The Easiest (and recommended) Way to Export into Zotero
The fastest way to export a resource from a database into Zotero is to use the Zotero Connector:
Zotero has plug-ins for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox known as the Zotero Connector that makes it quick & easy to capture PDFs and citation information as you're navigating databases and journals. Simply click on the connector while on the current webpage when you want to save an item or items.
NOTE: You must have the Zotero application open on your computer for the Connector to send articles to Zotero.
1. You can add all items on a page of results at once, or one item at a time.
2. On your page of results, click on the Zotero Connector browser tool once you have it installed. It will now look like a manila folder →
3. Click on the check boxes for the items you want to import to Zotero, or Select All
4. Click OK
5. Choose the folder in Zotero where you would like the citations saved, and click OK
Using the Export Option
Instead of the Zotero Connector, look for an Export option within a database, for example:
From Web of Science
From the Library Catalog
You might have a collection of PDFs on your computer, or your email, already and want to add them to Zotero. The first thing to try is to just drag them from where they are stored on your computer into your Zotero library–just like how you would drag them from one folder to another.
If you want to try this, download these two articles, and drag them into your library:
You might also have a list of articles or books, and hopefully they include either the DOI or ISBN. If you have those, you can add them to Zotero by using the Add Item(s) by Identifier tool, which looks like a magic wand:
To try it, add these DOIs and ISBNs:
10.7717/peerj.8735
https://doi.org/10.7557/3.2613
9781435831506
1-57061-926-3
Note the DOI can include the "doi:" or even the full URL, and the ISBN can be the 10- or 13-digit version, and can include the hyphens. Also note that the articles probably added the PDF of the article automatically: Zotero will try to find PDFs of open access articles as they are added to your library.
If you added all four at once, it probably only found the articles. Zotero expects all the identifiers to be of the same kind when you use the magic wand; you can add DOIs in one search, and then ISBNs in another search.
Sometimes Zotero cannot find the metadtata for the PDF you upload, or it cannot find the DOI or ISBN in its indexes; in that case, you have to either add the item from a database, the library catalog, or Google Scholar and then add the PDF to that item. Some items may not be available there either, in which case you will have to add the item manually.
Zotero (and other citation managers) "decide" what kind of document something is--a book, journal article, dissertation, etc--based on the "metadata" that comes along with it, which comes from the library catalog, database, website, or the document itself. Sometimes, that metadata isn't quite right. It might have the title in ALL CAPS, or call a "report" an "article," list the person writing just the preface as the author, etc. You should check your citations in citation managers to make sure that everything's as it should be.