Zotero: Exporting citations from EBSCO databases

EBSCOhost databases don't support exporting individual items directly into Zotero. But there are some workarounds.

Recommended method

When viewing search results, click Add to folder to temporarily save desired items. When you've added everything you want, go to Folder view (or click the Folder link in the upper right). At this point, use the the Zotero multiple articles icon in the URL (looks like a file folder) and click Select All, then OK, in the window that pops up.

Alternate method - try if recommended method doesn't work smoothly

First set some relevant Zotero preferences:

1. Open the Zotero pane and click the Actions icon (gear icon), then open your Preferences.

2. Under the General tab, check the box to "Use Zotero for downloaded RIS/Refer files".

When viewing an item, or a Folder with multiple items, use the Export button, and choose the "Direct Export to EndNote, ProCite, CITAVI, or Reference Manager" option, which automatically pushes out a formatted reference in RIS format, and which Zotero will capture. Check to make sure that Zotero captures all fields correctly: often the abstract gets pushed to a separate note. Copy and paste to the Abstract field in the record. If you want to import numerous articles and don't want to copy and paste a lot of abstracts, use the manual approach described below instead of this method.

The abstract appears as a note. Move it to the abstract field

 

Manual approach

If the above methods don't work, conflict with other software (such as Endnote), or don't handle the abstracts very well, you can export the references as a text file, then import them into Zotero.

1. When viewing a citation in EBSCOhost, click the Export icon (looks like a white paper with a green arrow). You can export multiple citations if you add them to the Folder first, then view the Folder, and use the Export option (select all items first).

Exporting from Ebsco

2. Choose the "Citations in BibTeX format" option and save. This generates a text file you can save. Go to File-Save Page As, and Save as type: Text Files.

Exporting from Ebsco - save as a text file

3. Open the Zotero pane by clicking the Zotero icon in the lower right corner of your browser. Click the Actions icon (looks like a gear) and select Import. Find the file you've saved in step 2.

Importing to Zotero

This will create a new folder with your imported citation(s). You can them move them to another folder if you wish.