C L O S E R

Open Source Research Tools

Posted on October 12th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Research Tools.

This is not a blog about research tools, software and so on. I would like to make an exception in this post however since I have come across two excellent open source tools.

First of all there is Zotero. Zotero is a Firefox extension reference manager. Most people will probably use Endnote or the version of Open Office; both work quite will but I think Zotero beats them every way possible. It is faster, just as reliable as Endnote, can be used in Word. Also just as Endnote it has a little strange way of saving PDF’s and it seems to have a little trouble with really large libraries (I haven’t noticed it yet).

With Zotero you can take notes, store websites (and screenshots), annotate files and so on.The note taking system is good, easy to use but could be a little more flexible and easier to search through. Strange thing (in the beginning anyway) is also that when you want to work with Zotero in your Word text, Firefox has to be running also: as noted it is a Firefox plugin.

Notwithstandig these qualifications Zotero is a must for everyone doing research. I switched from Endnote to Zotero a few months ago and written quite a lot since then without even thinking about switching back. Not only because it is a free and easy to use reference manager but has much more and has the potential to become a real research manager/program with a lot of extras already built in. Zotero has great features such as:

• Automatic capture of citation information from web pages
• Flexible notetaking with autosave
• Automatic saving of the PDF of several sites
• Storage of PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages
• Formatted citation export

I think it is a must have, and since firefox has also a simple to use version for (for example) on a usb-stick, you can actually carry it everywhere you want.

• Zotero can be downloaded HERE.
• For Zotero you need:Firefox 2.0.* or 3.0, Netscape Navigator 9.0, or Flock 0.9.1 for Windows, Mac, or Linux.
• Help on how to embed Zotero in Word you can find HERE.
• Zotero is being sued by Thompson because of the easy switch for Endnote libraries to Zotero.
• How to switch to Zotero.
• Zotero saves the library and notes in the Firefox user settings. I don’t really like this and in the options of Zotero (you can find via the add ons window in Firefox) you can change this to every map you like.

Second of all, and an extra reason to use Zotero!, is the release of a plugin for Zotero: Vertov. Vertov a free media annotating plugin for Zotero, that allows you to store media, cut video and audio
files into clips, annotate the clips, and integrate your annotations
with other research sources and notes stored in Zotero. Also easy to use and for free.

• You can download Vertov HERE
• For Vertov you need: Firefox 2.0 browser and QuickTime Player for Mac or Windows; Java Runtime Environment (Windows only);
  Zotero, a Firefox extension
• Note to Windows users: you will need to reinstall QuickTime if you
  install Java Runtime on top of an existing QuickTime installation
• Linux support is planned

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