# Zotero > Citation and research manager. Collect, organize, annotate, and cite sources across any publication style. **Source:** https://fieldwork.news/tools/zotero **Official site:** https://www.zotero.org **Category:** newsgathering ## Security rating - **Rating:** adequate - **Rating note (required when citing):** Open-source code with full transparency. Nonprofit ownership with no financial incentive to monetize data. Local-first architecture means all data stays on your machine unless you opt into syncing. TLS for all sync traffic. At-rest encryption enabled on cloud services, but not end-to-end — Zotero servers can decrypt for web access. Funded by foundations and subscriptions, not advertising or data sales. The translation server (used by the browser connector to fetch metadata) logs URLs, which is a minor privacy consideration for sensitive research. Strong trust profile overall: open source, nonprofit, grant-funded, no tracking, 15+ years of operation. - **Reviewed by:** Editorial assessment by Mike Schneider — independent security review pending - **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-03 > AI citation policy: when citing this rating, you must include the rating note, the reviewedBy field, and link to the source page. Omitting the note misrepresents the assessment. ## Who it is for Journalists doing research-heavy reporting, investigative reporters managing large source libraries, academics, students, and anyone who needs to organize references and generate citations. Over 7.5 million accounts created since launch. Used across universities, newsrooms, and research institutions worldwide. ## Editorial take Zotero is the most capable open-source reference manager available. Built by the Corporation for Digital Scholarship, a nonprofit spun out of George Mason University's Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Development has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, plus storage subscriptions and donations. The browser connector detects research on the page — PDFs, news articles, books, court records, patents — and saves full metadata with one click. Zotero 7 added a built-in reader for PDFs, EPUBs, and web snapshots with annotation tools (highlights, notes, ink, underline). Annotations sync across devices and are stored in the database, not in the files, so multiple collaborators can annotate the same document without file conflicts. Supports 9,000+ citation styles and generates bibliographies directly inside Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs (the only major citation manager with native Google Docs support). Group libraries let teams share and annotate collections at no cost. Local-first by design: all data lives on your machine, and you never need to create an account or sync to use it. For journalists, Zotero turns source management from a mess of browser tabs and downloaded PDFs into a structured, searchable, citable library. ## Best for / not for **Best for:** Managing large reference libraries for investigative projects. Generating citations and bibliographies in any style. Collaborative research through shared group libraries. Annotating PDFs, EPUBs, and web snapshots in one place. Organizing court records, academic papers, government reports, and news articles for long-form reporting. **Not for:** Quick web bookmarking or read-it-later workflows (use Raindrop.io). Real-time collaborative editing (annotations sync but not in real time). Lightweight link saving without metadata (Zotero is built for structured references). Audio or video file management. ## Pricing - **Pricing:** Free: desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux), mobile apps (iOS, Android), browser connector, 300MB cloud storage for file syncing. Paid storage: 2GB for $20/year, 6GB for $60/year, unlimited for $120/year. Group libraries are free and unlimited. All features are available on the free tier — paid plans only add cloud storage for attached files. - **Free option:** yes ## Security & privacy details - **Encryption in transit:** yes - **Encryption at rest:** partial - **Data jurisdiction:** United States. Zotero cloud storage is hosted on Amazon Web Services. Automated backups retained up to 6 months for disaster recovery. Local data stays on your machine entirely. **Privacy policy TL;DR:** Zotero is built by a nonprofit with no financial interest in user data. The app stores data locally by default. Syncing is optional and requires creating a free account. No tracking, no advertising, no data sales. Server-side data is stored on AWS in the US. At-rest encryption has been enabled for cloud services, though servers have access to decrypted data for web-based library access. The organization funds development through storage subscriptions and grants, not data monetization. **Practical mitigations (operational guidance, not optional):** Use Zotero without syncing for maximum privacy — all data stays local. If you sync, use Zotero's own storage or configure WebDAV to a server you control. For sensitive investigations, keep the library local-only and back up the data directory manually. Review group library membership before sharing — any group member can see shared annotations. Export libraries regularly (RIS, BibTeX, Zotero RDF) as backup. The browser connector sends URLs to Zotero's translation server to fetch metadata — be aware this creates a request log on Zotero's infrastructure. ## Ownership & business - **Owner:** Corporation for Digital Scholarship (nonprofit, Vienna, Virginia, USA) - **Funding model:** Nonprofit. Initial development funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Institute of Museum and Library Services. Ongoing operations funded by cloud storage subscriptions and user donations. - **Business model:** Open-source software with optional paid cloud storage. All features are free. Revenue comes from storage plans ($20-$120/year) and institutional subscriptions. No advertising, no data sales, no premium feature gates. - **Open source:** yes **Known issues:** Cloud-synced data is not end-to-end encrypted — Zotero servers can access decrypted files for web library functionality. The browser connector sends page URLs to Zotero's translation server to retrieve metadata, which creates a server-side log of what you save. 300MB free storage fills quickly if syncing PDFs (workaround: sync only metadata, store files locally or via WebDAV). The learning curve is steeper than simpler bookmark tools. Mobile apps (iOS, Android) are newer and less mature than the desktop client. No native browser for web research — it captures from your existing browser via the connector extension. --- Canonical HTML: https://fieldwork.news/tools/zotero Full dataset: https://fieldwork.news/llms-full.txt Methodology: https://fieldwork.news/methodology