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DOI: dx.doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2020.1084
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ZoteroBib. Corporation for Digital
Scholarship, 8300 Boone Boulevard,
Suite 500, Vienna, VA 22182;
https://zbib.org/; pricing: free.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
ZoteroBib is a free, web-based cita-
tion generator from the same team
that developed Zotero. ZoteroBib,
or Zbib, was released in 2018 and is
maintained by the Corporation for
Digital Scholarship (also known as
“Digital Scholar”). The Corporation
for Digital Scholarship is a non-
profit organization founded in 2009
that is dedicated to the develop-
ment of software and services for
researchers and cultural heritage
institutions [1]. While it might be
easy to initially confuse Zotero and
ZoteroBib, the main difference lies
in what each tool can do and who
uses it.
Zotero is a citation/reference
manager and is useful software
for almost anyone who is doing
serious, long-term research [2].
ZoteroBib is a citation generator
for those who create occasional
bibliographies or individuals who
are interested in teasing out
metadata for quickly citing a re-
source. This review focuses pri-
marily on the features of
ZoteroBib, with a brief compari-
son to the other existing tools.
FEATURES
Accessibility
All that is required to use Zotero-
Bib is a device and an Internet con-
nection. No mobile app is available,
but it is optimized for tablet and
phone use. This resource is compat-
ible with any browser and does not
require users to download software
or create an account. The bibliog-
raphy is stored in the browser’s lo-
cal storage, so these data remain
entirely under the user’s control
[3]. If users are in private or incog-
nito mode, their bibliographies will
be deleted when they close their
browser windows.
Usability
Using ZoteroBib is easy and
straightforward: users insert an
identifier—uniform resource loca-
tion (URL), International Standard
Book Number (ISBN), digital object
identifier (DOI), PubMed identifier
(PMID)—or the title of the citation
into the search bar. ZoteroBib will
then automatically grab data from
“newspaper and magazine articles,
library catalogs, journal articles,
sites like Amazon and Google
Books, and much more” [4]. If the
automatic import finds incomplete
data or does not find any data for a
reference, a manual editor can be
used to create the citation.
If the citation is entered man-
ually, ZoteroBib enables the user
to choose the type of citation,
with typical options such as book
or journal article, and allows
choices like artwork, podcast, or
statute. The entry fields change
based on the citation type. After
the citation is created, it is added
to the “Bibliography” section be-
low the search bar.
Each citation can be manually
edited in the bibliography, and the
citation style can be altered at any
time. ZoteroBib supports more
than 9,700 citation style languages,
including widely used styles from
the American Psychological Associ-
ation (APA) and Modern Language
Association (MLA). In addition,
ZoteroBib has styles commonly
used in medicine like American
Medical Association (AMA), Van-
couver, National Library of Medi-
cine (NLM), and those used for
specific medical journals like the
New England Journal of Medicine and
Nature. Because ZoteroBib is con-
nected with Zotero, all of the styles
are kept up to date with current
style guide recommendations and
publisher requirements. For exam-
ple, when APA released the eighth
edition of their style guide, Zotero
updated from APA 7 to APA 8, and
the style format was updated in
ZoteroBib.
Once the user is satisfied with
the bibliography, the options for
copying or exporting the bibliog-
raphy are:
• Copy to Clipboard (copy cita-
tions to a local computer’s clip-
board)
• Download rich text format
(RTF) (download option for all
word processors)
• Copy hypertext markup lan-
guage (HTML)
• Download RIS
• Download BibTex
• Save to Zotero
https://zbib.org/
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jmla.mlanet.org 108 (4) October 2020 Journal of the Medical Library Association
Another helpful option that
ZoteroBib offers is the ability to
link to the current collection of cita-
tions that users have gathered. The
“Link to this version” option gener-
ates an URL that can be used to re-
trieve that version of a
bibliography at a later date. The
“Link to this version” URL is useful
if the bibliography is loaded onto
another computer or shared. The
shared bibliography is generated as
a read-only version but can be
loaded into the editor if changes
need to be made.
