Chrome

The Zotero Connector for Chrome now includes functionality that was previously available only in Zotero for Firefox.

Automatic Institutional Proxy Detection

Many institutions provide a way to access electronic resources while you are off-campus by signing in to a web-based proxy system. The Zotero Connector for Chrome makes this more convenient by automatically detecting your institutional proxy. Once you’ve accessed a site through the proxy, the connector will automatically redirect future requests to that site through the proxy (e.g., if you open a link to jstor.org, you’ll be automatically redirected to jstor.org.proxy.my-university.edu).

Proxy detection does not require manual configuration. You can disable or customize it from the connector preferences.

Style Installation and Automatic File Importing

Zotero for Firefox has long included support for installing citation styles and importing reference manager files such as BibTeX or RIS when opened in Firefox. This functionality is now supported by the Zotero Connector for Chrome.

Clicking on a link to a CSL file will display a prompt to install the style into Zotero. Clicking on a BibTeX or RIS file that is served correctly by the website will prompt to import its data into Zotero. If you choose ‘Cancel’, you can download the file normally.

Note that this feature requires Zotero 5.0.

Upgrading

If you have the latest version of Chrome installed, you should be automatically updated to version 5.0.5 or later of the Zotero Connector. If you’re not currently using Zotero with Chrome, you can install the extension from the downloads page. Make sure you’ve installed Zotero 5.0 as well for the best experience.

Safari

We’ve brought several features to Safari that were previously available only in Chrome and Firefox.

Streamlined Saving

Previously, on pages where Zotero could not detect any high-quality data, the Zotero save button was inactive, and you could save a basic webpage item and snapshot by right-clicking on the page and selecting “Save Page to Zotero”. In the latest version of the Zotero Connector for Safari, it’s possible to save any page to Zotero with the click of a button.

When high-quality data is available, the button will show the same icon as before: book, newspaper, etc. On all other pages, you’ll see an empty page icon, and clicking on it will create a basic webpage item and snapshot in Zotero. Hovering over the icon will tell you which translator, if any, Zotero would use to save the page.

One-click PDF saving

You can also now save PDFs to Zotero with a single click.

Previously, saving a PDF to Zotero from Safari required dragging from the address bar into Zotero or saving the PDF to disk and adding it to Zotero manually. Now, when you’re viewing a PDF in Safari, simply click the toolbar button to save the PDF as a top-level attachment in Zotero, after which you can use “Retrieve Metadata from PDF” or “Create Parent Item” to create a full bibliographic item. Note that, when possible, it’s still preferable to save from a webpage with full metadata.

Secondary Translators

On some webpages, Zotero can save data using multiple translators, but up until now it hasn’t been possible to choose a secondary translator from Safari. You can now long-press the Zotero button to see additional options for saving from the current page, including saving as a regular webpage instead of using a translator.

Secondary translators may provide different data for the page itself or data for other sources referenced in the page (for example, cited references on Wikipedia, as in the example above).

Upgrading

You can get the new version of the Safari extension from the downloads page or by updating to 5.0.0 or later from the Extensions pane of the Safari preferences. Make sure you’ve installed Zotero 5.0 as well for the best experience.

Starting with the release of Zotero 5.0, Zotero for Firefox and Zotero Standalone have been replaced by a single standalone application for users of all browsers. A new Zotero Connector for Firefox, similar to the extensions available for Chrome and Safari, allows saving to the Zotero application or zotero.org in a single click.

If you’re using Zotero for Firefox, you’ll be automatically upgraded to the new Zotero Connector for Firefox in the next few weeks, and you’ll need to install the standalone Zotero application — either 4.0 or 5.0 — to access your data going forward. The Zotero application offers the same interface and runs off the same database as Zotero for Firefox, so you’ll be able to pick up right where you left off.

If you’re already using Zotero Standalone, you can continue using Zotero as you were before — with some new features available in the Zotero Connector for your browser.

We know that many people rely on Zotero for Firefox, so we wanted to take a moment to explain why this is happening and what it means for the future of Zotero.

The primary reason for this change is technical, and, unfortunately, out of our control: Mozilla is discontinuing the powerful extension framework on which Zotero for Firefox is based in favor of WebExtensions, a new framework based on the Chrome extension model. WebExtensions offer many advantages, including improved browser performance, improved security, a fine-grained permissions model, and the ability to create a single extension that runs in both Chrome and Firefox (as we’ve done with the Zotero Connector). The trade-off is that it’s no longer possible to create an extension like Zotero for Firefox that affects the browser in more profound ways (adding an entirely new pane or tab, creating native-looking windows, adding options to the open/save dialog, etc.) or that uses low-level features of Firefox to manage a database, access the filesystem, or run local programs.

But while we’re not able to continue offering the full version of Zotero for Firefox, we think that this change will ultimately benefit the Zotero ecosystem going forward. The Zotero interface will no longer need to fit into a small browser pane, allowing for a much richer user experience. Offering a single version will mean that documentation and instruction can be greatly simplified. And most importantly, Zotero developers will be able to spend less time maintaining separate versions and responding to Firefox changes and more time improving Zotero for everyone.

