Skip to main content
To KTH's start page To KTH's start page

Using Zotero for reference management in Overleaf

This page provides instructions on how to link your Zotero library to an Overleaf project.

If you don't already have Zotero, you can download it from Zotero's web page . Information about how to use Zotero can be found on the page about reference management programs .

In the following video we demonstrate how you can connect your Zotero library to Overleaf. If you prefer written instructions you find them below the video.

Using Zotero in Overleaf 

  • Make sure you have a Premium account. Create your account by going to overleaf.com, click on log in > log in with  Single Sign On  and log in with your KTH credentials. 

  • If you already have an account, you can merge it with the KTH account. 

Link Zotero to Overleaf 

  • Go to Account > Account settings > Reference managers > Zotero integration > Link
    Select Accept default

In Overleaf 

All commands start with a backslash \ (Windows: AltGr+?. Mac: shift+alt+7) 

On Overleafs pages How to link your Overleaf account to Mendeley  and Zotero och Bibliography management in LaTex  you can read more about reference management in Overleaf.  

  • In your document, add this to the preamble:
    \usepackage[
    backend=biber,
     ]{biblatex} 

Import a file with references to you project 

  • Go to the project. 

  • Click upload icon  

  • Choose From Zotero 

  • Choose BibLaTeX or BibTeX. If unsure, go with BibLaTeX. 

  • If you add references to Zotero and you want to use them in Overleaf, you need to refresh the file from Zotero 

  • Connect the file with references to the document by putting this in the preamble.
    \addbibresource{references.bib} 

  • To add a citation, use:
    \cite 

When you start typing the command, you are given the opportunity to select the reference key of the source you want to refer to within the brackets.

  • Or, if you want to add parentheses to your in-text citation:
    \parencite 
  • To add a bibliography, use:
    \printbibliography 

Change reference styles by adding the style=stylename argument to the \usepackage command in your preamble. You can find all available styles here .
\usepackage[
 backend=biber,
 style=stylename,
 ]{biblatex} 

To change style, simply replace stylename with apa, ieee or whatever style you prefer. 

If you are using an author-date style, such as apa, you probably want to use \parencite for your in-text citations to make them look right.