Does anyone use Zotero?
18 Apr
Posted by Clancy
in research
Zotero is a Firefox extension that helps you assemble and organize a bibliography, and it seems to be similar to CiteULike in some ways. I've installed it, but I haven't used it. Does anyone else here use it? Can you recommend some specific ways to use it? Zotero is just one of those things, like Quicksilver, Dreamweaver, and DevonThink, that I don't get (yet).
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just started looking at it
I just started looking into it also. I think it will be "the" citation management application once it adds some of the features it is planning, like sharing citations, rss feeds, and (importantly) integration with Word and OpenOffice.
I like the ability to share citations like at connotea and citeulike, but I want to store local/private copies of the full papers too (like on citeseer). I think Zotero does let you store the full paper privately, but I haven't tried that yet.
Here are some other alternatives too, and links to comparisons:
http://edresearch.wikispaces.com/Citation+Management
A Very Impressive Tool
I've also been dabbling with it, showing it to students, and what-not. My initial observation is that it's much, much easier than RefWorks--and it's free. I did try it out a few times, and was impressed that I can go to my library's databases or even to Amazon and automatically pull all the citation info just by clicking a button in the address bar. I just wish I'd had something like this when I was doing my dissertation. You can add tags and notes to each entry, plus arrange them by folder. Hard to argue with that.
You might compare this tool to Google Notebook, which I've used extensively. Zotero is more oriented towards eventually writing a research paper, complete with a traditional works cited page. The Notebook is more useful for blogging and online research.
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Interesting -- thanks!
So it will automatically generate a bibliography, like RefWorks? Is it synced up with a lot of scholarly indexes?
CultureCat
I've used it a lot, and
I've used it a lot, and they're improving it all the time. Here's one post I've written about it, which points to an earlier post with even more. I really like it.
http://www.brynmawr.edu/etc/etcblog/2007/03/another-look-at-zotero.html
Laura
Many Uses
Actually you can export the references in several formats, and the nice part of Zotero is that because of the way it is written, it is relatively easy to augment or expand. So, for example if a certain style is not available it can be added. As a replacement for Endnotes or Refworks, definitely go Zotero. In the long run I can't see many advantages to those over Zotero (especially when the Zotero server goes up which will allow scholars to share references easily). The third podcast at digital campus talks about this and cyberinfrastructure in general.
As far as Devon goes, I don't think Zotero offers all of the features I would want as a database manager. Devon would be one of the two or three essential tools for me (I think the only program that gets more work on my computer is the web browser and Quicksilver).
Quite versatile
I've been using it since last Fall and am impressed by its features. I don't know if it will work for everyone's library, but zotero even gets you inside our library's off-campus system (pulls up the password page and then takes you directly from there to the article you've saved). It also has a great snapshot feature.