How to retrieve full text pdfs from the web for all my references at once automatically

dinosgr
Hello my friends,

I am a total newbie and I really need your help...

I have an existing Zotero reference library that holds about 300 references. Unfortunately, during the last FEW weeks I have NOT been saving the full text pdf files when I was adding a new item to my reference library.

So now, I am looking for a way to retrieve all the full text pdfs for EACH ONE of my 300 references (all at once) automatically.

I want a function that will allow me to:
- Save the full text pdf for each one of my 300 references (retrieve pdf files automatically from the web) ALL AT ONCE.

Does zotero have such a function (update and save locally all full text pdfs for all the items of an existing library automatically)?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH
  • adamsmith
    no, currently the only way to do this is to download & attach the PDFs one-by-one.
    It's certainly something we'd like to be able to do and it's generally planned, but not going to happen very soon.
  • dinosgr
    Thank you for the fast reply Adam.
    At least now I know that I have to do this separately for each one of the 300 references. It should take me less than one day to go throught the 300 references.

    So, if I understand correctly, I should revisit the pubmed URL of each one of my 300 references and click AGAIN on the "save to zotero" icon? Is this all that is required for saving locally the full text pdf (in case it is available)? Or should I do something else apart from saving again the referene.

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH Adam
  • adamsmith
    Zotero doesn't download PDFs from pubmed ever (and never has).
    I guess the easiest would be to click on the DOI of the pubmed entry, download the full text from there (typically the publisher webpage) and attach it to the Zotero item. Just clicking on "Save to Zotero" again will just create a duplicate copy of the item, also without PDF.
  • dinosgr
    OK, I will do that. Thank you Adam. You are very kind and helpful.
  • aurimas
    You can also drag and drop a link to the PDF onto an existing Zotero entry.
  • benyiorji
    I have been a frequent user of Zotero for the past one year. I use Zotero for research work because of its easy accessibility of my references. For the past few days I noticed a change on the Zotero platform. The name Zotero at my toolbar is no longer there, and I have problem downloading full text document. Can someone explain to me what the problem is?
  • adamsmith
    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/no_status_bar_icon
    beyond that start a new thread
  • jessriedel
    I would like to strongly second dinosgr's request for this feature. Adding a PDF for each of my hundred of reference in my BibTeX library is a huge headache.
  • sharachchandra
    I would like to also second this request. Basically a function like Endnote's 'find fulltext'.

    Also wondering if this will require improvements to the OpenURL options, because most university libraries require some authentication if users are off-campus.

    (And btw, on a tangent: there seems to be no keystroke based way of reaching the Library Lookup / CrossRef lookup / G Scholar Lookup commands.)
  • adamsmith
    I don't think we'd go through openURL resolvers, no. If we do this, we'll just use DOI, URL, and title search in google scholar in that order.
  • eparimbelli
    Has this ever been implemented? Would be a great feature to add! I see it being useful for systematic reviews after the screening phase on title and abstracts. Being able to fetch full texts automatically for the references that have survived the screening phase would be soooooo great
  • bwiernik
    There is code written that implements this feature that is waiting for review and merging.
    https://github.com/zotero/zotero/pull/948
  • pbouts
    I also strongly second implementing this feature. Zotero would become more useful for systematic review support. So I am really curious about the status of this review @bwiernik !
  • mrli6666
    I also strongly second implementing this feature. Zotero would become more popular when has this feature. So I am really curious about the status of this new feature. Many many thanks.
  • giody79
    Hi, me too I would like to have updates about this feature. We are considering to adopt Zotero Insitutional in my Univ. and this option has been requested by Endnote users. Thanks a lot!
  • yv-te-zoro
    See details about the addition of this feature here: https://github.com/zotero/zotero/commit/679a6d5cc7e6c87931ea3b484332dda168ad5b5d
  • huangyy
    I am not tech savy. Can someone walk me through as to how to use those codes in the link posted by yv-te-zoro? Thanks!
  • dstillman
    @huangyy: https://www.zotero.org/blog/improved-pdf-retrieval-with-unpaywall-integration/

    If you have further questions, please start a new thread — this one predates the addition of this feature, so I'm going to close this.
This discussion has been closed.