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Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

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Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#191

Post by todd8 »

Off topic, I suppose, but this seems like the place to ask if anyone knows how to find a book's library call number (like Dewey Decimal or LCCN) from knowing the ISBN for the book.

I've played around with various MacOS apps, EndNote, and a few other programs, but I've always found the solutions awkward. Does Zotero support this functionality? All I really need is a public SQLite database of book information that contains both ISBN and Call Numbers.

I have a library of (approximately 6000) books that need spine labels. Scanning ISBN's is easy with inexpensive hardware, generating barcoded spine labels isn't hard (using python + LaTeX), and applying them in an archival fashion isn't difficult (using laser printed non-acid paper and 3M Book Tape). The main difficulty is determining accurate Dewey Decimal call numbers for each book. It takes me up to several minutes per book to find this information by hand on the internet.

I'm wondering if there is a way that works programmatically and is less expensive than subscribing to the the WorldCat Search API, a service that makes sense for larger libraries.

Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#192

Post by complex1314 »

smukherjee19 wrote: post #111

As a grad student, Zotero is a lifesaver! Thanks to the people developing it! I use Google Drive for my pdf storage using some Zotfile acrobatics (awesome plugin btw) to manage my actual pdfs. I plan on switching to Zotero's cloud storage to support development as soon as I can. That being said, I wish I had a nice workflow for reading papers on my iPad like I do on PC (Windows specifically, I know there are software…

Did you try this https://www.zotero.org/support/ios_beta? Works great for me.

Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#193

Post by kelsolaar »

carbocation wrote: post #48
WayToDoor wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mendeley went full on Evil Could you explain what happened with mendeley? I've been using it for a while, and didn't notice anything different really.

They locked down the SQLite database so that you couldn't use it with 3rd party tools (such as your own commands, or to export). I am not sure if this got reversed, but at the time it was what triggered me to switch to Zotero. (Still using Zotero, which does everything I need it to.) One thing I like a lot about Zotero is that they charge a subscription once you get over a certain amount of cloud storage, which gives…

Yes, the DB was encrypted for no good reason except that locking users. Funnily enough at that point Mendeley could import from Zorero but Zotero could not import anymore. Thanks to Greydon Gilmore and GDB, I was able to get out: https://blog-academic.greydongilmore.com/phd_related/mendele...

Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#194

Post by ildon »

joppy wrote: post #179
turboaspie wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Zotero can do anything EndNote can do, is Open Source, and with that won't drive your PI up the wall with yet another expense. My university offers EndNote (plus Web of Science and the Clarivate stack) for free for students and many of them don't use it - they'd rather manually manage the bibliography in their Word documents. The university even ran tutorials to show them how to set it up, add citations, and export…

The university just needs to set an assignment which needs to be submitted twice: once with citation style A, and again with citation style B. Anyone not using citation management software will quickly start.

The point about academic research is freedom, in every possible meaning. Including not using the right tools for the job. This ensures "natural selection" of the ideas, processes and workflows that actually work.

Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#195

Post by stjohnswarts »

nerdponx wrote: post #129
g8oz wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconded, some effort by the core team towards packaging Zotero in a deb would be very welcome.

RPM would be nice, too. But maybe that's too much to ask for... Alternatively, what about AppImage? At least that will run "everywhere".

So will flatpak if you're using that on your system (which most distros make very easy to use)

Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#196

Post by anakaine »

jiggunjer wrote: post #69
turboaspie wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Zotero can do anything EndNote can do, is Open Source, and with that won't drive your PI up the wall with yet another expense. My university offers EndNote (plus Web of Science and the Clarivate stack) for free for students and many of them don't use it - they'd rather manually manage the bibliography in their Word documents. The university even ran tutorials to show them how to set it up, add citations, and export…

Having used Zotero, Mendeley and Endnote I ended up on Endnote. I like their metadata scraping, their Word plugin and that many journals offer a pre-configured reference template. But yes as a DBMS it lacks alot in the filter/grouping features and date fields don't convert format intelligently.

I quite like Endnote. I'm unsure if Zotero has a Word plugin.

In Word, alt-1 click reference, alt-2.

