Editing

The quality of the data Zotero imports is determined by the description supplied by the resource. Some websites like library catalogues, bibliograpic resources or resources with full text publications often provide descriptions with much and reliable metadata. Other websites provide only limited metadata or no metadata at all.

Make sure every description you are using has all the necessary metadata according to the Chicago Manual of Style 17th (author-date). Descriptions have to include at least creator, title, year of publication and publisher but often you need more information, e.g. for articles you need to include the title of the journal, volume, issue and pages.

When you have selected a description in the middle pane, you can edit its description via the Info tab in the right-hand pane. Most fields can be edited. Changes are saved automatically as they are made.

Zotero editing an item

Making

Making descriptions is important for primary documents, e.g. letters, archival material, scenes of movies et cetera. To make a description click on the green “New Item” button at the top of the middle pane. A menu appears. The top of this menu shows recently created description types. The complete list of types can be found under “More”. Select the desired description type. An empty description will appear in the middle pane. The Metadata about the source can then be added in the right-hand pane.

Zotero making a new item