Zotero's Fields

Zotero has lots of fields. These are available via different item templates which are organized by item type, which is also the first field. The _Item Type_ is indicated at the purple arrow, while the green rectangle surrounds other fields available via the _book_ item type.
Item type _book_ indicated with arrow and other fields indicated in rectangle.

Item type book indicated with arrow and other fields indicated in rectangle. Credit: Hugh Paterson III

Zotero Item Types1

Item Type Description
Artwork A piece of artwork (e.g., an oil painting, photograph, or sculpture). Also use this item type for other types of images or visual items (e.g., scientific figures).
Audio Recording Any form of audio recording, including music, spoken word, sound effects, archival recordings, or audio-based scientific figures.
Bill A proposed piece of legislation.
Blog Post An article or entry posted to a personal blog website. For online articles published as part of a larger online publication (e.g., NYT Blogs), using Magazine Article or Newspaper Article generally yields better results.
Book A book or similar published item. For government documents, technical reports, manuals, etc., use Report instead. This item type can also be adapted to fit many types of unusual items.
Book Section A section of a book. Usually chapters, but also forewords, prefaces, introductions, appendices, afterwords, comments, etc.
Case A legal case, either published or unpublished.
Conference Paper A paper presented at a conference and subsequently published in a formal conference proceedings publication (e.g., as a book, report, or issue of a journal). For conference papers that have not been published in a proceedings, use Presentation.
Dictionary Entry An entry published as part of a dictionary.
Document A generic document item. This item type has a poor selection of fields and poor support in citation styles, so it should generally be avoided.
Email A message sent via email. This type could also be used for other forms of personal communication.
Encyclopedia Article An article or chapter published as part of an encyclopedia.
Film A film or motion picture. Generally, use this type for artistically-oriented films (including fictional, non-fictional, and documentary films). For other types of video items, use Video Recording.
Forum Post A post on an online discussion forum. Also use this type for items such as Facebook posts or tweets.
Hearing A formal hearing or meeting report by a legislative body.
Instant Message A message sent via an instant message or chat service. This type could also be used for other forms of personal communication.
Interview An interview with a person, including recordings, transcripts, or other records of the interview.
Journal Article An article published in a scholarly journal (either print or online).
Letter A letter sent between persons or organizations. This type could also be used for other forms of personal communication.
Magazine Article An article published in a non-scholarly, popular, or trade magazine (either print or online).
Manuscript An unpublished manuscript. Use this type for both historical documents and modern unpublished work (e.g., unpublished manuscripts, manuscripts submitted for publication, working papers that are not widely available). Can also be used for other forms of historical or archival documents. This item type can also be adapted to fit many types of unusual items.
Map A map. Also use this type for geographic models.
Newspaper Article An article published in a newspaper (either print or online).
Patent A patent awarded for an invention.
Podcast A podcast (an episode of an audio or video program distributed online, often via subscription).
Presentation A presentation made as part of a conference, meeting, symposium, lecture, etc. This item type refers to the presentation itself, not a written version published as part of a conference proceedings (use Conference Paper for such published versions).
Radio Broadcast An audio broadcast, such as a radio news show, an episode of a radio entertainment series, or similar. Includes broadcasts from online radio stations and audio broadcasts archived online (cf. Podcast).
Report A report published by an organization, institution, government department, or similar entity. Also used for working papers and preprints distributed through institutional repositories or preprint servers. This item type can also be adapted to fit many types of unusual items.
Software A piece of software, an app, or another computer program.
Statute A law or other piece of enacted legislation.
Thesis A thesis submitted as part of a student applying for a degree (either published or unpublished).
TV Broadcast An episode of a television series.
Video Recording A video recording. Use this type for general video items that do not fit into one of the more specific video item types (e.g., Film, TV Broadcast), such as YouTube videos or video-based scientific figures.
Webpage An online page of a website. When possible, use one of the more specific item types above (e.g., Magazine Article, Blog Post, Report).

Zotero’s Fields

Within Zotero each item type serves as a template providing “fields” for the Zotero Record. The default fields are indicated below. Additionally, other views are available via https://aurimasv.github.io/z2csl/typeMap.xml where each field is listed with its Zotero UI label, internal name, and the CSL field to which it corresponds.

Data Sources

Wiernik (2020)
(). Retrieved from https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/item_types_and_fields
Vinckevicius, Zumstein & Bennett (2021)
, & (). Data Transforms. In z2csl - Zotero to CSL extension and mappings.. Github Project. Retrieved from https://aurimasv.github.io/z2csl/typeMap.xml

Content Reuse Statement

  1. The Zotero documentation mentions two additional item types Attachment and Note. These are not really meant to be part of the reference type list but are part of the Zotero conceptual model. ↩︎

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Last updated on 18 Jun, 2021