Upgrade StorageShare best practices for PDFS, notes, citations, writing, and Zotero
I am interested in how others are using Zotero to organize the research and writing process. While I am excited about Zotero's potential, I am unsure how best to use it. Here is what I would like to do ideally:
1. Begin literature review on new topic using databases like JSTOR, Proquest, and Web of Science.
2. Use Zotero's current "folder" icon in address bar to select articles of interest.
3. Zotero downloads citation information (this already works well), abstract (this often works), and the associated PDF file (with this option enabled in Zotero preferences, it currently works well in JSTOR but not other databases like Proquest).
4. Zotero stores all PDFs in one folder and automatically renames the PDFs based on the associated citation information in the format "Author, Year, Article Title.pdf" (or customized format selected by user).
5. PDFs are read in the browser window and notes are taken in the associated Zotero entry.
6. Zotero allows search in any combination of citation information, abstract/notes, and full text of website/PDF snapshots (stored locally).
7. Lit Review is built by creating new notes that synthesize various articles (these notes take advantage of the "related" option in Zotero to link back to the associated references).
8. The lit review notes and "related" citations are exported to a word processor.
9. The word processor is dynamically linked to the Zotero database for adding new citations and for searching the Zotero database for quotes/notes.
Many of these features are already implemented in Zotero and others seem to be under development. In my opinion, Zotero is already beginning to crush much more mature citation managers in elegance and convenience. From reading these forums, it is evident that there are hundreds of desired additional features. Perhaps it would be helpful to the Zotero developers to have a clear sense about the primary ways researchers use Zotero and what would make the most difference for it to be most useful.
So, how do you organize the writing process? How is Zotero helping? How could it be more useful?
1. Begin literature review on new topic using databases like JSTOR, Proquest, and Web of Science.
2. Use Zotero's current "folder" icon in address bar to select articles of interest.
3. Zotero downloads citation information (this already works well), abstract (this often works), and the associated PDF file (with this option enabled in Zotero preferences, it currently works well in JSTOR but not other databases like Proquest).
4. Zotero stores all PDFs in one folder and automatically renames the PDFs based on the associated citation information in the format "Author, Year, Article Title.pdf" (or customized format selected by user).
5. PDFs are read in the browser window and notes are taken in the associated Zotero entry.
6. Zotero allows search in any combination of citation information, abstract/notes, and full text of website/PDF snapshots (stored locally).
7. Lit Review is built by creating new notes that synthesize various articles (these notes take advantage of the "related" option in Zotero to link back to the associated references).
8. The lit review notes and "related" citations are exported to a word processor.
9. The word processor is dynamically linked to the Zotero database for adding new citations and for searching the Zotero database for quotes/notes.
Many of these features are already implemented in Zotero and others seem to be under development. In my opinion, Zotero is already beginning to crush much more mature citation managers in elegance and convenience. From reading these forums, it is evident that there are hundreds of desired additional features. Perhaps it would be helpful to the Zotero developers to have a clear sense about the primary ways researchers use Zotero and what would make the most difference for it to be most useful.
So, how do you organize the writing process? How is Zotero helping? How could it be more useful?
i am particularly interested in doing 8. more effectively (copied below):
8. The lit review notes and "related" citations are exported to a word processor.
any hints and tips appreciated