Suppressing citations in the body of a text

I am writing an essay where I would like avoid citations but keep linked to Zotero items in the working draft. Is there a Zotero style (or other technique) that would allow this.

I have seen this in books where source material is listed in a notes section at the end of the book, linked to the page or chapter. But in the body text itself there is no note or footnote marker.

I have searched the Zotero documentation but haven't found anything, although I may have not used the correct search terms.

Thank you.
  • Instead of citing items and then creating a bibliography at the end of the document using "Add Bibliography" you can also just go into Zotero and "Right-click" one of the selected items and choose Create Bibliography. Choose style, paste into document.

    Or if you are citing some items, you can then also add non-cited items to the bibliography.
  • Thanks, damnation.

    My hope is to retain "live links" to the Zotero reference at the specific place in the text that it relates to as the essay goes through successive edits, but being able to share the drafts without cluttering up the page with references or reference marks.

    If I understand your suggestion, I don't think it would retain the live link to the Zotero library.

    I'm using Word, and one thought is to use endnotes and then somehow suppress the note number or marker.
  • Zotero does not allow completely hidden citations in the text, no, as there's all sorts of possibilities for confusion and corrupting documents.

    That said, you could use a style that uses superscript numerical citations (e.g. Nature) and then use advanced search&repace in Word to turn all superscript numbers white (i.e., invisible). Haven't tested, but I think that should work. A similar thing could work with Endnote by modifying the Word style for endnote/footnotes anchors.
  • Thanks, adamsmith. That worked. Very clever. I had actually never used Word's advanced search and replace.

    That said, I do think it could be value in developing such a citation style. It would support work where authors wish to provide source material and notes tied to textual location while not cluttering the page with citation markers. Zotero could then generate a Notes section with references tied to, say, a page number or section. I don't have a good idea on how one would find and edit citations in the document without exposing fields in Word or some other method.

    Many thanks for this creative solution.
  • I need to do this also! Very common in non-fiction books. Does anyone know if Zotero or Word can do this - substitute a text snippet or page/paragraph for the inline superscript?
  • Do you have an example of what you mean?
  • To the original question:

    In Word, you can include your citation and mark it as hidden (under Font | Effects). Zotero will still see it and include the corresponding entry in the bibliography.

    (To see hidden text, go to Options | Display | Always show these formatting marks.)
Sign In or Register to comment.