complete solution suggestion: obsidian and zotero

If I'm mistaken is some suggestions then let me know.

1) I am assuming in zot you need to make a separate note per each annotation in a 1:1 manner, that is, if you want to search for and insert notes separately into your finalized writing. That is, each highlighted annotation must be made into a separate note, which can then be used in MS Word as an inserted quote/citation from a book or paper. If this is not correct, then plz let me know.

2) if the above is correct then a researcher may end up with thousands even tens of thousands of separate notes from a source of maybe 1000 papers/books. It is not hard to imagine that a single book may have over 100 highlights/annotations, which then must be made into 100 separate notes.

3) zot alone is not the best place to store and retrieve or visualize all of those notes. Consequently, I have begun using Obsidian to help organize and visualize all of the interconnects of all the notes. This is accomplished by using tags, links, and folders in Obsidian which both structures the notes and makes is possible to visually see via a graph all of the interconnections of topics.

4) When obsidian imports from zot notes you get both your personal notes ( your text added to a note) as well as what was a highlighted annotation (before being made a note) along with citation from zot.

5) you can then cut and paste from obsidian into your writing tool to actually do the writing, MS Word for example.

6) It would be great if zot and obsidian were a single integrated tool, because it appears to me that both require the creation of what some call 'atomic' notes. That is, a single note for a single idea. Both systems have the end objective then, of creating and reusing these atomic notes, that is, if assumption #1 above it true for zot.

7) both systems then would rely on a sophisticated tagging system, which then can be expanded with the additional use of links in obsidian which creates a worldview graph of all of your interconnected research.

8) If zot and obsidian were a single system, then it would seem to me that you are one step ahead of all other such systems.
  • 1) I am assuming in zot you need to make a separate note per each annotation in a 1:1 manner, that is, if you want to search for and insert notes separately into your finalized writing. That is, each highlighted annotation must be made into a separate note, which can then be used in MS Word as an inserted quote/citation from a book or paper.
    You can add multiple annotations to Zotero notes or create a note from all of a PDF's annotations and then add the note to Word with active Zotero citations. It's not currently possible to search for individual annotations from the word processor plugin, but that's something we could consider if there's interest.

    If you just copy and paste from Obsidian into Word you're not going to have active Zotero citations and would need to reinsert those citations using the word processor plugin to get all of the normal Zotero functionality.
  • very good points.
    Hence the need for a full integration. Something maybe you could send up your food chain, because this is a bit off topic and future oriented, but it would be a KILLER app if zot and obsidian were one app.

    As it is now I can't use zot for 'atomic' notes, and it is atomic notes which in the end enhance complex research in seeing connections you didn't know existed, which then expands note taking to a whole new level.

    As to your second point. If you create a folder in zot with all of the papers added as you use them, then you can gen the bibliography. I think that covers that, correct?

    Thx for your comments.

    Another side note is the Research Rabbit (RR) uses the same graphing method so that you can see connections 'on the front end' of data collection. Zot is in the middle of this as a repository. Both RR and Obsidian enable the researcher to see what was not possible (or very time consuming/onerous) in the past.

    Again, just dreaming... but the combination of all three would be an app everyone is waiting for, whether they know it or not.
  • As to your second point. If you create a folder in zot with all of the papers added as you use them, then you can gen the bibliography. I think that covers that, correct?
    No, not at all. You could create a simple flat bibliography with no connection to the rest of the document, sure. But you couldn't use the word processor plugin, which most people doing longer-form writing would want to use, and which is required for proper citations in many styles, without manually inserting each citation in the correct place.
  • See the Discussion "Zotero Workflow Lacking" for a more complete description of the end to end workflow.
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