Zotero vs Google Drive

amdijefri
Hello everyone,

I am ramping up at work to review several hundred documents submitted by several dozen organizations applying for a grant-style program. I will be reviewing the proposals with a small group of people. I am currently using Zotero extensively outside work as I write my thesis. It seems to me that Zotero would be an excellent tool to manage, read, tag, comment, filter, search, and share the proposals within the group. Someone else has suggested Google Drive as an adequate and more familiar substitute. I have begun to put together a pro/con evaluation of both and would welcome anyone's input.















Tool Pros Cons
Google Drive

  • Familiar overall

  • Familiar, hierarchical file management

  • Supports all file types

  • Click on documents to open and read

  • Native search capability (it's Google, after all…)

  • All documents in one place (sharing not required)

  • Accessible from any browser


  • Tagging limited to folders of documents, not documents individually

  • Filtering capability unknown

  • Commenting within document only possible using Google native formats OR commenting within non-Google native formats requires re-uploading, which is inconvenient and will lead to synchronization issues

  • Commenting outside document would require creating another document thus disassociating comment with original document

  • Ability to search within a subset of documents unknown

  • Must be on-line to access OR must make a local copy of document(s) which is undesirable

Zotero

  • Familiar overall after introduction; complexity on the order of iTunes

  • Each item can store one or more documents, notes, etc. along with metadata

  • Supports all file types

  • Items can be placed in one or more hierarchical collections using a familiar interface

  • Click on documents to open and read

  • Multiple tags can be added to each item

  • Comments can be added within files

  • Comments can be added outside files but remain associated with that file

  • Items may be filtered using tag queries

  • Items, documents, and associated notes may be searched globally or within collections

  • “Group Library” capability will synchronize staff changes to the entire group

  • Fully usable off-line


  • Some learning curve to make full use of capabilities

  • Requires Firefox browser add-on on any OS or Mac OS X computer for standalone version

  • adamsmith
    I think a crucial advantage of Google Drive for this type of work would be the ability to simultaneously mark-up a document with multiple users. For Zotero, attached files are binaries, so if two users mark-up and then sync (e.g. a PDF) you'd get a file sync conflict and would have to pick a version. That sounds like a recipe for disaster tbh.

    So if commenting and marking up within documents is an important part of the work, my suggestion would be to not use Zotero.

    If you're just going to comment _on_ the documents, but not in them, Zotero would work pretty nicely, though, but might still be overkill if you first need to train people to use it, require installation etc.
  • amdijefri

    Thanks adamsmith. Since the documents will not be submitted to us in a Google apps format, we do not want to convert them ourselves (incurring potential reformatting/content errors in the process) which would be a precursor to being able to comment within the documents in Google Drive.

    My workflow preference with either tool is to comment on, not in, the documents, which Google Drive can't do at all.

    In general, thank you, and I will take all your comments into consideration.

  • fcheslack
    I'm not going to comment on suitability for what you're working on, but Zotero standalone is available for Windows, OSX, and Linux. The download page just recommends the one appropriate for your system.
  • amdijefri
    Thanks fcheslack! Big oversight on my part.
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