CadeCarlson_A5

I have selected Zotero as the reference manager to be evaluated. When engaging with the Zotero software application, website, and browser application, the criteria that will be utilized for evaluating how it operates will use the 13 points of the Standard Function of Reference Managers.

For the majority of these points of consideration, I employed a sample of 30 pdf documents where 2 were printout representations of articles from a webpage using Chrome’s “print-to-pdf” function, 2 were pdf files of books (one full book, one selection of scans from a book), 2 are non-journal article formatted documents, 2 were journal documents that I had utilized Acrobat’s highlight tool for note taking, and the remaining 22 pdfs are journal documents that were utilized in various assignments from this Fall 2021 semester. This sample is meant to determine if any of these formats pose discernible conflicts with how Zotero consolidates and represents associated metadata values where variances in format occurs.

1. Import citations from databases, webpages, and library catalogs:

The main means for performing this action utilized the browser attachment for Zotero. I initiated a ProQuest search for scholarly articles written by Jin Ha-Lee. I was returned a long list of articles with the first page of search results displaying 20 articles. When clicking the Zotero browser extension, I window popped up that enabled me to select which of the 20 documents I wished to have “Full Text Snapshots” of integrated into my Zotero Library (Figure 1). I was also given the option of which subfolder I wanted these to be put into (I had a separate “700_assignment5” subfolder created).

While I was able to select which documents to have records created in my Zotero Library, and those selected were moved seamlessly to my Library, there were some inconsistencies regarding which folder they were moved to (I had selected my “700_assignemt5” subfolder, but the files were moved to the general Library folder, whereas the website version of my Zotero library showed them in the folder I had selected). While this was an easy remedied, I am uncertain if this was due to an error on my part, or a common occurrence with this function.

The Full Text Snapshots that were now present in my Library had a fair bit of metadata elements filed out, where my double clicking on the document itself directed me to the associated ProQuest webpage for the document in question. Overall, the importation of large swathes of articles and their metadata elements for citation (addressed later) proved fluid, but the support section of the Zotero website indicated that there have been known issues with importing larger quantities at a time and recommends performing this action in batches (Zotero).

2. Upload your existing digital collection of content (PDFs) from your computer to reference manager:

With my 30 pdf files on my computer, I selected all of them and dragged them into the Zotero desktop application window and was returned a window that indicated whether there the pdf’s metadata was retrieved (Figure 2). Out of the 30 pdf files, only 5 encountered problems, with 1 of them being a scanned book excerpt (returned “PDF does not contain OCRed text”), 1 from a website printout, and 3 from journal articles that were assigned for other classes (for these and the website printout, I was returned “No matching references found”).

Regardless of whether the metadata was retrieved, all 30 documents were integrated into my “700_assignment5” subfolder. Overall, Zotero enables users to upload their collections with relative ease.

3. Have the full-text content items, saved in Reference manager:

When the full-text versions of the pdfs were integrated into the Zotero desktop application, I was able to double click on any of them, leading to the full-text pdf opening for viewing. When checking my Zotero Library on their website, all of the documents that were integrated from my computer were present and double clicking them also opened the full-text pdf documents in the browser as well. The documents that were integrated from the previous ProQuest search when double clicked opened the ProQuest webpages for those articles instead of opening the document themselves.

Overall, having full-text contents accessible through the desktop application and website were consistent in providing access to the pdf files, despite the browser extension only resulting in links to the webpages for the associated document.

4. Create bibliographies in most output styles:

Through selecting multiple items in my Library on the desktop application and then right clicking and selecting the “create bibliography for items” option, I was directed to a window that presented 15 different citation styles to choose from, language, output mode (notes, bibliography), and output method (save as RTF, save as HTML, copy to clipboard, print) (Figure 3). This was very intuitive and the output was a nicely formatted bibliography of the items that were selected. Zotero is able to create bibliographies in a variety of styles. This option is also available through their website.

