Zotero can be a powerful tool for Wikipedia users, be they casual visitors or regular contributors. By incorporating print-based references, Wikipedia users are able lend greater credibility to their articles and provide readers with a broader reference base, forging new relationships between online and offline resources. Wikipedia employs its own format for bibliographic citations, known, sensibly enough, as Wikipedia Citation Templates. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation_templates) Because the Wikipedia Citation Templates for books and articles embed COinS tags in each bibliographic entry (see, for example, the raw code of the Wikipedia article for "Amphibian"), Zotero can not only import Wikipedia references, but also export references into Wikipedia. This read/write relationship promises to allow better circulation of information through different scholarly communication networks.

In addition to serving as a source of bibliographic data for your Zotero library, Wikipedia proves an excellent study in using Zotero's Quick Copy feature. The configuration panel for Quick Copy is found by clicking the gear icon above the left column of your Zotero window, choosing Preferences, then selecting the Export tab. Pressing the appropriate shortcut key combination (set in the Shortcut Keys Preferences tab) copies the bibliographic entry or citation for selected items to the clipboard using whatever style format is specified here as the default. If Wikipedia Citation Templates is set as the default, you can then simply paste the citation into the Wikipedia article's source code, and Zotero will make sure it is properly coded and formatted.

While many users may enjoy the ability to output Wikipedia Citation Templates, odds are it will not make sense as their default style. This is where site-specific settings come in. Zotero can adjust its citation format on the fly to match whatever site is being visited. This is done by clicking on the “+” button in the Quick Copy section of the Export tab. Next, simply specify a domain under which to apply the rule (e.g. wikipedia.org) and which style to use. From then on, the process is completely transparent. When any site in the specified domain is open in Firefox, Zotero will adjust the Quick Copy format to the appropriate style. The same functionality applies when dragging-and-dropping items. Zotero can be a valuable asset for dedicated Wikipedians, but can also adapt quickly and easily for the dabblers out there.