[suggestion] implement database search integration in Zotero

telemachos

While I know there's the Zotero plugin for various web browsers, it would be less disruptive to my workflow if I could simply search **within Zotero** across major databases like Google Scholar, PubMed or ArXiv right from within Paperpile, and possibly look up PubMed IDs, DOIs, ISBNs. Could this feature be added to the "add items by identifier" icon?

tim820

The "Locate" menu may do what you want. You can add search engines to it. It's at the bottom of the right toolbar and looks a little different now to that shown in the docs, but its basic operation is described here:
https://www.zotero.org/support/locate

Google Scholar is the default lookup engine configured in new installations. That configuration is stored in the engines.json file in the 'locate' folder under the Zotero data directory.

As mentioned at the link above, there are examples with more engines like those in the engines.json file available to download here:
https://github.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools

dstillman

No, I think @telemachos is asking for a way to search for new sources via Google Scholar/etc. from within Zotero. Locate is just for looking up existing Zotero items in external sources.

This isn't something that we'll be adding. Zotero was designed from day one to integrate into the browser, where most modern research happens, and allow saving from across the web. You can use all the functionality that websites provide to find sources and click a single button to save them to Zotero.

and possibly look up PubMed IDs, DOIs, ISBNs

I'm not sure what you mean by this. If you have a PMID, DOI, or ISBN, you can already add items to Zotero with them.

telemachos

What if I don't already have a DOI, PMID, or ISBN?

dstillman

Then you use your web browser.