Switching from Citavi to Zotero
The Citavi Campus license ends in November 2026. Below you will find FAQ, information and practical recommendations for switching to Zotero.
Citavi Campus License ends on 30 November 2026
We recommend Zotero as an alternative to Citavi. Zotero is a free open source literature management program that can be used on all common operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux). You can find more information about Zotero on our website.
We have compiled answers to the most important questions and recommendations for action for you here.
Questions or problems?
Please contact the Reference Management Working Group at literaturverwaltung@sub.uni-goettingen.de
Moving Citavi projects to Zotero – Frequently asked Questions
Once the licence has expired, you will still have read access to local projects, but you will no longer be able to edit them. You will no longer have any access to cloud projects. Therefore, please back up your cloud projects in good time.
In addition to backups in the Citavi data format, Citavi offers several options for archiving project data. Use these to ensure that you have various correction bases after migrating to Zotero.
- Table with Excel export option: With the project open, press Ctrl+Alt+T. The columns in the table can be selected freely. You can also save short references, links between titles, locations, tasks, and much more.
- "Literature" programme section: Literature list > Save with additional information. Result: Word file, txt, PDF, etc. (Here you can also save the knowledge elements attached to the titles.)
- Programme section ‘Knowledge’: Script > Save with options. Result: Word file, txt, PDF or similar.
- Programme section ‘Tasks’: Task list > Save all displayed tasks. Result: Word file, txt, PDF or similar.
During the migration, the project will first be backed up locally and then imported into Zotero. Detailed step-by-step instructions are provided by University Library Mannheim. Bamberg University Library provides a video tutorial (in German).
- Literature sources with all bibliographic information and attachments such as PDF documents, including annotations, are transferred. However, since Zotero does not have a subtitle field, titles and subtitles end up together in the title field.
- Knowledge elements (e. g. quotations and comments) and tasks are stored as notes, and tasks are given the tag #todo. Please note that manual reworking may be necessary in some cases. Further information can be found in our FAQ and in the migration instructions.
- Keywords become tags in Zotero.
- Citavi categories are mapped via the folder structure in Zotero. When importing into Zotero, make sure that the option ‘Place imported collections and entries into new collections’ is selected. The original Citavi categories are then displayed as sub-collections in Zotero.
Images are not transferred. Image citations are transferred without the image they contain.
References between literature sources are not retained.
Knowledge elements (e. g. quotations or comments) are inserted as notes and assigned to the respective reference. Information about whether it is a direct quotation, an indirect quotation, a summary or a comment is not transferred. Links to the source and assignments to categories and keywords are also not retained. Knowledge elements can be inserted as notes in Word, but without the corresponding source reference. Manual reworking is therefore necessary if required. Please refer to the instructions for this.
Tasks are also transferred as notes. However, the reference to the title or project is lost, so that subsequent manual assignment is necessary. It is helpful to have archived the project, including the tasks, in Excel in table form and to use this as a basis for correction, see above ‘In what form can I archive my Citavi project?’.
Locations are transferred, but if you have entered several locations for a title in Citavi, only one location will be transferred. The file names of private collections are not transferred.
Anthologies must be relinked with the respective contributions. Please refer to the instructions for this.
Important: Archive your Citavi project in such a way that you can restore the references and data lost during the transfer in Zotero in another form if necessary. Please note our instructions above on archiving your projects.
Install a programme on your computer that can unpack .bak files. We recommend the programme 7-Zip.
You must unzip the backup file .ctv6bak before importing it into Zotero. Use the 7-Zip programme to do this. Unzip the .ctv6bak file into a folder of your choice. You can now import the unzipped .ctv6 file into Zotero.
Questions about your Writing Project
Especially if you have not yet worked with the Word add-in, switching from Citavi to Zotero is usually straightforward. Here you will find instructions for switching from Citavi to Zotero.
If you have only used Citavi to collect literature so far, switching from Citavi to Zotero is usually straightforward. Here you will find instructions for switching from Citavi to Zotero.
It is possible to switch from Citavi to Zotero, but manual reworking is required. Please refer to the migration instructions. Information on knowledge elements can be found on slide 22, among other places.
As described in the migration guide and these FAQ, the assignment of knowledge elements to categories is not transferred during migration: Knowledge elements (e. g. citations) are inserted into Zotero as notes and are linked to the respective title. Only this title with the respective notes is assigned to categories in Zotero. This is where Citavi and Zotero differ.
We recommend switching from Citavi to Zotero before you start your next writing phase. Here you will find instructions for switching from Citavi to Zotero.
References in your text that were created with Citavi cannot currently be automatically linked to Zotero. The cleanest and most problem-free solution is to reset all source references. To do this, we recommend copying the document, deleting all source references in the copy, and then resetting them using the Zotero plugin. The original document serves as a template.
Once the campus licence expires, Zotero will be available as a free alternative. Here you will find instructions for switching from Citavi to Zotero. If switching is not an option for you, you can also purchase a private Citavi licence.
Unfortunately, there is currently no way to automatically convert Citavi fields in your text document into Zotero references. The cleanest and most problem-free solution when switching to Zotero is to reset all references. To do this, we recommend copying the document, deleting all source references in the copy, and then re-entering them using the Zotero plugin. The original document serves as a template.
Alternatively, you can simply continue to cite using Zotero when citing in the text with author-year references or in footnotes. Please make a backup copy of your Word document beforehand. Titles that were added to your document exclusively using Citavi must then be added to the bibliography via ‘Add/Edit Bibliography’. However, this does not work with a numerical citation style, and all references must be reset.
The University Library of the Technical University of Berlin provides instructions for migrating from Citavi Web to Zotero.
Please note that when exporting projects from Citavi Web, only title data, PDF files and PDF markings can be exported. All citations and other knowledge elements cannot be transferred. We therefore recommend exporting from the Citavi desktop application. Here you will find instructions for switching from Citavi to Zotero.