Zotero: The Next Generation Research Tool (part 2/2)

Perhaps the most useful feature on Zotero is its ability to interact with Microsoft Word (and other similar word-processing software such as Open Office), which saves time and guarantees accuracy when it comes to creating long bibliographies.

By downloading and installing a Zotero plugin, users will have access to an additional toolbar within their respective word processor which permits the importing of bibliographic data into a word document from the Zotero library. For example, choose the "insert citation" button to include a page reference everytime you use a quote from a source stored in Zotero, and once you're done you can choose to "insert bibliography" and Zotero will print out a bibliographic entry for each citation you've used in any style you choose - MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, and so on. Furthermore, if you need to include a bibliographic entry for a book you haven't quoted from within your document, you simply drag and drop the source from Zotero into your word document and the plugin will produce the entry for you. No more hurrying back and forth to the bookshelf (or worse, the library) to find out what year a particular book was published. Again, you really need to use this plugin to fully understand how it functions, but you might also want to have a look at the accompanying documentation located here.

Another nifty little feature of Zotero is the Timeline option. Select a subfolder within your library and click on "Create Timeline" within the Actions menu. This displays a timeline for your bibliographic data within Firefox, which you can sort via month, year, decade - anyway you want. A good way of making sure your sources are mostly up to date!

I've said a lot about what I like about Zotero, and obviously it's not flawless. Whilst it allows highlighting and annotations within HTML files once you choose to "take a snapshot" of the web page you're looking at, it doesn't permit this same feature when it comes to PDF files. The reason for this is that the data for PDF files is stored remotely, so Zotero can't access the information it needs to in order to do to PDF files what it does with everything else. I've found a way around this however - download a program called PDF XChange (for free!) and set it as your default PDF viewer. PDF XChange is essentially an alternative to Adobe Acrobat, and it allows you to easily highlight and annotate PDF files once you've saved a copy onto your hard drive. Overall I prefer it to the Acrobat reader, but it's no sweat if you don't - you can always print the document out and write on it by hand.

Another issue I have with Zotero is the current limit on the amount of translators available. 'Translators' are plugins within Zotero which search for bibliographic data on certain web sites you may visit, and pull that data down if there's code written for it. Currently there aren't any such 'translators' for sites such as the Internet Movie Database, Lexis Nexis, and the MLA online to name just a few. The list is growing, and there's a small army of developers working on these things, but it requires a sound knowledge of JavaScript to develop one yourself, and despite opting for the Scaffold plugin I couldn't get one to work myself. Maybe with a little more help I might make some progress, but right now I don't have the time to spend hours fiddling with code - maybe someone else out there does?

To summarise then, I think what Zotero manages to do is provide software-based support for the academic who doesn't want to completely abandon paper-based note-taking. It supplements the traditional methods of research, and saves a heck of a lot of time when it comes to writing up. When it comes to working on large-scale research projects, I would say this is an essential piece of software and one whose benefits become apparent the more you use it. If anyone has any questions regarding Zotero (if you've decided to use it) then you can contact me at l dot d dot durbin at ex dot ac dot uk. You may also want to take a look through these articles I found concerning Zotero:

http://insidehighered.com/views/2007/09/26/mclemee
http://digitalhistoryhacks.blogspot.com/2006/09/first-look-at-zotero.html
http://www.linux.com/articles/57841

There's also this Wikipedia entry which compares reference management software of various kinds (I'd say Zotero comes out the best overall), and finally a list of institutions recommending Zotero, many of whom have produced extensive tutorials for their students.

Now that I'm done writing writing about Zotero for the meantime, I'll try to post more frequently as my thoughts turn more towards what I'm actually working on for my PhD.