[Taxacom] Zotero reference extention

[D.J.King]

Zotero is an excellent, robust Firefox plug-in. I have used it for some time. It has replaced several tools that I used to use including Endnote for bibliographic management and Scrapbook (another Firefox plug-in) for saving web resources.

Zotero has all the features you'd expect of a bibliography manager, including direct import of citations from the web (eg set your Google Scholar Advanced Preferences for the Bibliography Manager to show citation links). It also has 'translators' that can harvest citations from sites directly in to Zotero. In addition, Zotero works with all manner of other web resources. So, if there's a page you want to copy or link to, or a pdf to save, it really is just one click to complete the job.

Zotero lets you add freeform notes to these different items, so that you can easily capture your thoughts as you work.

You can organise the items into 'Collections', but I prefer to use 'Tags', to which I can keep adding/changing as my understanding of the material develops, and 'Related', which provides for a direct link between related items.

Just as importantly the various export options, including plug-ins for Word and OpenOffice, let you get all that information of Zotero.

I do have one problem with Zotero. Currently the Zotero display pane may be either below or above the other content in your browser window. However, I generally work with a widescreen laptop, and I'd much rather have the display to the left (or the right) of the browser content.

Finally, Zotero also makes it easy to share your data. Zotero databases can be synchronised, exchanged or merged. There's even a hosting service where you can form a group and have everyone working on the same Zotero database. Rod Page has just set one up for article metadata for items in the Biodiversity Heritage Library http://www.zotero.org/groups/biodiversity_heritage_library.

Cheers

Dauvit King
Research Associate
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA

E-mail : d.j.king at open.ac.uk


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The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).




The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).