KellyBullard_A5

For context, I have never used a reference manager before, but I had downloaded Zotero at the recommendation of friends prior to this assignment. Therefore, I necessarily approached this assignment with a beginner’s perspective and used it as an opportunity to learn how to use Zotero. Working through the suggested standard functions of reference managers took about 1 ½ hours.

I began by hovering over icons to suss out their functions and quickly learned that you can import citations from databases, webpages, and library catalogs by clicking on the magic wand icon and entering ISBNs DOIs, PMIDs or arXiv IDs. The citation auto-populates for each individual source, which is really convenient. My partner, who was also working at the table, informed me you can also import using command, I. Trying this out, I discovered you can import a set of citations, such as RIS files, this way. Depending on the journal article, it will automatically download a copy of the pdf when you save the citation. From what I could tell, it automatically downloaded OA articles but not articles I had permissions to download through UNC. This was all very intuitive and straightforward, but I’m not sure I would have discovered the command I function without my partner suggesting it, so credit where credit is due.

When hovering over icons, I learned you can manually enter the info for each article you save by clicking the green plus icon. You are also able to do so by going to the menu and selecting File, New. You are able to manually attach files previously stored on your computer or you can enter the download link and it will auto populate if it is OA. You can also drag and drop files from your computer. This is a common Mac function, so I figured it would work here, and it did. Zotero auto populates the citation from the metadata if it’s available. This obviously does not work for scans, but anything with an ISBN, DOI, etc. will auto populate. You can add files individually, but to do a large batch or your entire library, you should select your entire library and drag and drop it into the Zotero window. Files with metadata will auto-populate, and scans’ info must be added manually. You are able manage, categorize, and organize citations by creating new folders and manually dragging items to the folders. Alternatively, you could save titles to folders when initially adding them. Once a file is added to Zotero, you can search it. This is all obviously time intensive on the front end but honestly worth the effort.

When I downloaded Zotero, I did not realize it automatically installed a Microsoft Word plug in. I learned this reading the guide online. If you select references, Zotero in Word, you can create a works cited/references page at the end of a paper in every reference style. You can add directly from your library to that page by using the plug ins search feature. You can browse your entire library and select references via the plug in. The plug in also allows you to choose output style and type of citation (like footnote, endnote, author page, etc.) This is extremely useful, obviously, and it was at this stage that I began to feel very silly about not using a reference manager prior to this point.

You are able to add notes to the citation of each item, but you cannot make inline notes or annotations. If you double click a citation or title listing, Zotero will open the file in a pdf reader application of your choice/whatever your default pdf reader is. While reading the Zotero guide, I learned you can sync your Zotero files across accounts via Zotero.org. When using the application, you can do so by clicking the green refresh symbol in the top right corner. You can work offline, but you cannot sync offline, obviously. You can share citations with other Zotero users, but not the files attached to them, unfortunately. Conversely, you are also unable to view other libraries’ documents. Zotero does not support any social interactions, but I honestly find this to be a plus rather than a drawback. Others having the ability to comb my scholarly library feels a bit intrusive to me. I do think you would be able to work as a group using Zotero, but all participants would need to have log-in information for a single library.

Overall, I found Zotero to be an extremely useful tool with a relatively intuitive user interface. Judging by the fact that it only took me about two hours to learn all of this, and another hour on top of that to transfer and tentatively organize my library, the benefits of the tool far outweigh the costs of set up. Being free is also a huge plus.