The current Citavi campus licence expires in a year on 30 November 2026 and cannot be renewed.

As an alternative to Citavi, we recommend Zotero. Zotero is a free, open-source reference management programme that can be used on all common operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux). Further information about Zotero can be found on our website.

For information on changing from Citavi to Zotero, please refer to our FAQ, information and recommendations below. 

If you have any questions or problems, please contact literaturverwaltung@sub.uni-goettingen.de (E-Mail).

Will I still be able to access my Citavi projects after the campus licence expires? 

After the licence expires, you will still have read-only 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 make sure to back up your cloud projects in time.

How can I archive my Citavi project?

In addition to backups in the Citavi data format, Citavi offers several options for archiving project data. Use these to have various correction bases after moving to Zotero.

• Table with Excel export option: With the project open, press Ctrl+Alt+T. The columns of the table can be chosen individually. You can also save citation keys, links between references, locations, tasks, and much more.
• Section ‘References’: Project bibliography > Save annotated. Output: Word file, txt, PDF or similar (Here, the knowledge elements can also be saved attached to the titles.)
• Section ‘Knowledge’: Compilation > Save with options. Output: Word file, txt, PDF, etc.
• Section ‘Tasks’:  Task list > Save list. Output: Word file, txt, PDF, etc.

How do I transfer my Citavi project to Zotero?

When transferring, the project is first saved locally and then imported into Zotero. Detailed step-by-step instructions can be found here (courtesy of Mannheim University Library). The University Library of Bamberg has provided a video tutorial.

What kind of information is stored when switching from Citavi to Zotero?

Literature sources with all bibliographic details and attachments like PDF documents, including annotations, get transferred. Since Zotero doesn't have a subtitle field, title and subtitle end up together in the title field.

Knowledge items (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. For more information, please refer to our FAQ and the migration guide (courtesy of UB Mannheim).

Keywords become tags in Zotero.

Citavi categories are mapped to 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 will then be listed as sub-collections in Zotero.

What kind of information is NOT stored when changing from Citavi to Zotero?

Images are not transferred. Image citations are transferred without the image.

Links between references are not preserved.

Knowledge items (e.g. quotations or comments) will be added as notes and assigned to the respective reference. Information about whether an item is a direct quotation, an indirect quotation, a summary or a comment will not be transferred. Links to the source and assignments to categories and keywords will also not be retained. Knowledge items can be inserted as notes in Word, but without the corresponding source reference. Manual editing is therefore necessary in some cases. Please refer to the instructions (courtesy of UB Mannheim).

Tasks are also transferred as notes. However, the link to the title or project is lost, so you will need to reassign them manually later. It is helpful to archive the project, including the tasks, in table form in Excel and use it as a basis for corrections, see above ‘How can I archive my Citavi project?’.

Locations are transferred, but if you have entered multiple locations for a title in Citavi, only one location will be kept. The file names of private collections are not transferred.

Edited books must be relinked to the respective contributions. Please refer to the instructions (courtesy of UB Mannheim).

Please note: Archive your Citavi project in a way that allows you to restore your data in one form or the other in Zotero. Please refer to our instructions above on archiving your projects.

Why can't I unzip the Citavi backup file?

Install a programme on your computer that can unzip .bak files. We recommend the programme 7-Zip.

The Citavi file import is not working. What can I do?

You must unzip the .ctv6bak backup file 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.

Especially if you have not yet worked with the Word add-in, switching from Citavi to Zotero is usually quite straightforward. Instructions can be found here (courtesy of UB Mannheim).

If you have only used Citavi to collect literature so far, switching from Citavi to Zotero is usually quite simple. Instructions for migrating can be found here (courtesy of UB Mannheim).

It is possible to switch from Citavi to Zotero, but manual editing will be required. Please refer to the migration instructions (courtesy of UB Mannheim). Information on knowledge items can be found on slide 18 and 19.

As described in the migration instructions and these FAQs, the assignment of knowledge items to categories is not maintained during migration: Knowledge items (e.g. citations) appear in Zotero as notes and are linked to their respective titles. Only the titles with the related notes are assigned to categories in Zotero. In this respect, Citavi and Zotero differ.

We recommend switching from Citavi to Zotero before your next writing phase. Instructions for changing from Citavi to Zotero can be found here (courtesy of UB Mannheim).

At present, references in your text that were created with Citavi cannot be converted to Zotero references automatically. The smooth solution is to re-enter all references. To do this, we recommend copying the document, deleting all references in the copy, and then re-entering them using the Zotero plugin. The original document serves as a reference.

Zotero is available as a free alternative to Citavi. Instructions for switching from Citavi to Zotero can be found here (courtesy of UB Mannheim). If migrating to Zotero is not an option for you, you can also purchase a private Citavi licence.

At present, references in your text that were created with Citavi cannot be converted to Zotero references automatically. The smooth solution is to re-enter all references. To do this, we recommend copying the document, deleting all references in the copy, and then re-entering them using the Zotero plugin. The original document serves as a reference.

Alternatively, you can continue to cite with Zotero in your document when citing in-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 using Citavi must then be added to the bibliography via ‘Add/Edit Bibliography’. However, this does not work with a numerical citation style. In this case, all references must be re-entered.

The TU Berlin University Library 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 items cannot be transferred. We therefore recommend exporting from the Citavi desktop application. Instructions can be found here (courtesy of UB Mannheim).

The FAQs are based on information and recommendations provided by Greifswald University Library. We thank the Greifswald colleagues for their permission to reuse this Information, as well as our colleagues from Mannheim University Library for the permission to use their Migration Guide in English.