Research Guides: Zotero: Switch to or from Zotero

Workshops, Training, and Help

Questions about using Zotero? Schedule an in-person appointment or an online appointment with a member of our Zotero Help Team, or email us at researchhelp@brandeis.edu.

Brandeis Library offers free workshops for members of the Brandeis community. Sign up for a Zotero workshop, or request a workshop for your group.

Intro to Zotero Workshop Handout This is the live version of the handout we provide at our Intro to Zotero workshops. This link opens a Google doc.
Advanced Zotero Workshop Handout This is the handout we provide in our Advanced Zotero training sessions. This link opens in Google Docs.
Common Zotero Citation Errors - and how to fix them! This is the handout describing how to fix common Zotero citation errors. This link opens in Google Docs.

Zotero: Importing from Other Reference Managers

Zotero: Importing from Other Reference Managers
Zotero is a popular choice, and we often get questions about how to import libraries from other reference managers. This link goes directly to Zotero's own documentation which includes step-by-step instructions for importing from other reference managers.

Move from EndNote to Zotero

Export an EndNote library to Zotero

(For more instructions, see Zotero's documentation on "How do I import from EndNote?")

In EndNote, select "Output Styles/Open Style Manager..." from the Edit menu
From the list of output styles select BibTeX Export.
Once BibTeX is set as the format, select “Export” from the File menu. In the Export window that pops up, choose “Text Only” or "Text file," select "BibTex" as the format, choose a place like your documents folder or your desktop to save the file, and hit “Save.”
After exporting from EndNote, in Zotero go to File > Import. In the file system window that pops up, locate the BibTeX file you exported from EndNote and select “Open.” This should import your references into Zotero in a new collection.

Move from Zotero to EndNote

Export Zotero library to EndNote

Highlight (select) the Zotero records that you wish to export.
Right-click on the selection and, from the menu bar, select "Exported Item(s)..."
For Export format, choose Refer/BibIX.
A file will be created called "Exported Items.txt". Rename it if you like, but keep the txt extension.
Start up EndNote and open up the library into which you want to import the citations.
Select File/Import from the toolbar.
Browse to wherever you saved the test file, and choose it.
For Import Options, select EndNote Import. Click Import.
Your records should now appear in the Imported References folder or in the library that is open

Convert a Citation List to a Zotero Library

Currently there is no automatic way for Zotero to convert a reference list from a text document into Zotero. However, there are online citation "parsing" tools such as AnyStyle that can parse your manually created bibliographies.

AnyStyle to Zotero instructions:

Copy-paste your bibliography into the AnyStyle parser
Edit the parsed references as needed
Export as a BibTeX file to your downloads folder
From the downloads folder right click the downloaded .bib file and select "Open with"
Select "Open with Zotero" - the citations will then be added to a new collection in Zotero
Be sure to double check the citation items and make any necessary edits