Zotero ships with several popular citation styles for creating citations and bibliographies, and over 2000 additional styles can be found in the Zotero Style Repository. All these styles are written in the Citation Style Language (CSL), a format also supported by Mendeley and Papers.

If you are using Zotero for Firefox, installing styles from the Zotero Style Repository is as easy as clicking on the title of the style you wish to install.

With Zotero Standalone, download styles by right-clicking on the title of the style and selecting “Save Link as…”. Double click the downloaded file while Zotero Standalone is running to install it, or see below for alternate install methods.

The repository allows you to search by style name, and filter by style type and academic field of study. By checking the box “Show only unique styles”, duplicate styles that share the exact same format are hidden (e.g. for the journal-specific styles “Nature”, “Nature Biotechnology”, “Nature Chemistry”, etc., only the independent “Nature” style is shown).

CSL styles (with a “.csl” extension) can also be added through the Style Manager, found under the “Styles” tab of the “Cite” pane in the Zotero preferences panel. It shows you which styles are already installed, and also allows you to delete styles. Another installation option is to drag-and-drop a CSL style file onto an open Firefox browser window.

If a CSL style doesn’t give the expected output, first make sure that you are running the latest (stable) version of Zotero, and have the most recent version of the style installed from the Zotero Style Repository. Once you have made sure that the style deviates from the style guide, instructions for authors, or published examples, report the error to the Citation Style forums. For your post, use the title “Style Error: [Name of style]”, and give a link to, or excerpt from, the style guide that shows that the CSL style is wrong. You can also try to edit the style yourself.

If you can't find the style you're looking for in the Zotero Style Repository, feel free to request a style. You can also try to create the style yourself.

Still have questions? Check the following FAQ entries, or, if these don’t answer your question, use the Citation Styles forum: