Edit 1: Zotero 7 was realeased officialy in August 2024.

Zotero is a free, open-source reference management software. It make the process of collecting and storing references pretty easy (sometimes too easy !).

The latest stable, big release version, Zotero 6, was introduced in March 2022. It brought a new built-in PDF viewer and annotation system, as well as iOS and iPadOS apps.

Zotero 7 is Coming #

Recently, the devs shared a public beta of Zotero 7. Most of the updates are related to transitioning from the legacy Firefox 60 ESR, which Zotero was originally built on top of (Zotero started as a browser extension), to the newer Firefox 102 ESR now and Firefox 115 ESR before the release this year.

What’s exciting is the native support for Apple Silicon desktop devices and an even better reader, with EPUB support and web annotation. An Android app is also in development.

Plugins I’m Using in Zotero 7 #

As an avid Zotero user, I’ve tested my fair share of plugins to optimize my workflow. While Zotero is great on its own, plugin take it to the next level for managing citations and references. Unfortunately with the changes to Zotero app, many plugins doesnt support beta yet. Below those I am using and are ported (or will be ported soon):

• GitHub - retorquere/zotero-open-pdf
• Since introduction of Zotero 6 users can opt to use new build-in PDF reader. I like the new new reader, but sometimes need to open the PDF in external PDF reader (PDF Expert in my case). This simple plugin lets you open PDF in external PDF reader via right click menu, instead of tedious opening in folder.
• Better BibTeX for Zotero :: Better BibTeX for Zotero.A must-have for LaTeX/Obsidian/Pandoc users like myself. Provide citekeys. Ported with much of work due to many changes in Zotero 7.
• GitHub - windingwind/zotero-pdf-preview: PDF Preview for Zotero. Enables live PDF miniature previews right in my Zotero item info pane so I can quickly confirm I have looking into right paper without open the item. Current changes to PDF Reader (Zotero 7 beta 29) broke it, it still doesn’t work as for the middle of August;
• GitHub - wshanks/Zutilo: Zotero plugin providing some additional editing features A nice collection of tools, still in the process of porting.

While Zotero 7 has some additional compatible plugins I don’t use or haven’t tested, many of the best plugins remain available only for Zotero 6."

Edit 2: Some additional extensions not mentioned earlier, that I am currently using (in 2024):

• justinribeiro/zotero-google-scholar-citation-count: Zotero plugin for fetching number of citations from Google Scholar.
• daeh/zotero-markdb-connect: Zotero plugin that links your Markdown database to Zotero. Jump directly from Zotero Items to connected Markdown files. Automatically tags Zotero Items so you can easily see which papers you’ve made notes for.
• Zoplicate | A plugin that does one thing only - Detect and manage duplicate items in Zotero.
• github-young/zotero-better-authors: Customize the displayed authors list

Markdown translators #

Useful pair of Zotero translators when you want to link to Zotero item as Markdown link
https://github.com/erazlogo/zotero-markdown-translators