Zotero - Replacement for EndNote?
Zotero - Replacement for EndNote?
Zotero is a new extension for Firefox that looks like a great new challenger to EndNote. It is a free, open-source, platform-independent reference mananger that looks like it has a lot of great features. I haven't played around with it much yet, but when I do I will post a review in the blog section. I'd be interested to hear an opinion from anyone who has tried it.
One step closer to linux
This is a great idea that ahead of its time. It is of immediate need to anyone who writes professionally but it also has utility for anyone wanting to organize and collect information. The best, part it provides yet another piece of the puzzle of going linux. Reference management has been a big drag for linux users up to now.
I agree.....Zotero is great
Now that I've had a day to play with it, I agree with Neil that Zotero is great. It does have it's limitations, but after just a few minutes I was adding references with ease. There are some really great features that make it really fast and easy to manage. I love the feature that downloads the pdf automatically and files it away in the database for you to read later. The ability to click a simple icon to download all of the information is so easy it's amazing. As Hal mentions, this is also great news for linux users, as they finally have an option for a reference manager. I've started to pass the word along to encourage others to start using it as well.
Zotero is excellent
Zotero is not quite ready to replace Endnote just yet - but it will be before very long. It is an excellent open source project. I've been following it since its first release and I'm really impressed by its development, release schedule and features. The developers are also very responsive with a good community at their website to discuss the software.
A brief summary: Zotero is a Firefox 2.0 extension that sits down in your status bar. With one click, you can scrape bibliographic references from a large number of websites (PubMed, BMC, numerous journals) and other data from sites such as BBC News, newspapers and so on. You can tag the references and export them in all the common bibliographic formats. They've recently introduced word processor plugins for OpenOffice, NeoOffice and Word and the ability to download and index associated PDFs. There is a facility to drag and drop into a Google document. All that's missing is synchronisation of reference databases on different machines, storage at a central server or facility such as Connotea and a wider range of citation styles. All of these features are in the works and should be rolling out this year.
I'm a huge fan of this project; it really has the potential to change completely the way you collect, store and use references.