?

Ah, understood! ;-)

I'm going to sound like everyone else who tries to describe Roam (https://roamresearch.com): I'll either sound like a member of the "roamcult" - which I definitely am not - or someone who blindly follows a hunch that some new software has the potential to be transformative, but can't quite say why - yes, that's more like me.

It can be seen as *the* tool to use for note-taking, productivity, research, writing, knowledge management, bullet-journalling, spaced repetition, networked thought,...

It is talked about as a replacement for tools like Evernote, Notion, ...

It has some unique(ish) features such as bi-directional linking and block referencing and other stuff going on under the hood that is not clear to me, but from my limited use so far, I like where it is going.

To pick just one overview that gives an idea of what Roam can do, try this: https://nesslabs.com/roam-research (but there are many other videos and web sites).

It may be turn out to be (expensive) snake oil, but I recommend giving it a 14-day trial and decide for yourself. I'd love it if more academics / researchers gave it a whirl and reported back.

And if you do decide to work with Roam, then 'zotero-roam-export' is a must.

I'm only just getting into Roam, but the possibilities of what they call (block-level transclusion - explained here https://www.reddit.com/r/RoamResearch/comments/gvbg1q/what_is_block_level_transclusion_and_why_is_it/) are really appealing to me.
I've spent 12 or so years feeding material - quotations, thoughts etc into my Zotero database and the bit where I always struggle is when I need to get it all out of there and draw it together into a draft. The thing that worked best in the end was creating a report, laying out all the pages on the floor and taking coloured markers and scissors to them.
I need to play around a bit more with it (pandemic teaching and admin really not helping here), but think it could be really useful.

https://www.orgroam.com/ looks promising.

@richard.masters Thanks for posting this! Roam is really useful. It is true that there is a strange cult around it but the tool has its merits.

Hi Zotereans,
Does anyone knows how to use Zotero citation while using tools other than Microsoft Word or Libre Office? I would like to be able to write in any text editor (e.g. drafts) and be able to include a temporary citation (like endnote does, with a simple copy+paste I get {Horrocks, 2010 #13}, so that once the document is ready for formatting, citation are interpreted by Zotero.
Tks

Thanks for the link and all the info. I am afraid it is too technical for me! I am just a biologist... Is there any easy way to sort out exactly what I need to do to be able to have a really easy workflow like in Endnote instead of adding friction?

Many thanks. After some fiddling with the installatio, it actually works quite well. You have made a huge difference in simplfying my work flow!

Hi, I'm looking for a way add linked citations within Roam, like I do within Microsoft Word, and importantly, how these citations can persist once I copy my draft into Microsoft word for final edit and sharing with co-authors. I'm curious how you are approaching this..

@ vijen
I thought that a solution using citekeys from Zotero would not be difficult to implement but apparently is not so. I wanted to be able to do what frankly Endnote does very well: simply ctrl+c on top of the reference then paste in to document (it looks like this {Horrocks, 2010 #13}). Once the document is ready for formatting,or you require immediate format, the citation is converted to the style required. In Zotero it takes a number of transformations (better-BibTeX) before you get the final result. And if you make a mistake,... too bad, start again.

@emilianoeheyns thanks for your help. In fact, that helps but still adds friction to the workflow. Particularly when formatting. In looking to replace Endnote for Zotero, the big push would be to have the possibility of live formatting. Meaning having a word document always open and changes in Zotero would immediately translate into changes in the text. Another interesting feature would be to have an easier way to do italics.

I used roam and Zotero and the small but great tools, and it is much clear for me to link different papers and notes. thanks!

https://github.com/melat0nin/zotero-roam-export/

@laurence80386 @richard.masters
Thanks for this valuable add-on and information! After saving the Zotero note into JSON file, what do I need to do in Roam? I tried to copy and paste, and drawing that file into roam, but did not work. Please let me know. Thanks!