Citation Styles#

Zotero ships with several popular citation styles for creating citations and bibliographies, and over 10,000 additional styles can be found in the Zotero Style Repository. All these styles are written in the Citation Style Language (CSL), a format also supported by many other programs.

Installing Additional Styles#

Zotero Style Repository#

You can install styles from the Zotero Style Repository by going to the Cite pane of the Zotero settings and clicking on the “Get additional styles…” option in the Zotero Style Manager. Search for the style you want and click the style title to install it into Zotero. You can also visit the Zotero Style Repository webpage in your browser with the Zotero Connector installed to install styles directly into Zotero.

The repository allows you to search by style name and filter by style type and academic field of study. By checking the box “Show only unique styles”, duplicate styles that share the exact same format are hidden (e.g., for the journal-specific styles “Nature”, “Nature Biotechnology”, “Nature Chemistry”, etc., only the independent “Nature” style is shown).

Alternative Installation Methods#

You can also install CSL styles (with a “.csl” extension) from local files on your computer (e.g., styles that you edit yourself or that you download from another website). In the Zotero Style Manager, click the ‘+’ button, then find the style file on your computer.

Managing and Editing Styles#

You can remove installed styles by clicking the ‘-’ button in the Zotero Style Manager. From this tab, you can also preview style output for the selected items in Zotero and edit installed styles.

Reporting Style Errors#

If a CSL style doesn’t give the expected output, first make sure that you are running the latest version of Zotero and have the most recent version of the style installed from the Zotero Style Repository. Once you have made sure that the style deviates from the style guide, instructions for authors, or published examples, report the error in the Zotero Forums. For your post, use the title “Style Error: [Name of style]”, and give a link to, or excerpt from, the style guide that shows that the CSL style is wrong. You can also try to edit the style yourself.

Requesting New Styles#

If you can’t find the style you’re looking for in the Zotero Style Repository, feel free to request a style. When requesting styles, please provide formatted references for the Campbell/Pedersen article and the Mares chapter listed on the linked page. Please also provide a link to a free-to-access article using the style (if available). You can also try to create the style yourself.

Questions#

Still have questions? Check the following FAQ entries, or, if these don’t answer your question, use the Zotero Forums:

• Can I use Zotero in one language and create bibliographies in another?
• Does Zotero support label/authorship trigraph styles, like [ddb98]?
• DOI format in APA style
• How can subsequent occurences of the same author replaced by a fixed term/symbol?
• How do I get titles to show up in sentence case in bibliographies?
• How do I prevent title casing of non-English titles in bibliographies?
• How do I use rich text formatting, like italics and sub/superscript, in titles?
• How do you cite a secondary source in Zotero?
• How does Zotero parse things in the name fields?
• I need to use Chicago style. Which of the three versions that come with Zotero should I use?
• I’m the publisher/editor of a journal. What can I do to have Zotero support our style?
• Journal Abbreviations
• Missing Italics (or Italics-Only) in Word Bibliographies
• References appear in the wrong font in Word/LibreOffice
• Standard Citation Styles
• What are these DOIs doing in my bibliography?
• What is the official Harvard style?
• Why do some citations include first names or initials?
• Why isn’t the first letter of a subtitle in uppercase in bibliographies?