Zotero Update

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. 

Zotero version 3 has just been released together with a standalone version. Formally only available as a Firefox Add-in the standalone version means you can use Zotero whatever your browser preference. To find out more about the standalone version visit this thread on the Zotero Forum.


WARNING: After many years happily using Office XP  and Word 2002. I upgraded to Office 2010 and obviously Word 2010. Zotero installed ok and appeared in the Add-In tool-bar, however when I tried to insert a citation in my document I received an error message, see below. I searched the Forum for a solution without success. As I am in the middle of a dissertation I do not have the time to resolve the problem so I have reverted back to Word 2002, with which version 3 works fine.

See my previous posts relating to Zotero, the original post, update and Zotero v Endnote.

Zotero v EndNote web

At Uni today we had a a tutorial about using EndNote Web for organising and inserting citations in a dissertation or thesis. I have been using Zotero a freeware piece of software that performs a similar task. I have to say I was not exactly blown away by my first experience with EndNote Web. Compared with Zotero the interface is very clunky. I would make the point that the web version of Endnote is free but you have to subscribe to it from a Uni computer or when logged on at Uni, you can not subscribe from home. There is a standalone version of Endnote but this costs nearly £200.

I thought I would have a look on the net to check out the various opinions regarding Zotero v Endnotes. These postings at Ideophone and Speechless may be worth a look. I have to say both are very much pro Zotero.

An important difference between Zotero and Endnote Web is, Zotero allows you to annotate your citations with snapshots of web pages, notes, images, tags and related citations. Something you can not do in Endnote Web.

See my previous posts relating to Zotero, the original post and update.

Easy Citation with Zotero

For those of you who who are struggling with the citation part of your dissertation you need to discover Zotero.

Zotero is a piece of free software that can be used to collect your citation information from the internet or manually and insert it into your dissertation using Microsoft Word or Open Office. The software is easy to install and set up and there is loads of help on the website and through associated forums.

Zotero only works with the Firefox browser on both PC and Mac but not with Internet Explorer or Safari, don't ask why it's a long story.

Zotero comes in 2 parts, a Plug-in for Firefox and a plug-in for Microsoft Word or Open Office.

If you do not normally use Firefox it is an open source browser by Mozilla and has an excellent reputation, personally I would not use anything else. You can have both Firefox and IE on your computer at the same time. Download Mozilla Firefox here

Critical Studies Essay December 08 - Reflections

Critical Studies Essay December 08
A belated reflection on the essay. At the time of writing I have not had my marks for the essay. I will have to reflect further on this post when I have.

The essay proved to be a marathon. Mainly due to my lack of initial planning. I quickly realised that in my panic to grab as much reference material as possible I became overloaded with information. Much of which I did not reference sufficiently well that I could go back to the source. Result was I lost focus, could not see the wood for the trees. I pulled myself together by reaffirming that although this was a research based essay, it was essentially a technical exercise and it was probably more important at this stage to get the structure and presentation right as come up with an earth shattering academic work. I am sure that is what Steve said!

I made the notes that in future I should stay more focussed, produce my thesis statement at an early stage, make sure my notes were clear and well referenced, make sure reading is relevant. Avoid being side tracked. Start the bibliography and reference collection from day one. I discovered a brilliant Word plug-in for collating citations, called Zotero.

As for the essay, I think my technical structure is OK but I am not so sure about the actual essay structure. I feel my conclusion may prove to be a major weakness, too short! Time will tell.

Just need to wait and see if my thoughts prove to be correct. Grade ? C+?????



Jackson Pollock at work - the main focus of my essay