ZoteroBib has an FAQ web
page that contains information sep-
arated into three areas: General,
Usage, and Troubleshooting [4]. If
specific help or errors are located,
these can be reported to Issue/Ask
for Assistance in the Zotero Forums
[5]. Requesting support from
Zotero (@zotero) on Twitter also
seems to work for any problems
with using ZoteroBib.
BRIEF COMPARISONS
One of the most noticeable
differences between ZoteroBib and
other citation generators is that
ZoteroBib presents a “clean”
interface without advertisements.
Most citation generators are littered
with bothersome ads, which are
distracting for anyone trying to use
these websites. Some of the other
citation generator tools might also
require that users create accounts
to access premium features, such as
additional citation styles or export
features. This can be cumbersome
for those who just want a quick,
but reliable way to get an accurate
reference.
Another advantage ZoteroBib
has over other citation generators is
it can generate bibliographies in
more than 9,700 different styles [3].
This feature is especially useful for
those in the health sciences. While
most of the free citation generators
have the APA citation style availa-
ble, they may lack the ability to
generate citations in AMA, Van-
couver, NLM, or other popular
medical citation styles.
In this reviewer’s opinion, the
main disadvantage to ZoteroBib is
when a citation does not have an
identifier or pulls the wrong infor-
mation from a URL or a DOI, the
data have to be entered manually;
however, as mentioned above,
ZoteroBib will guide the user in en-
tering the necessary information,
based on the type of reference. An-
other drawback is that ZoteroBib
does not allow the user to change
the order of the citations in the bib-
liography if the style dictates that
the references are numbered. Alt-
hough the user can delete and cor-
rect the order of citations in the
numbered bibliography, it is unfor-
tunate that amending the order of
the numbered references is not an
option.
Finally, although perhaps not
as necessary for health sciences li-
brarians, ZoteroBib does not ap-
pear to provide as many alerts to
users to be cautious about untrust-
worthy references. Websites like
myBib and EasyBib both encourage
users to consider the credibility of a
citation and remind users to look
for certain information to be in-
cluded (e.g., author, date of crea-
tion for a website entry) [6, 7].
Table 1 provides an overview
of the various features of different
citation generators.
PRACTICAL USAGE
ZoteroBib can be used in the daily
life of a health sciences librarian to:
• show undergraduate students
how to easily create a bibliog-
raphy if they do not need to
build an ongoing database of
citations
• generate and export a list of
detailed citations from grey
literature sources that do not
offer an easy export option of
their metadata for a systematic
review
• assist nursing students in how
to properly cite their references
in APA format
• help a frugal researcher with
exporting all of their citations
using PubMed Central identifi-
ers (PMCIDs), but without any
hidden or unreadable code that
could interfere with the partic-
ular formatting needed in a
grant application
• generate and export citations of
US legal documents or law in-
formation for a psychiatrist’s
manuscript
SUMMARY
ZoteroBib is a free and easy-to-use
tool for working with references.
While it is not designed to be used
for managing references for long-
term research projects, it can help
everyone from undergraduates to
senior researchers quickly generate
citations and bibliographies. It is a
handy resource for anyone work-
ing in health sciences libraries.
