Working on manuscript together

jgpowers
I am trying to work on a manuscript with a colleague concurrently that will require citations. I want to use zotero, and I created a new "group" but I'm not sure where to house our manuscript--dropbox? google docs? or does Zotero have its own program?
  • aurimas
    Are both of you looking to edit the document simultaneously (as is possible with Google Docs or Offcie 365)?

    If you're just looking to have one person edit the document at a time, then any file sharing solution will work. Both of you can install the Zotero extension, join the same group, and cite from _that_ group.

    Otherwise, for simultaneous editing, you're probably going to have to use http://zotero-odf-scan.github.io/zotero-odf-scan/ and Google Docs (or any other platform that allows you to save documents as ODF).
  • rehemaafful
    how do we access documents. i added someone to my group and i dont know hhow to make documents available for the group.
  • fbennett
    @rehemaafful,

    By "accessing documents", do you mean sharing the manuscript that you are working on together? Or sharing the library references for your joint project?
  • Tash_07
    Hi Aurimas,

    I'm working on a document, one author at a time, but the other authors use different referencing programs. whenever they send it back the zotero links are lost and their ref program links are saved.

    Is there a way to get around this and maintain the "author, date" type of referencing?
  • adamsmith
    Doubtful, to be honest. Collaborating with different reference managers is basically impossible with Word add-ons. Easiest is probably to just keep all reference you use in one collection and generate citations and bibliography directly from Zotero via drag&drop (and shift+drag+drop for citations). It's less automated than the add-on and doesn't auto-update etc., but most of these things get lost with other ref managers anyway.
  • aurimas
    I haven't tried this myself, but perhaps using Bookmarks instead of Fields (see Zotero Document Preferences in Word) might make Zotero links persist. Which other managers are we talking about, so I can play around with this and see what's happening?
  • ongboonlay
    Hi, Aurimas, this seems to be a perennial problem with all the citation managers. We users tend to co-write papers a lot and so it is really important that the papers we write do not get corrupted in the process. Citation is after all the most important part of our papers.

    Is there a way to write some code that will allow multiple types of citations (Endnote, Zotero, Mendeley, etc) in one document but keep them organized within the document? After all, I gather the citation managers all use the same CSL language and I've had little problem importing and exporting files between managers (I use all three - wish I didn't have to). Presumably, it is possible to read and recognise the other citations and simply treat them as part of the reference list. That way, each citation will be kept in their original format but the reference list can still be correctly arranged (alphabetically, or numerically).

    Why must the use of different managers screw up the other citations? Why can't they play together nicely? Even if it means writing the code but making it available to the other managers?
  • fbennett
    edited May 9, 2014
    It's getting better over time, thanks to the proliferation of CSL. Zotero and Mendeley embed metadata in the document using the same format, and so should be able to "localize" one another's citations automagically. I put that to the test in a small addition to the minority Multilingual Zotero variant recently, and it works nicely there.

    EndNote is an outlier, unfortunately. It's an older project with a large captive user base, and hasn't shown much interest in improved compatibility (so far, at least).
  • adamsmith
    edited May 9, 2014
    I gather the citation managers all use the same CSL language
    in case fbennett's post didn't make that clear: Endnote doesn't use CSL (neither does RefWorks). Papers does use CSL, but they're running a different processor, so I wouldn't be optimistic about collaboration there, either. But I do wish Zotero and Mendeley would play nicer with each other, which really shouldn't be that hard to do for the reasons Frank specifies. Mendeley can already import Zotero citations from documents and it wouldn't be terribly hard to have Zotero do the same (see his plugin). Still not quite the same as collboration - but that, too, seems pretty doable.
  • grubs
    Banging my head against this issue now. I use Zotero, one colleague uses EndNote, and another is manually typing citations in. Using Word (2010).

    We now maintain 3 separate bibliographies at the end of the document. This seems to keep the Zotero and Endnote fields/bibliography dynamicly linked. Once we get the final draft approved we plan to break all the links and manually interleave the reference list.

    Happy to hear if I'm missing an obvious better way...
  • adamsmith
    Happy to hear if I'm missing an obvious better way...
    convert your coauthors to Zotero ;) (you asked for "obvious").

    You could have a look at RTF Scan
    https://www.zotero.org/support/rtf_scan
    or at Endnote's equivalent. That may still be a better choice than what you're currently doing.
  • grubs
    I have many notches on my desk for Zotero converts - but there is always at least one recalcitrant dog...

    I can probably get my "Endnote Guy" to insert citations into the text using curly brackets instead of parentheses so rtf_scan could read it. I just tested rtf_scan and it built a new bibligraphy that is separate to the exiting zotero bibliography. Will keep messing with it. Thanks.
  • Azul7
    Hi all,
    I can see this is an old discussion, however it is right now that I am facing the problem, I have all my manuscript draft referenced with zotero and my supervisor wants to add his corrections using EndNote. Do you know if by now there is a solution to work with both programs?. I sent him the library in RIS format which he could import to EN but he cannot edit/add the references in the text.
    Thanks in advance for any help.
  • LiborA
    I think it is impossible. You can add references (cite in text) to one document in Zotero and in Endnote, but these references will be still separated in different fields (you get two bibliographies). Your supervisor can replace your Zotero references by Endnote references (which you sent him), but (I think) the easiest way is sending to you their references and in the document highlight points to input references here (I suppose that amount of your references is higher as a number of references from your supervisor).
  • Azul7
    Thanks for replying LiborA....it's a pity to have an annoyed supervisor because of this issue, but it's like that.
  • fbennett
    Can he just drag the references in from EndNote in pre-formatted form (as text)? You could then do the legwork of replacing the text refs with live Z citations (kind of what LiborA suggests, I think).
  • zurpher
    I've got a draft from an Endnote-using colleague for further work. The draft comes in a docx-format includes endnotes citations and bibliography. As I use zotero, what's the best use moving forward to avoid formatting problems and saving work when it comes to finalizing the draft. I guess it's too late now to work with RTF-Scan as the endnote references are already in the text. Any suggestions?
  • adamsmith
    there is no good workflow -- I'd just insert citation manually or just using quick copy from Zotero and/or insert some sort of placeholder, send the Zotero items to your co-author as RIS and have them insert them with Endnote.
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