Switching the citation manager in a (MS Word/LibreOffice) document from Zotero to Endnote

Mojo Dodo
By going through the forum discussions I've seen that a frequent request is switching the citation manager in a document (eg from Zoteros' Word Processor Plugins to EndNote or Citavi or vice versa). I can totally understand that this would be an extremely copmlex or even impossible task to programm. However, I wonder if there is a comparably simple option to accomplish that.

I could imagine the following strategie (either directly implemented in Zotero itself or as a separate plugin/macro for MS Word or LibreOffice) to replace all Zotero references in a document with ones from EndNote:
The plugin could delete all the in-text citations one by one and each time place the cursor to the position where the citation was. In a separate window, which would be displayed permanently, the deleted citation is shown, so that one would know which one had just been deleted. One would then just have to choose the according citation in the preferered citation manager (eg EndNote) which would be inserted directly where the Zotero-citation was, because the cursor is in that position. By clicking a Next-button in the Plugin Window the next Zotero-citation would be deleted, the cursor set to it's old position and the deleted source would be displayed in the plugin window telling the user which citation to choose from EndNote.

I hope my explanation was more or less understandable. Unfortunately I have no programming skills to provide any code.
I think such an option could really encourage people to use Zotero as it would be relatively easy to replace citations with other reference managers for compatibility reasons. For a short document the above described procedure wouldn't take longer than 10 to 15 minutes and even for large documents like a thesis this would be done in an hour – thanks a comparably small effort and would enable anybody to use Zotero even if he/she is forced to submit documents with embedded citations of proprietary citation managers like EndNote.
I am in the situation that I really like Zotero, but I am forced to provide my finished documents with all citations inserted with EndNote. As it is much more productive to work with Zotero at the moment I'm changing all the references in the document before handing it over, but that is quite a tedious task :(
  • Mojo Dodo
    It's quite some time ago that I started this post. Is there anybody with a good idea or solution for switching inserted citations in MS Word oder LibreOffice Writer from Zotero to Endnote. I imagine the largest obstacle for many people to use Zotero is that they are sometimes forced to provide their documents with citations of some proprietary citation manager software.

    The idea for the plugin that I suggested should (I imagine) be relatively simple to programme. Has anyone with programming skills an idea of how complex this could be and if there might be possibilities to maybe finance something like this by crowdfunding.

    If my explanation of the idea for the plugin was not understandable: it's just finding one inserted Zotero-citation in a document after another, delete it and then place the cursor's position right there (so that the new citation with e.g. Endnote can manually be inserted by the user).

    I hope that somebody comes up with a solution, because I cannot use Zotero as long as there's no easy option to change my citations to Endnote in my documents.
  • LiborA
    No answer is answer too. This is something specific and not so easy as you described. It is the same situation as if I use MS Word and my colleague use LaTex. Cooperation on one document is extremely hard in that case.
  • bwiernik
    From what I understand, Endnote's Word plugin is closed source and inaccessible, so there is no easy way for any program to interface with it.
  • Mojo Dodo
    edited June 11, 2016
    From what I understand, Endnote's Word plugin is closed source and inaccessible, so there is no easy way for any program to interface with it.
    Well, since my idea was more a quick-and-dirty solution (or a semi-automatic way to change the citations in a document) it doesn't matter whether Endnote's plugin is closed source or not. My idea for the script was:

    1. find the first Zotero citation in the document (MS Word or LibreOffice)
    2. delete that citation and place the cursor to the position where it was
    3. the user now manually clicks on the Endnote button (or whatever citation manager she/he might be using) and inserts that same citation from his Endnote database - it would be convenient if the plugin shoeds a note of author and title of the just deleted Zotero citation. (that of course requires to have all one's sources in Zotero as well, but it's not that difficult to export the bibliography in Zotero and import it into Endnote)
    4. the plugin starts over again with step 1 by deleting the next Zotero citation,nthereby allowing the user to replace all his Zotero citations step by step

    That's of course not a one-click-solution, but it would be a possibility to change one's citations even in a large document in a relatively short time. Good for all those who normally work with Zotero but are forced to sometimes provide documents to others who work with eg. Endnote
  • LiborA
    I am not sure if here is any developer who will spent time with this script. This script does not add any functionality for Zotero.
  • Mojo Dodo

    I am not sure if here is any developer who will spent time with this script. This script does not add any functionality for Zotero.
    Yeah, I know, that's true. But I think it could encourage people to use Zotero, because it would alleviate one of Zotero's main obstacles which is that even though Zotero is more convenient and efficient to use it is often required to provide documents with proprietary citation manager software.
  • DWL-SDCA
    Unless there is multi-authorship collaboration on a manuscript, I would like to know why a professor or supervisor would want to review a document with citation codes intact. (Really, please describe the circumstances if this is not a co-authorship situation.)

    I require students to submit drafts and final docs to be submitted _without_ codes. Indeed, I've started requiring PDFs and commenting on those. I don't want to touch the student's working document. That could be the basis for a complaint about a grade when the student says that the flaw was my fault due to tampering with the document.

    If a professor or supervisor demands live manuscripts with EndNote citations it seems that it will be necessary to use that software. Under that circumstance, it seems similiar to an employee who works in a SAS shop who wants to use STATA.

    There is no doubt that for most purposes, Zotero is superior to EndNote -- not mentioning that Zotero is free. Have you demonstrated the use of Zotero groups as a benefit of Zotero for collaboration on a document? I've been able to convince long-time EndNote users of the superiority of Zotero even without the groups function. This has especially been the case when the professor is using a graduate student assistant to gather items for the bibliography.
  • Mojo Dodo
    A common reason why a professor or supervisor would want to get papers submitted with intact citation codes is that publishing articles in peer reviewed journals can quite be a long-term procedure. The choice of the journal to which a paper should be submitted might change after some time and that requires supervisors to also change the citation style at a point where the student who originally wrote the paper already left the University. So if a supervisor works with e.g. EndNote he will always make sure that all his students submit the document with EndNote citations, because in case of any required change in citation style later would require him do the re-insert the whole references manually by himself.
    In my case that means that although I love Zotero's usability, I often can't use it for my papers (or at I'd manually have to change all the references in the documents afterwards and this is where a quick semi-automatic solution via script/plugin would really facilitate things)
  • LiborA
    edited October 23, 2016
    I can say that Zotero is more flexible for change reference style as Endnote. There is no real reason to add this functionality to the Zotero. And I am not sure about correctness this approach, when the article is changed and send to journal by professor, which is not author of article. On other side you have to write references in Endnote, and so you can use Endnote. Export references to the EndNote and manually change citations in article is more easy than create add-on with this functionally.
    EDIT: why is not prepared this addon by Endnote developers? This functionality is interesting for Endnote users.
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