5. Format citations for papers:

This option was most readily availably on the website as one of the header icons. When selecting multiple items and clicking the “create citations” button, a window popped up with 4 main options for citation style with an additional option for selecting from “+10,100 other styles”. Regardless of which citation style that was selected, the website outputted citations for these items in the expected formats.

6. Manage, categorize, and organize citations:

While there are options available for creating different subfolders that specific items can be integrated into as a means of managing, categorizing and organizing them, an additional function that I found to be of potential use was the “merge duplications” function. Engaging with this function searched for items in my Library that had matching DOI/ISBN numbers, and gave me the option to merge these as a means to declutter (I had added duplicates of some items to see how this function worked). Although this cleaned up my subfolder as I was able perform this action through single mouse clicks per detected duplicated item, the application noted that all copies were still retained within the library and that removing those would mean that I would have to manually delete them.

This was a fairly helpful function, but seems to only serves to further sort my collection as opposed to removing the duplicates, though I can imagine that this is preferred as a means to avoid unintentionally deleting swaths of items in my library if I were not careful.

7. Add notes, make annotations on articles in your collection:

The desktop application enabled notes to be added to any item (right-click and then “add note”), where multiple notes can be added and tagged with colors for further organizational purposes. In addition to this option, any metadata element can be amended per document as well if there were data points that were found to be omitted or required amending.

8. Web-based so you can use from multiple computers:

When testing Zotero’s various manifestations, I utilized both my desktop computer and my school laptop in tandem in order to see if changes that were made on either desktop application or through the Zotero website would manifest across these various platforms. When performing the sync function for the browser extension and desktop application, the manifestations of my Library were observed to be consistent. Zotero enables consistency and access across various hardware platforms if merited by the user, with a 300-megabyte allotment for storage in their cloud made available for free, with additional space being made available through payment plans with the service (Figure 4).

9. Work offline:

When testing to see how these applications performed with no internet access, adding pdfs to the desktop application required internet connection in order to retrieve the items relevant metadata. These fields could still be amended and documents accessed if they were integrated into the library by way of directly putting the files themselves into the application. Naturally, internet access is required to access the website profile/library.

10. Share your article collection with others:

It seems that the best way to go about enabling my collection of documents to be accessible by others is to utilize the “Group” function of the website, where one can create a group that has various levels of access to my library or sub-collection within. Doing so enables others to search for your collection and view your shared documents. This could be useful for projects but also if one was trying to share personal research with others that have Zotero accounts as well (free to sign up for).

11. View others article collections:

As mentioned in item 10, the group option makes this possible. There is a group search engine where one is able to enter in relevant information or organization as a means to see other’s article collections. The main options for searching are divided into either “people” or “groups”, with the search results returning the group title, quantity of members, group type (Public, Open/Closed Membership), and group library, which lists permissions granted to those that wish to engage with a group’s article collection (permission for who can view and edit the collection).

12. Interact socially with other researchers:

While functions explored in items 10 and 11 enable collections to be accessed by researchers and others, beyond the permissions that can be allotted as far as who can edit the collection or view it, there are no further social functions that were discernable even when parsing the robust support webpage on the Zotero website.

13. Work as part of a group:

As mentioned in items 10-12, Zotero has the group function that enables a collection of items to be shared between individuals. The set of permissions that can be allotted comes into more focus here, as the permissions for who can view a collection and who can edit it (and thus add notes if merited) are all available for customization depending on the group’s needs.

Overall, I was fairly impressed with Zotero independent of this being my first experience engaging with a reference manager. Through interacting with the desktop application, website, and browser extension, many of the 13 points of the Standard Function of Reference Managers were fairly intuitive in my testing, with any hurdles being remedied through consulting the robust support section of the Zotero website, and should be worth noting as it was highly accessible and addressed any question/issues that I personally came across, especially given that this was my first interaction with a reference manager. I come away with a fairly positive impression of Zotero’s functionalities and plan on integrating it into my scholarly workflow moving forward.

References:

“Zotero Support.” Zotero. Accessed November 27, 2021. https://www.zotero.org/support/.