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Educational Leadership: Full Text Management

For Ed.D folks to know the best places for research

Printable PDF Guide to Zotero Groups

Suggestions for Sharing

To share Zotero libraries with a group:

  • Everyone in your group must create a personal account at the Zotero web site.
  • One person in the group should create the shared Group Library.
  • The owner should then invite the other group members to the shared library. You need to know what email address your group members used to create their Zotero accounts, in order to invite them.
  • Remember to keep your Zotero libraries synced, or the shared folders won't be up to date. 

Accessing Groups

Using the groups in Zotero requires the free Zotero account on www.zotero.org. After creating the account, use the menu in the Zotero cloud account and click on “Groups.” You can then “Create a New Group.” 

Groups tab circled in red.

 

 

 

Create a new group

 

 

 

Choose a name for your group. We suggest making the membership private, so that only people you invite can work with your shared library.

Group Name box and Membership options, with "private" selected.

If you want everyone to be able to contribute citations to the Shared Library, make sure you select the option Library Editing: Any group members.

Library Editing options, with "Any group members" selected

Managing Members

When you are looking at Zotero Groups, click the link "Manage Members."

screenshot of "Manage Members link with red circle around it.

 

 

You can send invitations by clicking the link "Send More Invitations." 

Screenshot of link "Send More Invitations."

 

 

 

Then enter their email addresses by separating each with a comma. 

Invite Members box with red Invite Members button.

 

 

 

 

Each user you invite will receive an email named "Zotero Group Invitation," with a Zotero link to accept or decline the invitation. 

In this same area ("Members Settings") you can update roles of members, giving them different permissions for managing the group's library.

Screenshot of red "Update Roles" button.

 

 

Adding Citations

After creating a group, you can then create a shared folder and add citations to the shared folder.

  • Click on "Group Library."

screenshot of link "Group Library."

 

 

  • Click on the yellow folder.

Screenshot of yellow folder with red circle around it.

  • Give the shared collection a name.
  • Click the "Create" button.

textbox to give folder and name, "Create" is circled in red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you go to the Zotero software on your computer, you will now see an area under your Zotero library called "Group Libraries."

TIP: If you don't see the group library in your Zotero software, click the "sync" icon to force an update! The sync icon is a green circular arrow.

Each group will have its own folder. Within that group folder will be folders for citation, just like standard Zotero.

group libraries in Zotero with folder for new group's folder

 

 

 

 

When you wish to add citations to this new folder, simply highlight it so citations will be added to it as you search in databases. Or you may drag and drop from an existing Zotero folder into this group folder.

You will need to sync for the items gathered into standard Zotero to appear in the cloud account of Zotero, including the groups area.