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2. Find & Manage Research Literature: Zotero

A guide to finding and managing your literature

What is Zotero ?

• A citation management tool that allows you to save, annotate, and format citations in order to create a
bibliography.

• Available for PC, Mac and Linux.

• View 3 minute intro video at. zotero.org

You can download and install Zotero from https://www.zotero.org

Reasons to use Zotero

It's easy to save your citations to Zotero. One click on your browser's address bar is all it takes. After saving citations you can quickly edit and organize using drag and drop.

You do a lot of your research on the web. You can archive webpages with Zotero, which you can't do with EndNote. Zotero allows you to mark up your files (such as webpages) that you save (highlight, create notes, etc.).

The Zotero toolbar is easy to use and works in both Microsoft Word and OpenOffice Writer, letting you insert citations into your paper quickly. It also handles footnote styles better than EndNote 

 

Adding Web Pages to Zotero ..

Zotero is much better at saving web content than other bibliographic tools. 

  • Search for your topic
  • Click the "Save to Zotero (Web page)" icon in the browser toolbar
  • Zotero will bring over some information about the page, and creates a snapshot that is stored on your local hard drive; a snapshot is a saved version of the page, not just a link to it.
  • Once you've saved a page, Zotero will actually search the full text of that page for your keywords
     

Zotero and EndNote

If you already have an EndNote Library but have decided you would like to switch to Zotero, you can easily transfer references from EndNote into Zotero.  AUT Library have an excellent guide to this process: Zotero and Endnote - Zotero - Library Guides at AUT University (libguides.com). 

Improving your Library Search in Zotero

You can use a special library link as a 'resolver' to refind things online that you have added to your Zotero library.

In Zotero standalone (not the browser plugin) go to the menu Edit -> Settings - General.   

In the Locate section select Australia/New Zealand -> University of Canterbury and it will add the correct resolver URL for you.

Or you can add it manually:

In the General tab of File/Settings, scroll down to Locate, select Custom and enter: 

https://resolver.ebsco.com/c/rwmdhd/result

Zotero 7 resolver location

Adding citations from different sources to Zotero

  • Go to  library databases or catalogues or Amazon or Google Books or other freely available online publications such as NY Times ​
  • Search for your topic and once you have found what you want...
  • Click on the "Save to Zotero" icon (looks like a file folder in the browser URL bar)
  • You will see a list of titles of the articles on the first page of your results.
  • Click on one citation; save it to Zotero
  • Go to citation, click on Locate, and note how it goes to the full text.

Zotero for APA 7th (with fixes and for NZ legal sources)

The Zotero citation style University of Canterbury - APA 7th edition (New Zealand legal citation) A An The sort can correctly reference New Zealand legal sources. It makes are few other corrections to the default Zotero APA 7th citation style (dated January 2025).

Open Zotero and follow these three actions to set up this citation style. You only need to do each of these steps once.

  1. Get the citation style.
  2. Change a setting inappropriate to APA 7th.
    While still in the Settings > Cite dialogue box, tick the box to Include URLs of paper articles in references.
     
  3. Fix the sorting of some entries in the APA reference list.
    This UC APA 7th style is configured with unofficial CSL to use a plugin to fix the sort order in the reference list for titles that begin with A, An or The.

After each example reference below is shown how to enter the details in the Zotero item record.

Cases

Kain v. Hutton [2008] NZSC 61, [2008] 3 NZLR 589.

Item Type Case
Case Name Kain v. Hutton
Date Decided 2008
Reporter [2008] NZSC 61, [2008] 3 NZLR 589

Acts and statutes

Resource Management Act 1991. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1991/0069/latest/DLM230265.html

Item Type Statute
Name of Act Resource Management Act 1991
Date Enacted 1991
URL https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1991/0069/latest/DLM230265.html

Bills

Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill 2018 (106–2). https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2018/0106/14.0/LMS90599.html

Item Type Bill
Title Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill 2018
Bill Number 106-2
Date 2018
URL https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2018/0106/14.0/LMS90599.html

Secondary legislation

Education (Registration of Early Childhood Services Teachers) Regulations 2004. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2004/0236/latest/DLM276730.html

