We will use Search@XU for our example, but Zotero can save articles and websites from anywhere. When possible, Zotero will save a full text PDF of an article and bibliographic information (title, author, publication date) automatically. If saving a webpage, it will also take a "snapshot" of the page so you can view the content even if the website is taken offline or changed.
We are researching 3D printed objects in space, because like bow ties, weightless 3D printing is cool.
Let's do a keyword search for "3D printing space" and select the first article that looks like it will work. When using Search@XU, make sure to click on the title of the article you want before saving to Zotero, otherwise it will not capture all of the information you need!
After a quick review, we know that this is a great choice for our research! To save the article to Zotero, select the "save" button on the toolbar. A notification will appear showing that we have successfully saved the article.
Now we can open Zotero to see where all of our research is stored, including the article we just saved. Selecting the arrow to the left of the article's title will show the full text PDF (when available). The bibliographic information for each article will be displayed on the pane to the right. Each field can be edited by clicking on it and typing new information. Make sure all of this information is complete and accurate when saving each article. It will help make your bibliography much easier to put together! You can also add notes and tags for each article should you choose.This can be a lot of help when preparing an annotated bibliography.