Zotero - Are EndNote’s days numbered?
September 24th, 2006 Stewart Posted in Uncategorized |
Zotero - The Next-Generation Research Tool
I’m remaining neutral on this until the beta is released and we can all start to play with it. I really like the idea of a browser-based citation management tool — It’s the most intuitive location for such a tool, if you think about it, and it potentially can take advantage of the “native web” in ways that software like EndNote seems unable to.
That said, some immediate thoughts:
- How many styles will be supported? EndNote’s exhaustive list of over 2000 styles makes it a natural choice for multidisciplinary researchers, as well as those in more rarified fields.
- Will there be support for open sharing of bibliographic data, akin to CiteULike?
- For that matter, will Zotero be compatible with existing libraries of references, such as those in CiteULike, EndNote, Reference Manager, or RefWorks?
I hope to play with the beta version of Zotero soon and have more to report. I’m cautiously optimistic — I know the people behind this have their heads and hearts in the right places, but I’m concerned about compatibility and longevity of the software, and it’s ability to grow with the user’s needs.
October 4th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
I’m author of the citation style language (CSL) they’re using for Zotero, so let me say this: it will start with a small number of styles, but the styles are a) open and XML, b) easy to create, and c) application-agnostic.
Also, they support a wide number of open data formats, including RDF.
In short, don’t worry, be happy, and help contribute to realizing the promise of Zotero and similar free software/open format solutions. There will be a transition period as we build up the number of styles and integration with Word (and hopefully OpenOffice), but it will happen.
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:44 pm
I’ve been experimenting with both Zotero and Citeulike but re-entering large bibliographies is discouraging. A colleague just purchased a costly recent version of EndNote only to find the Vista incompatibility would only be resolved with an even more recent costly upgrade. How are you rating Zotero currently, in the fall 2007.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Converting EndNote to Zotero and back is problematic — There is a part of me that wishes Zotero would recognize the utility of the largest, best-selling citation software and try to play more nicely with it. (And now that I’ve publicly criticized Zotero, watch the fireworks.)
I give Zotero a “C” right now. Most of the problems I cited a year ago are unchanged. They now support seven citation styles instead of three. The interaction with Word and other word processing programs is weak — You are still cutting-and-pasting a bibliography, for the most part.
For the serious author, I still recommend EndNote. I look forward to the day when I can fully endorse Zotero, but we aren’t there yet.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Zotero is very weak. It makes grand claims, but fails to live up to it. Much of what they claim on their front page is fluff. For example, they advertise the end of 3×5 note cards (it’s one of their slogans) but fail to provide note taking ability that even rivals NOTEPAD. Yes, you heard me right, NOTEPAD. Zotero continues to have poor recognition in niche sites for certain fields. Endnote and the other commercial alternatives will win this battle for a very, very, long time because they care about what scholars care about, since they have to sell to them. Zotero is a technological show piece with little functionality. With many citation systems existing online now, I think this is the beginning of the end for Zotero. It had a promising future, but it has failed to deliver in every update. Do the designers of Zotero even care about its target audience and their needs, or are they so caught up in the “its-free!” movement to realize that features must be added for it to be worth the trouble?
February 17th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
[…] I first posted about Zotero back in September 2006, and the jury is still out. The post still gets fresh comments, though, so I thought I’d mention a few things: […]