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Zotero Basics: Planning a Group

This guide includes a summary of our Zotero workshop, plus useful links to get you started.

How Will You Use Your Zotero Group?

You should consider the following questions BEFORE you create the group, as this might help you decide:

  1. who should be the group owner
  2. if you should create a new Zotero account just for the group

Is the Zotero group intended for short-term or long-term use?

If the group is only intended for a short-term project, you may not need to do as much planning for long-term maintenance.

If you want it to persist over time you should plan for this from the beginning.

Will group members change over time?

  • If group membership will be dynamic, choose an ownership strategy that accounts for that.
  • Group settings determine who can add and delete items. When members leave, be sure to remove their permissions.
  • When choosing a group owner, consider:
    • Will the owner be leaving the group?
    • Is the owner already using Zotero for storage of their personal research sources?  Be aware that records and attachments in a group library count against the storage limit of the group owner.
    • You may want to create a new Zotero account just for the group rather than having it owned by an individual.

Will the group be public or private? How will members be added?

There are three kinds of Zotero groups:

  • Private Groups: 
    • Only group members can access the Zotero group
  • Public Groups with Closed Membership: 
    • The group page on Zotero is public; new members must be approved by a group administrator  
    • The group library can be set so that it is publicly visible or just viewable by members 
    • File-sharing can be enabled so that PDFs and other documents can be shared between group members
  • Public Groups with Open Membership: 
    • The group page on Zotero is public; anyone can join instantly  
    • The group library can be set so that it is publicly visible or just viewable by members  
    • Public, open groups cannot use the file-sharing feature of Zotero groups

Will you share PDFs from subscription resources through your Zotero group?

UCSB Library licenses e-resources for use by UCSB faculty, staff, and students.  You might accidentally violate our license agreements and copyright law if you share PDFs with others who are not affiliated.

Will you share other documents through your Zotero group?

  • Storage requirements for attachments count against the group owner's storage quota.
  • You can create a free personal Gmail account for your group.  This will give you 15gb of storage on Google Drive to use for Zotero attachments.  You can store the PDFs on Google Drive and link to them from your Zotero records, reducing the use of Zotero storage.
  • Other file types besides PDFs can be shared through Zotero.
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