Feedback on Zotero as the main citation software for a company

Quick facts: company of about 350-400 researchers, looking to make Zotero the main citation software as opposed to EndNotes.

Main opposition: fear that lack of "formal" support will make it hard to manage

My question, I am the helpdesk manager, how robust is the user forum for Zotero and can I get any feedback from folks who have made this transition?

Hope I am not violating any forum protocols, and thank you in advance for you responses.

Joe Busch
  • edited July 6, 2017
    There are around a dozen users who regularly respond to numerous requests and questions on the forums. For example, @adamsmith and I are active users and volunteers who answer questions, triage problems, and help users to solve problems. All of Zotero's developers also read every forum post and respond as needed (e.g., to report on debug logs, help with account/syncing problems, respond to issues relating to billing, etc.). Many contributors to the broader Zotero/CSL community also respond regularly (e.g., @adamsmith, @Rintze, @fbennett, @damnation).

    In terms of responsiveness, most forum posts are responded to within a day (I can say that I personally check the forums at least once a day to try to respond to questions).

    I'm primarily an active user of Zotero. I transitioned to Zotero about 5 years ago from Endnote, and I am always been immensely impressed with the responsiveness of the developers and the community. This was a big part of why I became involved, as well. I've transitioned my entire lab and many of my collaborators' labs over to Zotero. The ease of Zotero's groups for sharing items among team members has been incredible.

    Overall, I don't think that support will be a major obstacle for successfully implementing Zotero in your organization. Zotero has also worked with organizations before regarding institutional storage plans and other collaborations with large organizations.
  • What bwiernik says is a very good summary.

    In addition to that, I've consulted with a mid-sized biomed startup who uses Zotero for all their literature. It's also used for International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, and in use at several other international organizations including the IAEA, the International Labor Organization, and the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, so definitely suitable for large organizations.
  • I'd actually say that our forums are far more effective than what you'd get with formal support. Given Zotero's open-source nature, there are entire parts of the project that the core staff members aren't the best people to help with — I'm the lead developer, and the people listed above (and others) can give you much better answers than I can on all sorts of questions, with domain or technical knowledge that I don't have. But as bwiernik says, the core developers also read every thread, so you'll get help directly from us as necessary without going through support reps. (I'm also pretty sure our average forum response times beat email-based support from most other companies — while it depends on the question, you'll often get responses within minutes.)
  • edited April 24, 2017
    Also, there are people across the world who properly respond to support requests. That means that support is often quickly available 24/7. lead developer dstillman sells himself short... When bugs or other problems have been identified in the program a cure is identified almost immediately and a program update follows usually the same day.
  • edited April 24, 2017
    One more thing: journal publishers change their manuscript style requirements now and then. Time and again, the necessary updates/changes are made to update Zotero within hours of a user's report of the problem.
  • Thank you all for your comments, hopefully this will make our decision-makers happy!
  • As an active user of the software and a frequent visitor to these forums, I can attest that technical support with Zotero is second to none. On rare occasions, there is no good/easy solution to a tricky technical problem, but what I appreciate most is that the forums always provide a prompt answer and workarounds if available.

    Also, the open source nature comes with unique benefits. One of which is that if you are in desperate of a feature, you could possibly write your own solution, or fund an existing add-in developer to add the solution to their toolkit. Please note I am saying add-in developer, not the core Zotero development team.
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