Research Tool Review: Zotero
I’ve searched high and low for functional (God help us, efficient) citation software and have found nothing closer to what I want than Zotero. I like that there is a brower plugin and a stand-alone version, though, I must admit, I’ve opted for the plugin, as it is easier to access.
I do everything in Turabian, or, at least an approximation of Turabian. There is a plug-in I downloaded off the site. I’m able to keep my citations in individual folders (based on subject), but also view them as a full collection and port them all out into one alphabetical list for my main bibliography. That way I have one list and everything on my site has inline references. Maybe not an “academic norm,” but who cares, right? It works for me.
This is about all I use it for. I don’t maintain separate lists for different subjects, nor do I need to sync with any repositories online, so I have no real opinion on any of these kind of features. It’s not perfect, by far, but it’s close enough to get the job done. Enough said.