Upgrade StorageBest Practices as of mid 2011, recommendations and comments please
I'm starting this thread since I would like others to avoid the quandaries I've had in my usage of Zotero. This is far from comprehensive, but I think it might well help most generic researchers in their use of Zotero.
When performing research in a library:
1) Books and other non-electronic sources: grab a stack of potentially useful sources, as you grab the first one, create an entry in Zotero first thing, and while you can take notes in the abstract field (I did, and regret it), it's not best practice, use the notes tab for notes, and tag it with as many useful tags as you can think of (I'm sure someone else could elaborate).
a) Title: use sentence case (as opposed to capitalizing every word, I understand for styles that require that case, Zotero automatically formats it so).
b) Author (or Editor or whatever): use initials without periods, and to enter another one, use shift-enter when done with the present author.
c) Abstract: use for notetaking if you desire, but best notetaking is in the notes tab (since fields in the info tab tend to close immediately when switching to other windows).
d) Publication, Volume, Issue, etc... straightforward, no? use 0-9 type numbers where applicable...
e) Edition: use Arabic numerals not Roman or spelled out (i.e. 0-9, not I-X or fourth)
f) Pages: means like 29-34, not total number, unless it says "# of Pages" (like for books)
g) If you want to cite a specific quote from the source, type it up in your notes, put quotes around it and the page number (APA for example requires a page number for quoted text.)
2) Electronic sources: don't hesitate to use the download function to store the pdf in Zotero (if available) for later perusal. Examine the data imported as well, there's probably something you should fix or change. I've found misspelled author names and many missing fields.
3) In general (redundant to the above):
When in doubt, use the more generic citation style if you can't find a definitive source that indicates one way or the other and test the output by right clicking the item and selecting Create Bibliography from the menu.
Use sentence case for titles. (Capitalize the first word, make others lowercase except for proper nouns.)
Import pdfs, don't save them outside of Zotero except as backups.
When performing research in a library:
1) Books and other non-electronic sources: grab a stack of potentially useful sources, as you grab the first one, create an entry in Zotero first thing, and while you can take notes in the abstract field (I did, and regret it), it's not best practice, use the notes tab for notes, and tag it with as many useful tags as you can think of (I'm sure someone else could elaborate).
a) Title: use sentence case (as opposed to capitalizing every word, I understand for styles that require that case, Zotero automatically formats it so).
b) Author (or Editor or whatever): use initials without periods, and to enter another one, use shift-enter when done with the present author.
c) Abstract: use for notetaking if you desire, but best notetaking is in the notes tab (since fields in the info tab tend to close immediately when switching to other windows).
d) Publication, Volume, Issue, etc... straightforward, no? use 0-9 type numbers where applicable...
e) Edition: use Arabic numerals not Roman or spelled out (i.e. 0-9, not I-X or fourth)
f) Pages: means like 29-34, not total number, unless it says "# of Pages" (like for books)
g) If you want to cite a specific quote from the source, type it up in your notes, put quotes around it and the page number (APA for example requires a page number for quoted text.)
2) Electronic sources: don't hesitate to use the download function to store the pdf in Zotero (if available) for later perusal. Examine the data imported as well, there's probably something you should fix or change. I've found misspelled author names and many missing fields.
3) In general (redundant to the above):
When in doubt, use the more generic citation style if you can't find a definitive source that indicates one way or the other and test the output by right clicking the item and selecting Create Bibliography from the menu.
Use sentence case for titles. (Capitalize the first word, make others lowercase except for proper nouns.)
Import pdfs, don't save them outside of Zotero except as backups.