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Table 1 Overview of features of different citation generators
Pulls metadata
for each cita-
tion with only
entering one
identifier (e.g.,
DOI, ISBN)
No ads on
website/ Does
not require
purchasing/
creating an ac-
count for more
functionality
Ease of
use/No
coding or
program-
ming expe-
rience
needed
No
down-
load re-
quired
Exports in
multiple
formats†
Generates
bibliog-
raphies in
multiple ci-
tation styles‡
Generates
easily cop-
ied citations
in multiple
citation
styles†
Generates
in-text ci-
tations in
multiple
citation
styles†
Helps
check cred-
ibility of
citation§
ZoteroBib Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N
AMA Citation
Generator (Mick
Schroeder)
Y Y Y Y N N N N N
Auratikum Y N Y Y UTA UTA UTA UTA UTA
BibGuru Y Y Y Y Y N N N N
Bibliograph Y Y N Y Y UTA UTA UTA UTA
Bibliography.com Y Y Y Y N N N N N
BibMe* Y N Y Y N N N N Y
Citace PRO Y N Y Y N UTA UTA UTA UTA
CitationGenerator N Y Y Y N N N N N
Citation Machine* Y N Y Y N N N N Y
Citationsy Y N Y Y UTA UTA UTA UTA UTA
Cite4Me N N Y Y UTA UTA UTA UTA UTA
Cite This For Me* Y N Y Y N Y Y Y N
Citefast Y N Y Y N N N N Y
Crossref Y Y Y Y Y N N N N
DOI Citation For-
matter
Y Y Y Y N N Y N N
EasyBib* Y N Y Y N N N N Y
Formatically N Y Y Y N N N N N
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Table 1 Overview of features of different citation generators (continued)
Pulls metadata
for each cita-
tion with only
entering one
identifier (e.g.,
DOI, ISBN)
No ads on
website/ Does
not require
purchasing/
creating an ac-
count for more
functionality
Ease of
use/ no
coding or
program-
ming expe-
rience
needed
No
down-
load re-
quired
Exports in
multiple
formats†
Generates
bibliog-
raphies in
multiple ci-
tation styles‡
Generates
easily cop-
ied citations
in multiple
citation
styles†
Generates
in-text ci-
tations in
multiple
citation
styles†
Helps
check cred-
ibility of
citation§
Google Scholar Y Y Y Y Y N Y N N
Harvard Genera-
tor
N N Y Y N N N N N
KnightCite v3.1 N Y Y Y N N N N Y
MyBib Y N Y Y UTA Y Y Y Y
ReFindit Y Y Y Y N N Y N N
ResearchoMatic N N N Y UTA UTA UTA UTA UTA
Sciwheel (for-
merly,
F1000Workspace)
Y N UTA Y UTA UTA UTA UTA UTA
Scribbr Y N Y Y N N N N N
Y=Yes; N=No; UTA = Unable to assess.
* Chegg owns the following websites or web citation tools, and they all function essentially the same way: BibMe, Citation Machine, Cite This For Me, and EasyBib.
† Multiple export formats=more than just exporting to MS Word or GoogleDoc.
‡ Multiple citation styles=more than just American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), Chicago Manual of Style/Turabian, and Harvard styles.
§ The website/tool either had to provide feedback on credibility of citation information or remind the user of what to look for in a trustworthy resource.
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3. Corporation for Digital Scholarship.
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Tara J. Brigham, AHIP,
brigham.tara@mayo.edu, http://orcid.org/0000-
0002-2175-4819, Assistant Professor, Medical
Education, and Librarian, Mayo Clinic Libraries,
Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL
Articles in this journal are licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal is published by the University Library System
of the University of Pittsburgh as part of its D-Scribe Digi-
tal Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the Univer-
sity of Pittsburgh Press.
ISSN 1558-9439 (Online)
https://digitalscholar.org/
https://www.zotero.org/about/
https://www.zotero.org/blog/introducing-zoterobib/
https://www.zotero.org/blog/introducing-zoterobib/
https://zbib.org/faq
https://forums.zotero.org/
https://www.mybib.com/
https://www.easybib.com/
mailto:brigham.tara@mayo.edu
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2175-4819
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2175-4819
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
http://www.library.pitt.edu/
http://www.pitt.edu/
http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections
http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections
http://upress.pitt.edu/
http://upress.pitt.edu/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
FEATURES
Accessibility
Usability
BRIEF COMPARISONS
PRACTICAL USAGE
SUMMARY
References
Tara J. Brigham, AHIP, brigham.tara@mayo.edu, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2175-4819, Assistant Professor, Medical Education, and Librarian, Mayo Clinic Libraries, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL
Tara J. Brigham, AHIP, brigham.tara@mayo.edu, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2175-4819, Assistant Professor, Medical Education, and Librarian, Mayo Clinic Libraries, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL