reference management software - Zotero tips
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
A massive part of being a doctoral student is independent study, research and the learning of study skills and tips to make things easier. It's not all handed to you on a plate. Not to worry though as there are plenty of blogs, websites, twitter feeds etc to offer quick and easy solutions to make you feel like you're winning.
One key tool you'll need is reference management software and there are a few different options to consider. Your university may recommend a particular software but it doesn't mean you have to use that or stick to that one. My university recommends RefWorks, but I tried it for a few weeks and just couldn't get into using it successfully. So I googled and found other options EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero. a lot of the information I was finding was leading me to believe that Zotero was probably going to be most suitable for me as its compatible with mac and I use apple products.
I remember downloading Zotero and then playing around to try and work it all out. I really didn't know what I was doing but I did know that it was something I would continue to practice with and hone my skills so that it would enable me to study smarter.
Below are some tips that you may find useful when using Zotero and these tips may work on other referencing tools so do give them a try. If you have any other useful tips and tricks then please do share in the comments section.
Zotero can be downloaded onto your computer and it is also cloud-based so has a web-based tool too. The basic package for Zotero is free and this includes up to 300mb of cloud-based storage.
You are able to set up different folders/ collections for particular subject areas, specific areas of your thesis or I have different folders labelled for the different assignments that are part of my EdD. This makes it quick and easy to categorise your literature and hopefully easier to find.
You can drag files from the web and it saves in your library. You might have a reference in your library but no PDF. Get yourself on Google Scholar and do a quick search of the reference. Once you find the relevant PDF simply drag it into the reference in Zotero and Zotero will work its magic, updating the reference with relevant information and also attaching the PDF.
If you want to copy a citation quickly and easily simply ctrl+shift+c or cmd+shift+c and then paste it into the window you want to use it in. If you're emailing the citation to someone simply drag the citation into the chat window, email window and it will transfer over.
You may need the citation in a particular output style then you can change this in preferences, export and selecting the relevant option.
Using the search box in Zotero can be annoying as Zotero is set to start searching once you input a couple of characters. I found this annoying when searching for names that I wasn't too sure on how to spell, as I would start entering the name, go back to check I was spelling it correctly and it would search before I could finish typing and not bring up the results I was looking for. Enter "before you start typing and Zotero will wait for the second " to close the search term. This will allow you to quickly and easily search without getting mad at Zotero like I did.
You can move your Zotero database to a location of your choice. You may wish to have it in a location where it becomes part of your regular back up schedule. Simply go to preferences, advanced and there is an option to customise your storage location.
Its really common to be spending time trawling through literature and you simply save documents to your Zotero but don't file them properly, tag them properly and then you worry about finding them later. You can perform advanced searches and look for items added on particular dates. Simply go to edit, advanced search, and there are various search options available. If you know you were adding documents on Monday 30th March 2020 then you can search date added and it will bring up all documents added that day. Once you've found the documents again you can move them to the right collections and add tags so that you can easily find them in future.
If you're like me and you started using Zotero but didn't bother with tags as you weren't too sure how and why to use them, don't worry.AS your research progresses and you now realise you want to add tags that's not a problem. It can be done. Simply select the items you want to assign the same tag and drag them to the tag selector and to the specific tag you want to use and they will be assigned that tag.
It's really worthwhile having a tag such as 'add details' needs metadata' so that when you find documents that do not have all the relevant information you can simply tag them with this and go back and add in the relevant information when you have more time to consider this.
You may not find all of these tips useful right away but the more that you use Zotero the more you will be needing specific functions and that's when some or all of these tips become handy. I am far from an expert in Zotero but I am getting better at using and enjoying its functions. I am certain that you will have some Zotero tricks up your sleeve and I would love it if you would share these in the comments,.
thanks for reading.
 |
A massive part of being a doctoral student is independent study, research and the learning of study skills and tips to make things easier. It's not all handed to you on a plate. Not to worry though as there are plenty of blogs, websites, twitter feeds etc to offer quick and easy solutions to make you feel like you're winning.
One key tool you'll need is reference management software and there are a few different options to consider. Your university may recommend a particular software but it doesn't mean you have to use that or stick to that one. My university recommends RefWorks, but I tried it for a few weeks and just couldn't get into using it successfully. So I googled and found other options EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero. a lot of the information I was finding was leading me to believe that Zotero was probably going to be most suitable for me as its compatible with mac and I use apple products.
I remember downloading Zotero and then playing around to try and work it all out. I really didn't know what I was doing but I did know that it was something I would continue to practice with and hone my skills so that it would enable me to study smarter.
Below are some tips that you may find useful when using Zotero and these tips may work on other referencing tools so do give them a try. If you have any other useful tips and tricks then please do share in the comments section.
Zotero can be downloaded onto your computer and it is also cloud-based so has a web-based tool too. The basic package for Zotero is free and this includes up to 300mb of cloud-based storage.
You are able to set up different folders/ collections for particular subject areas, specific areas of your thesis or I have different folders labelled for the different assignments that are part of my EdD. This makes it quick and easy to categorise your literature and hopefully easier to find.
You can drag files from the web and it saves in your library. You might have a reference in your library but no PDF. Get yourself on Google Scholar and do a quick search of the reference. Once you find the relevant PDF simply drag it into the reference in Zotero and Zotero will work its magic, updating the reference with relevant information and also attaching the PDF.
If you want to copy a citation quickly and easily simply ctrl+shift+c or cmd+shift+c and then paste it into the window you want to use it in. If you're emailing the citation to someone simply drag the citation into the chat window, email window and it will transfer over.
You may need the citation in a particular output style then you can change this in preferences, export and selecting the relevant option.
Using the search box in Zotero can be annoying as Zotero is set to start searching once you input a couple of characters. I found this annoying when searching for names that I wasn't too sure on how to spell, as I would start entering the name, go back to check I was spelling it correctly and it would search before I could finish typing and not bring up the results I was looking for. Enter "before you start typing and Zotero will wait for the second " to close the search term. This will allow you to quickly and easily search without getting mad at Zotero like I did.
You can move your Zotero database to a location of your choice. You may wish to have it in a location where it becomes part of your regular back up schedule. Simply go to preferences, advanced and there is an option to customise your storage location.
Its really common to be spending time trawling through literature and you simply save documents to your Zotero but don't file them properly, tag them properly and then you worry about finding them later. You can perform advanced searches and look for items added on particular dates. Simply go to edit, advanced search, and there are various search options available. If you know you were adding documents on Monday 30th March 2020 then you can search date added and it will bring up all documents added that day. Once you've found the documents again you can move them to the right collections and add tags so that you can easily find them in future.
If you're like me and you started using Zotero but didn't bother with tags as you weren't too sure how and why to use them, don't worry.AS your research progresses and you now realise you want to add tags that's not a problem. It can be done. Simply select the items you want to assign the same tag and drag them to the tag selector and to the specific tag you want to use and they will be assigned that tag.
It's really worthwhile having a tag such as 'add details' needs metadata' so that when you find documents that do not have all the relevant information you can simply tag them with this and go back and add in the relevant information when you have more time to consider this.
You may not find all of these tips useful right away but the more that you use Zotero the more you will be needing specific functions and that's when some or all of these tips become handy. I am far from an expert in Zotero but I am getting better at using and enjoying its functions. I am certain that you will have some Zotero tricks up your sleeve and I would love it if you would share these in the comments,.
thanks for reading.
Comments
Post a Comment