Zotero Database Principles of Use

This note sets out principles for using the Deep Design Lab's shared Zotero group. Our goal is to keep data correct, minimal, citation-ready, and attributable.

Guides and Tools

If you have not used Zotero before, review the tutorials, for example these.

Create a Zotero account online. Use a recognisable username in the form namesurname so others can track changes. Ask the maintainers to invite you to the Deep Design Lab group (how groups work).

Install the Zotero client on your computer and link it to your Zotero account.

Set up the resolver so you can use the University of Melbourne library for lookup: in Zotero's settings, under Locate, use https://librarysearch.unimelb.edu.au/openurl/61UMB_INST/61UMB_INST:NDE (Zotero's guide). See the last video here. Other university libraries offer the same service.

Use the Zotero browser plugin when searching.

Where References Go

Put the references you add into a collection of your own inside _Imports, for example _Imports › John Smith 2026-11. The maintainers check them and move them into the topic collections. Each reference belongs to at least one collection.

You can keep your own collections and subcollections under Personal, in a collection with your name (Personal › Ann), to organise references for your projects and teaching. A reference can sit in your personal collections and in the topic collections at once, so filing it in one does not remove it from another (collections and tags).

Suitable Content

Add academic research that you might cite. Store grey literature (popular magazines, blogs, newspapers) and memory notes in personal databases, unless you are doing bibliographic research. Add websites only when they are the object of study.

Add our own references, including academic works, creative works, press and design publication mentions, and public presentations, to appropriate collections.

Add a book chapter as its own reference only when it comes from an edited collection. A chapter of a single-authored book is cited as the book.

Adding References

One at a time. Add references one by one, each from an authoritative record: Add Item by Identifier with a DOI or ISBN, or the Zotero Connector on the publisher's or the library's page (adding items). A citation copied from a reference list is not a source. Check every field against the item itself, as set out under Metadata below.

Bulk imports. Importing many references at once (BibTeX or RIS files, reference-list parsers, exports from search tools), or handing the job to someone else, brings in errors that are hard to see. Do such imports in your own Zotero library first and check every record there. Then move the checked records into your collection in _Imports and let the maintainers know.

Transparency. When you add content to the database, let other users know by chat or email where useful. You do not need to announce every item. However, updates on new topic collections and decisions on grouping, tagging, or clustering can help everyone. This is especially important before bulk maintenance changes such as removing duplicates, merging records, deleting or combining attachments, or running bulk text edits by script.

Duplicates. Search for the work and its other editions before you add it. If you create duplicates by mistake, use the Duplicate Items view to merge versions. Keep the earlier version. Tag look-alikes that are different works, such as two volumes, not a duplicate.

Common problems. Records from databases and catalogues often need fixing:

ALL CAPS or Title Case text
Generic attachment names
Editors or translators recorded as authors
Missing full first names, place of publication for books, and similar metadata

Another bad example appears below. Most metadata is missing, and the reference type is wrong, so you cannot tell what to keep:

You may need to remove:

Source-database metadata (Library Catalog, Call Number, Rights, Archive, Accessed)
Automatic notes
Automatic tags
Irrelevant auto-generated snapshots

A typical import example:

Other people's entries. Do not rewrite another person's note; add your own beside it.

Metadata

Check metadata against the Chicago Manual of Style (University of Melbourne access), and confirm that each item uses the correct reference type: a report for organisational and UN documents, a conference paper for a paper in proceedings, a thesis for a thesis.

Titles. Use sentence case: capitalise the first word, proper nouns and acronyms only, and continue in lower case after a colon. You can right-click the title to convert automatically, then check abbreviations, Latin names, and proper names for errors. See Zotero guidance here. Zotero converts to title case in documents when a style requires it. Fill the short title with the main title, before the colon. Set the language as a two-letter code (en, fr, de), because styles change the case of English titles only.

Use italics for Latin names and phrases in titles. Some styles capitalise the second word, so add the span class as shown below.

