Upgrade Storagebest practices for setting up and using zotero?
Dear Forum,
is there a document that outlines in simple steps best practices in setting up and using zotero?
My problem is this: I have never used a modern reference manager and am therefore trying to learn how to use it at the same time as I am setting it up. Over the years I have collected about 32 GB worth of pdf files (17,000+) in my literature folder which is organized with sub-folders for various areas of interest. Migrating it into a reference manager will take time and I don't want to make stupid beginners' mistakes that will force me to have to do things over again.
My work environment is this: I use both Windows and Linux environments and some of my students use Macs. Ideally the data base will be stored on a local cloud server run by my department with plenty of disk space. Our papers are written mostly using MSWord (when working with outside collaborators) or LibreOffice (without collaborators, just within the group). I am planning to use the standalone version of zotero when writing papers and the firefox add-on when importing new papers into the database.
Any pointers are very much appreciated.
Thank you very much in advance, Alex.
is there a document that outlines in simple steps best practices in setting up and using zotero?
My problem is this: I have never used a modern reference manager and am therefore trying to learn how to use it at the same time as I am setting it up. Over the years I have collected about 32 GB worth of pdf files (17,000+) in my literature folder which is organized with sub-folders for various areas of interest. Migrating it into a reference manager will take time and I don't want to make stupid beginners' mistakes that will force me to have to do things over again.
My work environment is this: I use both Windows and Linux environments and some of my students use Macs. Ideally the data base will be stored on a local cloud server run by my department with plenty of disk space. Our papers are written mostly using MSWord (when working with outside collaborators) or LibreOffice (without collaborators, just within the group). I am planning to use the standalone version of zotero when writing papers and the firefox add-on when importing new papers into the database.
Any pointers are very much appreciated.
Thank you very much in advance, Alex.
Otherwise, there's not much to say. Be aware of
https://www.zotero.org/support/retrieve_pdf_metadata , but also know that google will lock you out repeatedly when relying on it heavily and that the data imported from google often isn't perfect.
Understand how Zotero collections work as you organize your library:
https://www.zotero.org/support/collections_and_tags
Store all titles in sentence case:
https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/sentence_casing
And that's pretty much it, at least in terms of what you can do wrong.
Thank you for the quick and helpful reply.
One concern I have about how to best organize my library is how to find things quickly. Based on what I have read in the documentation so far it looks like I might be best off organizing my zotero library with similar categories and sub-categories as they currently exist in my directory tree. I understand that the database is searchable which should aid greatly in finding articles I might look for.
Regarding your comments about using a local cloud server, you mentioned three options: 1) use the existing online zotero services (will cost a regular fee but may still be time and cost effective in the long run). 2) Build your own zotero server. With zotero being open source this should be possible assuming that one has the necessary technical expertise. Our IT shop might be able to do this but it would require the department to buy into it and give them the resources to do it. 3) The last option you mentioned is sort of what I had in mind. I was thinking about using a network drive to place my zotero data directory and allowing it to be accessible by multiple users within my research group. The local 'cloud server' would simply serve as a convenient place for file storage and guarantee regular backups. How would this lead to database corruption? Would there be a problem if two or more people edit data at the same time? Would this also be a problem if I was the only user but had the library open on two different computers? The documentation mentions a conflict resolution window that will open up if two different computers are trying to sync the same item from two different places. Shouldn't this also work on a network drive?
Best regards, Alex.
I would recommend one thing regarding to the structure the citations have to be organized. I just performe a switch from RefWorksto Zotero.
In Refworks, I stord lots of citations in (virtual) folders regarding to different contents.
I move my database folderwise, as this enanbles me to keed the structure I had before.
I'm looking for some hint to join my pdf's to the citations, as they are organized over the Reference-Number in RefWorks, maybe I have to rename the Citations via a macro to Zotero naming-standards.