! It may look like a little folder if it recognizes multiple articles. It also may be in a different spot depending on your browser! Often in Safari and Chrome, it appears to the left of the URL bar. Also note that you have to be on a page that has metadata for Zotero to find...if you are on a PDF view of the page, you may not see the icon (though you may be able to "Save As -> save to Zotero" from the PDF view). Also note that not every publisher or database plays nicely with Zotero in all browsers (I shake my tiny fist at you, AJOT!)

b. Notice whether the PDF was also imported. If so, rename the PDF by right-clicking to ‘rename from parent metadata.’ If the PDF did NOT automatically attach, manually download the PDF and attach it to the correct item in your Zotero library.

 

c.Try this for several more articles that look interesting to you...practice importing them as well.  

d. Try searching for articles in PubMed; practice importing them both individually from an article page, and as a batch from a search results page (look for the little folder icon).

Organize & Export Your Sources

1.    Organize your sources: Once you have imported at least four articles into your Zotero library, create a folder called “Zotero Skills Practice” and add your article to that folder. Articles can be added by dragging and dropping them into your folders. Folders are created via the tiny folder icon with a green plus sign in the upper lefthand corner. Note that an item can be in multiple folders (also called "collections" by Zotero), and that it will always be in your main library and whatever folders you have put it into. If you delete it out of the folder, it will still be in 'My Library,' but if you delete it out of 'My Library,' it will disappear from all of its folders. 

2.      Export your articles: You’ve got a library full of articles; how do you get your works cited page?

a.  Create a bibliography from your 'Zotero Skills Practice' collection by right clicking and selecting 'Create Bibliography from Collection' ; select the appropriate citation style, output it as a bibliography, and save it as RTF.

You'll be given the chance to select the style that you'd like to use, and how you'd like to export it.  Choose RTF, usually. 

Note that if you do not see the appropriate style listed as an option, you can go to your Zotero 'preferences' (the icon that looks like a gear), then click the 'Cite' tile, then the 'Styles' tab to see the styles that you currently have loaded. You can click the 'Get Additional Styles' link to go to the Zotero.org Style Repository and import additional styles.