Density of invasive western honey bee (<i><span class="nocase">Apis mellifera</span></i>) colonies in fragmented woodlands indicates potential for large impacts on native species

Creators. Provide given names and surnames, with the first given name in full and further names as initials with full stops. Record editors as editors and translators as translators, check both against the title page or a library catalogue, and leave out publishers and writers of forewords. Write each person's name the same way across the library. For unusual names with prefixes or suffixes, check Zotero guidance online.

For rare names where the first name is an initial, add a note that confirms this.

Dates. Enter only the year in the Date field, the year of the journal issue for articles. Newspaper articles, broadcasts, statutes and patents take the full date. A later edition, reprint or translation also takes the year of first publication as Original Date.

Place. Record Place as the publisher's city; books, chapters and reports always carry one. Add a two-letter state or country code only where the city alone would be read as a better-known namesake, for example Cambridge, MA.

Pages. Provide first and last pages for journal articles, chapters, and conference papers. An article number that the journal prints instead of pages counts.

Conference papers. Provide the proceedings' editors when the proceedings name them; many name none, and such a paper is complete. Give the publisher and its city, never the venue.

Books. Clear the Series field, the DOI, the URL and the number of pages: formal references rarely need them, and they lengthen citations. Give every ISBN of the printing described, and the edition as a number.

Identifiers. Give the DOI without https://doi.org/. Remove the URL when a DOI or the attached file locates the work; keep it for web pages, videos and other online-only works.

Special issues of journals recorded whole get Medium: Special issue in Extra and the tag 📰 ddl type: special issue, with their guest editors as editors. They need no PDF.

Online first. For recent publications, especially journal articles, early online versions may lack volume, issue, and page numbers. In that case, add the 🛠️ needs fixing tag and the note "Update when fully published", and update the record when the issue appears.

Special Fields

Zotero may not support some fields natively. You can add custom fields and custom dates in the Extra field and use them in a citation style. See the discussion here. Keep Extra otherwise empty: only lines that print in citations belong there, such as Original Date, Edition on a report, and Medium: Special issue.

Cataloguing Artworks, Design, and Creative Works

Use Artwork as the reference type even when the work is a recording, for design and architectural works too. Enter the medium in lower case in Medium and the size or duration in Artwork Size. Enter the venue, host exhibition or festival as publisher: and its city as publisher-place: on their own lines in Extra, which the styles print. Use Archive and Loc. in Archive only for a work held by a real archive.

Tags and Notes

Tags. Do not import extraneous automatic tags, or delete them immediately by using Delete Automatic Tags in This Library....

The lab's tags carry ddl (🎴 ddl indigenous author, 📖 ddl type: textbook). Personal tags carry your initials, for example js to read for John Smith. This makes tag ownership clear and reduces conflicts. An emoji tag has one space after the emoji.

Use manual tags sparingly to categorise references by type or status, for example read, to read, or textbook.

Indigenous authors. Tag a reference 🎴 ddl indigenous author when at least one author or editor publicly identifies as Indigenous, in their own words. Never infer identity from a name, a topic or a place of work. Tell the maintainers, who record the evidence.

Note. Add a note that states who added the entry and why. Put this on the first line in the format: John Smith: an example of blah.... Use full names so notes remain searchable. Notes that begin with Audit: record the maintainers' checks; leave them in place.

Attachments

Attach the published version of each text, as a PDF, and an EPUB beside it when there is one. Remove accepted manuscripts or preprints that providers download automatically, and attach the authoritative citable version instead. Ensure text is searchable, and remove download stamps and cover pages that platforms add.

Keep one attachment per reference unless you have justified variants, such as PDF and ePub versions of the same text, or a paper plus a related presentation. Zotero names the file "Author - Year - Title"; title the attachment PDF or EPUB.

When you download book chapters separately, combine them before adding. A chapter recorded on its own gets a PDF of its own pages. Note what a partial or combined file holds.

When no PDF can be found, add the note John Smith: PDF not available: searched <sources>, <month year>.

Do not attach large images or videos. Instead, add a note about their location and store them separately.

Orphan files. Do not leave PDFs or other files without metadata. Attach every file to a proper reference.

Snapshots as attachments. Do not add web snapshots unless you need them. If you keep one, rename it clearly. Otherwise, we will delete it. If you need to preserve a website state, save and attach a PDF instead.