FAQ Switching from Citavi to Zotero

Zotero is an open source programme that is platform-independent (Windows, macOS, Linux) (Windows, macOS, Linux). It offers automatic updates and an active user and developer community. The campus licence for Citavi at H-BRS ends on 31 January 2025 on 31 January 2025.

Attention: After 31 January 2025, access to the cloud projects is no longer possible! Please back them up locally in advance or transfer them to a private licence.
As a private individual (student) you can licence Citavi for €73 per year.
Citavi also currently offers a 30-day free trial licence. To register,
you need an email address (not your student email address!). In
both cases, you can continue working on locally saved projects.

The following are included:
- Literature sources with all bibliographic data
- Quotations and comments as well as notes
- Assignments (but without reference to the title or project)
- PDF documents, including the markings (Attachments may need to be may need to be checked and manually re-linked in Zotero)

The following are not transferred:
- Categories or keywords that you have added to knowledge items (e.g. citations or comments)
- Assignments to a source in knowledge items (e.g. in citations or comments)
- Images
- References to other sources created with Citavi

Install a programme on your computer that can unzip ".bak" files. We recommend 7-Zip. This programme comes pre-installed on Windows 10 computers.

Unzip the backup file ".ctv6bak" before importing it into Zotero. To do this, use a progamme like 7-Zip. Unzip the ".ctv6bak" file into a folder of your choice. Now you can import the ".ctv6" file into Zotero.

Zotero uses Citation Style Language (CSL) for citation styles, which offers a
wide selection and many customisation options. The most common styles come pre-installed, but it is also easy to create or customise your own styles.

Zotero offers plugins for Microsoft Word and LibreOffice, which are automatically available after installing Zotero. You can configure the plugins in the Zotero settings.

In Zotero you can organise your literature in collections and subcollections. Tags and notes also help to keep your literature structured and searchable. Zotero also offers a search function working across all database entries.

Frequent problems are incorrect exports, lost data or difficulties with integration with word processing programmes. It is important to check the data thoroughly after importing it into Zotero.

Zotero offers the option of storing your data in the cloud, which makes it secure
and accessible from anywhere. Regular backups of your Zotero database are recommended to prevent data loss.

Zotero is available free of charge. However, there are optional paid upgrades for additional cloud storage space.