Organizing Your Research
Materials with Zotero

Sarah Elichko

Social Sciences & Data Librarian

September 23, 2016

Today's workshop

Discuss research management tools and considerations for choosing one

 

Get a focused introduction to Zotero as an option for creating a personal research library


Install and configure Zotero (optional) 

Keep

Organize

Cite and share

Books
Articles
Chapters
Images
Audio
Video
Websites
Notes
Annotations

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 References / metadata
 Files / full-text
      - Links (online or local)
      - Stored copies

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What can Zotero help you do?

Keep all of your research materials together in one place

- Attach references, documents, files, notes, etc.


Organize your materials by project, topic, purpose, course, etc.
- Multiple options: collections, sub-collections, tags, sort fields


Easily find what you've already found
- Search and browse your collected research materials

- Access your library from anywhere with an internet connection

 

Generate citations, bibliographies, and reports

- Add formatted citations to your writing
- Use reports and groups to share references and collaborate

/// Zotero's competition

/// Some considerations for choosing a research /
    reference management tool:

What is most fixed about your research habits and preferences?
     - Device / OS / platform - e.g. must run on Mac or PC
     - Workflow - e.g. frequently adding new sources from browser
 

Are you working with collaborators who already have an established research management platform?

 

How important is long-term consistency?
     - Business models

     - Ease of exporting your data

/// What does using a reference management tool

    require from you?

Some initial set-up time
 

Some time spent figuring out your workflow

 

Consistency - it only works if you actually add your research materials to your Zotero library

 

Some time correcting metadata and fixing citations

/// Adding research materials to Zotero
 

From the browser
    • References
  (Google Scholar)
           --->  Items
    • References and files  (JSTOR)
           --->  Items + attachments

 

Drag-and-drop files

    • PDFs  (+ extracting metadata)

    • Images, other files  (creating items)

/// Attachments:  notes, annotated PDFs

 

 

 

Option 1: Use Zotero’s notes feature
Option 2: Link to your notes (online)

          Take your notes in Google Docs, Simplenote, etc.

           Anything that generates a reliable URL
           Attach link to notes to the item (book, article, etc.)
           Be aware of privacy / sharing settings


Option 3: Extract annotations + notes from PDFs using Zotfile
         Highlight and annotate your PDF (using Adobe Reader)
          In Zotero, right-click and select Extract Annotations
          Your annotations will be stored as notes attached to the item


Option 4: Attach a file (store a copy or link to a file)
         Could be a PDF or photograph

 

/// Organizing your research library
 

• Metadata

• Sorting

• Collections + Sub-Collections

• Tags

/// Citing, sharing, and collaborating

 

Quickly share a few references (+ notes, if you'd like)
         ---> reports

 

Create formatted citations 

         ---> Microsoft Word and Open Office connectors
         ---> Export citation (Google Docs)

"A huge sticking point I have tends to be keeping track of what I saw, where I saw it, and what I thought it was worth remembering for. It feels like stopping to notate is a big speedbump when I'm in chase mode, and not thinking about what a pain it will be weeks later when I don't remember where things came from; I need to be better about saving, tagging, and notating things in Zotero, actually."

"A huge sticking point I have tends to be keeping track of what I saw, where I saw it, and what I thought it was worth remembering for. It feels like stopping to notate is a big speedbump when I'm in chase mode, and not thinking about what a pain it will be weeks later when I don't remember where things came from; I need to be better about saving, tagging, and notating things in Zotero, actually."

Review of Zotero's main features
https://www.zotero.org/support/quick_start_guide

Installing Zotero
http://bit.ly/zotero-setup

 

Configuring Zotero

http://bit.ly/zotero-settings

 

PDFindex
Zotfile

Add columns to sort by (e.g. date added)

Chrome users
    Authorize browser extension to add

    references while Zotero Standalone is closed


Firefox users

    Try full-tab view