Alternative to Zotero?

cappuccinomonkey
I'm looking for recommendations for an alternative to Zotero.

I'm an academic who downloads a lot of PDFs for research. I use a Mac and Safari. Unfortunately most academic databases seem to confuse the Zotero connector and I end up having to download the PDF manually and import it into Zotero. The Zotfile plugin just isn't good enough: it doesn't work for manually imported PDFs and rarely works when I use the Zotero connector. All in all, this means that getting a PDF into Zotero involves a lot of clicking and typing.

In terms of writing output, I use Ulysses and Scrivener. At the moment I use 'scannable cite' to export Zotero citations in my writing. This means having to export a document, scan for the citations, then convert it to Word. It feels like a needlessly complicated workflow.

What I'm looking for is something like Papers 3 on the Mac. This was the best reference management software I ever used and I'm still upset that it got sold and subsequently trashed. I've tried Bookends but found that it struggled to import or find metadata for the PDFs, so I ended up having to copy and paste article titles, authors and so on.

Can anyone suggest other Mac-compatible apps which would be worth checking out?
  • mark
    In my humble opinion, it is unlikely that you'll find an alternative that solves the particular problems you mention — i.e., PDF and metadata management. If Zotero's translators and Zotfile don't work for you, either you work in fields not widely covered by Zotero translators (possible, but other tools won't have better coverage), or your workflow is different from those of us for whom Zotero+Zotfile don't pose the kind of problems you mention. In either case, a different piece of software is not going to solve all of your needs.

    Given the way Scrivener works, I'm not sure there are apps that offer a more frictionless solution than Zotero's 'scannable cite' workflow — though perhaps this bibtex-mediated workflow offers a solution: https://davepwsmith.github.io/academic-scrivener-howto/

    FWIW, I am fairly eclectic in my academic tastes so often bump on PDFs not directly downloaded by a translator. I have set up Zotfile with a watch folder and every downloaded PDF goes to that folder. Adding the PDF to the item (new or old) is simply a rightclick > Attach new file and Zotfile picks the newest PDF in that folder.

    Anyway, not what you asked for, so I hope others will have more useful contributions.
  • adamsmith
    edited December 8, 2022
    I mostly agree with mark -- you never reported any of the issues you're having with PDFs: Zotero PDF import really should cover 90%+ of typical academic databases, so hard to say what's happening. You could look at Bookends, which many Mac people seem to like, but I agree that it's not particularly likely you'll find a better tool than Zotero. (oh, sorry, I missed you already tried that; yeah, then you're out of luck and better off trying to get Zotero import improved)
  • dstillman
    Yes, if you think "most academic databases seem to confuse the Zotero connector", you're either using some pretty esoteric databases or there's a more general problem with your setup. Zotero's ability to save high-quality metadata and files across a wide range of sites should be better than essentially any other tool out there. If you're having trouble across many sites, see Troubleshooting Problems Saving to Zotero, and if that doesn't help start a new thread with the requested info.
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