Its done. Reference inserted. Bibliography updated. Sweet.

Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#197

Post by gexla »

akjssdk wrote: post #49
westcort wrote: post #40

I write a lot of academic papers and never use this kind of software. EndNote creates uneditable references and slows down Word, Zotero had some limitations after which they charge a monthly fee, and none of the reference libraries are easy to share with external clients. Most other medical/technical writers I know only use these tools as a “reference library.” It might be useful for someone writing a thesis, but alm…

Only if you want to sync pdfs using the Zotero server does Zotero cost money. Anything else is completely free, including syncing your db (without pdf attachments). If you want to sync your pdfs you can point Zotero to a webDAV server, this has worked flawlessly for me.

You can use something like Nextcloud to run your own webDav server, if that's something you are okay with. I haven't tried this, but I believe you can then share out files using Nextcloud via a unique link. Actually, I know the sharing works, just not sure if it's easy to do with a Zotero back-up of PDFs.

The most valuable workflow is the one you have been using and happy with. I wouldn't wish a changed workflow on anyone in this state. I would only suggest another way for someone who is unhappy and already regularly changing. Stick with what works.

Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#198

Post by smukherjee19 »

complex1314 wrote: post #192
smukherjee19 wrote: post #111

As a grad student, Zotero is a lifesaver! Thanks to the people developing it! I use Google Drive for my pdf storage using some Zotfile acrobatics (awesome plugin btw) to manage my actual pdfs. I plan on switching to Zotero's cloud storage to support development as soon as I can. That being said, I wish I had a nice workflow for reading papers on my iPad like I do on PC (Windows specifically, I know there are software…

Did you try this https://www.zotero.org/support/ios_beta ? Works great for me.

Ah, I have heard of it! Unfortunately it seems the slots are filled so I am waiting for the final version.

Hope the iOS version fixes my itch!

Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#199

Post by CRConrad »

tomcam wrote: post #106
medimikka wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mendeley joined the Elsevier "Family." Elsevier is one of the big three making massive amounts of money by selling content they receive for free, paid for by the tax payer or non-profits. I strongly believe, that this has greatly contributed to the "Joe Roganization" of the pandemic, hiding true science and research, often created under the auspices of governmental research trusts, behind a paywall. Anyone not in aca…

> "Joe Roganization" of the pandemic Not sure what that means? Is he hiding true science and research?

> Is he hiding true science and research?

For him it's probably sufficient to just use a heavily-biased selection of it and/or present a heavily-distorted version of its results. (As others in the thread have pointed out, the hiding is done efficiently enough by others, i.e. the heavily-paywalled scientific journals.)

Re: Zotero: Free, easy-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share research

#200

Post by CRConrad »

kuhewa wrote: post #123
medimikka wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mendeley joined the Elsevier "Family." Elsevier is one of the big three making massive amounts of money by selling content they receive for free, paid for by the tax payer or non-profits. I strongly believe, that this has greatly contributed to the "Joe Roganization" of the pandemic, hiding true science and research, often created under the auspices of governmental research trusts, behind a paywall. Anyone not in aca…

Honestly, I am starting to think the open source movement has done as much harm as the subscription model to the scientific information ecosystem. The incentives are so high now to get volume published in pay to publish journals, leading to rushed peer reviews. Also APCs skew who can publish 'well'. The APCs for some top Cell and SpringerNature journals are about ten thousand fucking dollars. Great that the public ca…

> Honestly, I am starting to think the open source movement has done as much harm as the subscription model to the scientific information ecosystem. The incentives are so high now to get volume published in pay to publish journals, leading to rushed peer reviews.

What does that have to do with Open Source?

> Also APCs skew who can publish 'well'. The APCs for some top Cell and SpringerNature journals are about ten thousand fucking dollars.

What are APCs? (Are they perhaps what relates to Open Source here?)

> Great that the public can access it but that's money that either doesn't go to research or has to come out of taxpayer funded grants and straight into the pockets of publishers with huge margins. OA has also spawned a massive predatory journal market.

But even ten thousand fucking dollars sounds a lot less than what those publishers are making now, so isn't it still much better?

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