Item Type Statute
Name of Act Education (Registration of Early Childhood Services Teachers) Regulations 2004
Date Enacted 2004
URL https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2004/0236/latest/DLM276730.html

NZ Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)

Genter, J. A. (2017, August 16). Maritime Amendment Bill—Second reading. 724 NZPD 20323. https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/HansD_20170816_20170816/41c2a9d85130b60857cbb71e30a63405628ec4e3

Item Type Web Page
Title <i>Maritime Amendment Bill—Second reading</i>
Author Genter, Julie Anne
Date 16 August 2017
URL https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/HansD_20170816_20170816/41c2a9d85130b60857cbb71e30a63405628ec4e3

Note the <i> </i> tags around the title to undo the italicising.

The Laws of New Zealand

Butler, A. S., & Butler, P. (2025). Human rights. In The Laws of New Zealand. LexisNexis NZ. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://advance.lexis.com

Item Type Book Section
Title Human rights
Author Butler, Andrew S.
Author Butler, Petra
Book Title The Laws of New Zealand
Publisher LexisNexis NZ
Date 2025
URL Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://advance.lexis.com

Multilateral treaties

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, November 20, 1989, https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx

Item Type Statute
Name of Act United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
Date Enacted 20 November 1989
URL https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx
Extra type:treaty

Te Tiriti o Waitangi | Treaty of Waitangi

Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840. https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/en/about/the-treaty/maori-and-english-versions

Item Type Statute
Name of Act Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840
URL https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/en/about/the-treaty/maori-and-english-versions

Waitangi Tribunal reports

Waitangi Tribunal. (2010). The East Coast settlement report (Wai 2190). Legislation Direct. https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_68581081/Wai2190.pdf

Item Type Book
Title The East Coast settlement report
Author Waitangi Tribunal
Edition Wai 2190
Publisher Legislation Direct
URL https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_68581081/Wai2190.pdf

To include a part of the legal source in an in-text citation in Word, in the Add/Edit Citation dialogue, use the Suffix box at the bottom left of the dialogue to specify the part. Do not use the drop-down of types of parts at the bottom centre as legal sources use their own specific formats.

For example:
Suffix:  at 590
for the case citation (Kain v. Hutton, 2008 at 590)

Suffix: , s. 14[3][a]
for the statute citation (Resource Management Act 1991, s. 14[3][a])

Suffix: , art. 3
for the treaty citation (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, art. 3).

Zotero for Law (New Zealand Law Style Guide – NZLSG)

Download the Zotero NZLSG PDF guide first.

  • The Zotero citation style for NZLSG requires specific and sometimes quirky data entry – something that isn’t unusual for legal styles. Sometimes the ‘obvious’ item type or the ‘obvious’ field isn’t the right one to use.
  • The Zotero NZLSG PDF guide also explains how to add the “NZLSG examples” and “NZLSG headings” collections to your Zotero library.

Who to Contact

Anton Angelo

Internal Phone: 93853

Creating a bibliography / writing with Zotero

 Drag and Drop Quick Copy
If you want to quickly add references to a paper, email, or blog post, then use Zotero's Drag and Drop Quick Copy

Simply select references in the center column and drag them into any text field.

Zotero will automatically create a numbered and alphabetized bibliography for you.

To configure your quick copy preferences, click the Actions menu (the gear icon) and select Preferences.
Within the Preferences pop-up window, select Export. From this tab you can
• set your default export format
• set up site specific export settings
• choose whether you want Zotero to include HTML tags in your quick copy

 Right Click to Create Bibliography
To create a bibliography in Zotero, highlight one or more references and then right-click (or control click
on Macs) to select "Create Bibliography from Selected Item(s)."

Then select a citation style for your bibliography format
 

Choose one of the following four ways to create your bibliography:

• Save as RTF will allow you to save the bibliography as a rich text file.

• Save as HTML will allow you to save the bibliography as a HTML file for viewing in a web browser. This format will also embed metadata allowing other Zotero users viewing the document to capture bibliographic information.

• Save to Clipboard will allow you to save the bibliography to your clipboard to paste into any text field.

• Print will send your bibliography straight to a printer.