Zotero makes this grad student's life WAY easier!
July 24, 2019
Zotero makes this grad student's life WAY easier!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Zotero
I use Zotero to manage all of my citations for my personal academic work (I'm a PhD student, which means that I am sorting though a lot of academic literature on an ongoing basis). I also use Zotero as a part of multiple research teams. We use the software to share new citations and files, and to cite these sources in our manuscripts.
- Zotero's MS Word and Google Docs plug-ins and Chrome extension makes the process of storing, indexing, and citing sources seamless
- Zotero's automated retrieval of embedded metadata in PDFs and websites is incredibly accurate, which increases my confidence in the citations created by Zotero
- The library of available citation styles is extensive and largely accurate
- I love that Zotero syncs your work and citations online, which allows me to work from multiple devices (e.g., laptop, office desktop, computer labs)
- I have had very few issues with Zotero, but have heard from a colleague that there is an error when using APA style. When there are two citations that may otherwise look the same in the text, APA requires that those citations have letters added after the ear to differentiate them (e.g., Smith et al., 2019a and Smith et al., 2019b). However, if these two sources are in your Zotero library and you do NOT cite both in a manuscript, Zotero still adds the A and B, which is unnecessary.
- I'd love to be able to import bulk batches of citations from .csv files, which would be helpful for retrieving citations from library databases that "don't play well with" citation managers (e.g., NexisUni)
- I use the free software, but love how much simpler Zotero has made my finding, marking up, and citing my discovered sources
- Zotero increases my productivity by keeping thousands of sources organized