*Have Zotero open when carrying out your research, whether using a database, website, catalogue etc.
Using the Search & Find tool on the Library website, we have a number of peer reviewed articles on a particular topic (Using the Advanced Search to refine the topic, and selecting full text articles)
You can get the PDF of the article in two different ways:
You can also go directly into the database itself and click on the PDF, without using the Search & Find tool. Different databases locate the PDF in different places, see examples below.
Once you have the article open, click on the page icon beside the Zotero plug-in icon in the Chrome toolbar. The page icon indicates it is an article.
Select the folder you want to save it to in Zotero. You can use either of the dropdown arrows to select your folder. It will also automatically save in the main library of Zotero.
The next article you save, Zotero will remember the last folder you saved in, and it will be the first option the next time.
Simply repeat this process as you source more articles that are relevant to your topic/research/assignment.
In general, saving the ‘PDF Full Text’ will save it as a Journal Article (Item Type) in Zotero. Most of the metadata will be then be available for referencing and creating the bibliography.
However, since databases and resources are designed differently, sometimes the 'PDF full text' doesn't save the metadata, and you need to save the article page instead (the Search and Find page that gives the article abstract and publication details).
The process is very straightforward to add articles to your Zotero account:
• Click on the title of the article.
• Depending on the database, go to the 'PDF Full Text' of the article, or just to the descriptive article page.
• Click on the Page icon (beside the Zotero icon) in the Chrome browser
• Select the Zotero folder you want to save the article into
The same process applies when saving articles and documents from the web. If you find that articles have saved with metadata missing, or no metadata at all, or metadata that cannot be edited, go the the Tips section of this Libguide on how to deal with those issues.
No metadata/metadata cannot be edited
Missing Metadata