Deriving a Book Section Record from an Existing Record

If you cite an independent essay or chapter in your writing, you will need to create a Book Section record in Zotero if you would like Zotero to insert the citation properly in your work. This is most easily accomplished by deriving a Book Section record from the record for the main title in Zotero.

To begin, right-click the record for the main title in Zotero and select “Duplicate Item.”

In the item information panel, click “Book” next to “Item Type,” and then select “Book Section” from the dropdown menu.

You will most likely be presented with a window asking if you are sure you want to change the item type. It may also list some fields which will be lost. Just click “OK” to dismiss this window. In the item information panel, you will see that the Title is blank, and the main title has been moved to the Book Title field. Click the title field and type in the title of the essay or chapter you want to cite. Don’t forget to also add a short title for Zotero to use if you cite the item more than once in your work.

Next, click the plus sign to the right of the editor’s name to add another person field.

Click “Editor” next to the new field and change the value to “Author,” then enter the author’s name for the essay or chapter. Finally, enter the page range for the entire essay or chapter in the Pages field. You should now be able to use Zotero to cite the essay or chapter for you.

Creating Records from Scratch

If you are not able to import a record for an item from the library catalog or elsewhere, you may need to create the record completely from scratch. To do this, click the green circle with the white plus sign in the Zotero toolbar. Use the dropdown to select the item type. This will create a blank item. Fill in the item information to complete the record.