I recently encountered a significant issue while assisting with the preparation of a thesis in International Relations, which we drafted using Google Docs integrated with Zotero, based on recommendations from peers. Unfortunately, we faced a critical challenge upon our final review before submission: the in-text citations were not linked to the bibliography, a vital component of the thesis format, returning this message when clicked: "You likely ended up here by clicking on a citation created by Zotero in a Google Doc."
This experience led to a distressing realization about the compatibility limitations between Zotero and Google Docs, which are not prominently disclosed. This lack of clear, upfront communication about such significant functionality gaps can jeopardize months of diligent academic effort.
WORKAROUND: Understanding that not all users have access to MS Word, where Zotero integration might resolve this issue, here’s how I managed to manually link in-text citations to the bibliography in Google Docs:
In your bibliography, select each reference, go to Insert -> Bookmark, and then copy the link generated for the bookmark. Locate each in-text reference, use the "Add Link" feature to paste the bookmark link, and adjust the formatting by removing the blue color and underline. Repeat this process for each citation in your document. This method is time-consuming but currently seems to be the only workaround for users confined to Google Docs.
SUGGESTIONS: From a software engineering standpoint, specializing in Machine Learning, and having authored several theses and research papers, I strongly recommend considering LaTeX or Overleaf for academic writing. These platforms support automatic in-text referencing, bibliographies, lists of figures, and tables of contents, seamlessly integrated with BibTeX entries from Google Scholar. The learning curve is worth the reliability and time saved, especially as deadlines approach.
I hope this feedback prompts a discussion about improving user guidance on software compatibility and encourages others to share their solutions or consider alternative tools like LaTeX for a smoother, error-safe, writing process.
@Luca96t: No, you've misunderstood this. (I also linked to the wrong documentation page when responding to the original poster in 2022. I've moved this to a new thread to avoid further confusion.)
Google Docs integration works just like Word and LibreOffice: you insert citations and you add a bibliography, which gets updated based on the citations in the document. Citations are never actual links (as in, things you click on) to the bibliography — that's not and has never been a feature for any of the supported word processors. People ask for it occasionally, some people have shared Word macros that will do it after the fact, and we'll likely implement it at some point, but it's in no way a universally required feature.
You'd end up with links to the zotero.org page saying "You likely ended up here by clicking on a citation created by Zotero in a Google Doc" if you or someone else downloaded a Google Doc containing Zotero citations as a Word document without either unlinking citations (in a copy) using the plugin or following the Moving Documents with Zotero Citations Between Word Processors steps. If you've used the plugin within the Google Doc in that session, it will also show a warning if you try to just download a document with active citations.
Please skip the hyperbole when posting here in the future and just explain the problem you're experiencing so that we can help you.
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I recently encountered a significant issue while assisting with the preparation of a thesis in International Relations, which we drafted using Google Docs integrated with Zotero, based on recommendations from peers. Unfortunately, we faced a critical challenge upon our final review before submission: the in-text citations were not linked to the bibliography, a vital component of the thesis format, returning this message when clicked: "You likely ended up here by clicking on a citation created by Zotero in a Google Doc."
This experience led to a distressing realization about the compatibility limitations between Zotero and Google Docs, which are not prominently disclosed. This lack of clear, upfront communication about such significant functionality gaps can jeopardize months of diligent academic effort.
WORKAROUND:
Understanding that not all users have access to MS Word, where Zotero integration might resolve this issue, here’s how I managed to manually link in-text citations to the bibliography in Google Docs:
In your bibliography, select each reference, go to Insert -> Bookmark, and then copy the link generated for the bookmark.
Locate each in-text reference, use the "Add Link" feature to paste the bookmark link, and adjust the formatting by removing the blue color and underline.
Repeat this process for each citation in your document.
This method is time-consuming but currently seems to be the only workaround for users confined to Google Docs.
SUGGESTIONS:
From a software engineering standpoint, specializing in Machine Learning, and having authored several theses and research papers, I strongly recommend considering LaTeX or Overleaf for academic writing. These platforms support automatic in-text referencing, bibliographies, lists of figures, and tables of contents, seamlessly integrated with BibTeX entries from Google Scholar. The learning curve is worth the reliability and time saved, especially as deadlines approach.
I hope this feedback prompts a discussion about improving user guidance on software compatibility and encourages others to share their solutions or consider alternative tools like LaTeX for a smoother, error-safe, writing process.
Google Docs integration works just like Word and LibreOffice: you insert citations and you add a bibliography, which gets updated based on the citations in the document. Citations are never actual links (as in, things you click on) to the bibliography — that's not and has never been a feature for any of the supported word processors. People ask for it occasionally, some people have shared Word macros that will do it after the fact, and we'll likely implement it at some point, but it's in no way a universally required feature.
You'd end up with links to the zotero.org page saying "You likely ended up here by clicking on a citation created by Zotero in a Google Doc" if you or someone else downloaded a Google Doc containing Zotero citations as a Word document without either unlinking citations (in a copy) using the plugin or following the Moving Documents with Zotero Citations Between Word Processors steps. If you've used the plugin within the Google Doc in that session, it will also show a warning if you try to just download a document with active citations.
Please skip the hyperbole when posting here in the future and just explain the problem you're experiencing so that we can help you.