In the lead-up to Zotero 5.0, we’ve worked hard to add features that were previously available only in Zotero for Firefox, such as institutional proxy support, to the existing Chrome and Safari connectors and the new Zotero Connector for Firefox. Those changes are documented in a separate post. As Mozilla and Chrome add additional capabilities to their extension frameworks, we’ll continue to add new features to the connectors.

When we launched Zotero a little over 10 years ago, the Firefox extension framework allowed us to create a new type of research tool that lived where people worked, in the browser itself. Today, we think we can offer the best of both worlds — unparalleled extensions for every browser, all connecting to a powerful standalone app. While it’s tough to say goodbye to the original version of Zotero, we couldn’t be more excited about Zotero’s future, beginning with Zotero 5.0. Here’s to the next 10 years.

Download Zotero 5.0 now to get started with the new version.

If you’re already using Zotero Standalone 4.0, you’ll be offered the choice to upgrade within the next few weeks, or you can download Zotero 5.0 now and install it over your existing version. Your database will be automatically upgraded to work with the new version.

If you’re using Zotero 4.0 for Firefox, be aware that Zotero 5.0 now runs only as a standalone application, and a new Zotero Connector for Firefox replaces the full Firefox extension. We’ve written a separate post explaining this change. Existing Zotero for Firefox users will be automatically upgraded to the Zotero Connector for Firefox within the next few weeks and will need to install Zotero 5.0 to continue accessing their Zotero data locally. If you install Zotero 5.0 now, be sure to install the Zotero Connector for Firefox from the download page as well.

Thanks to everyone from the Zotero community who has helped test Zotero 5.0 over the last year and get it ready for today. We’re excited to finally share it with the world!

(Note: If you use Firefox, you already have these features. If you use Safari, stay tuned — you’ll be getting the same features soon.)

Previously, when Zotero’s Chrome extension found high-quality data to save on a webpage, it would display an icon in the Chrome address bar. For webpages where it couldn’t detect any data, you could right-click on the page and choose “Save Page to Zotero” to add a basic webpage item and snapshot to Zotero.

In the latest version of the Chrome extension, it’s now possible to save any page to Zotero with a new, permanent button in the Chrome toolbar:

When high-quality data is available, the new button will show the same icon as before: newspaper, journal article, folder, etc. On all other pages, you’ll see a gray page icon, and clicking on it will create a basic webpage item and snapshot in Zotero. Hovering over the icon will tell you which translator, if any, Zotero would use to save the page.

In addition to combining the existing save functionality into a single button, the updated Chrome extension adds two new features previously available only in Firefox:

On some webpages, Zotero can save data using multiple translators, but up until now it hasn’t been possible to choose a secondary translator from Chrome. You can now right-click (ctrl-click on a Mac) on the new save button to see additional options for saving from the current page, including saving as a regular webpage instead of using a translator.

Secondary translators may provide different data for the page itself or data for other sources referenced in the page (for example by DOI, as in the Wikipedia example above).

If you’d prefer to hide the new icon, the same options are available by right-clicking on the page background.

You can also now save PDFs to Zotero with a single click:

Previously, saving a PDF to Zotero from Chrome required dragging from the address bar into Zotero or saving the PDF to disk and adding it to Zotero manually. Now, when you’re viewing a PDF in Chrome, simply click the new toolbar button to save the PDF as a top-level attachment in Zotero. You can then right-click on the PDF in Zotero and choose either “Retrieve Metadata for PDF” or “Create Parent Item” to create a full bibliographic item. (In an upcoming version, Zotero will attempt to create a parent item for you automatically.) You’ll need Zotero Standalone 4.0.29 or later to save PDFs from the new save button.

Finally, note that, despite the new button, a couple previous limitations haven’t changed. When data is detected on a page, the appropriate icon won’t appear until the page has completely finished loading — before then, you’ll see the gray webpage icon. When data isn’t detected, saving a webpage item and snapshot requires Zotero Standalone to be open — Zotero will warn you if it’s not. Direct-to-server saving of webpage items will be added in an upcoming release.

If you have the latest version of Chrome installed, you should be updated to version 4.0.29.1 of the Zotero Connector automatically. If you’re not currently using Zotero with Chrome, you can install the extension from the Chrome Web Store. Either way, make sure you’ve installed Zotero Standalone for the best experience.

The first part of this grant involved aggregating anonymized data from Zotero libraries. The initial dataset was limited to items with DOIs, and it included library counts and the months that items were added. For items in public libraries, the data also included titles, creators, and years, as well as links to the public libraries containing the items. We have been analyzing this anonymized, aggregated data with our research partners in Montreal, and now are beginning the process of making that data freely and publicly available, beginning with Impactstory and Altmetric, who have offered to conduct preliminary analysis (we’ll discuss Impactstory’s experience in a future post).

In our correspondence with Altmetric over the years, they have repeatedly shown interest in Zotero data, and we reached out to them to see if they would partner with us in examining the data. The Altmetric team that analyzed the data consists of about twenty people with backgrounds in English literature and computer science, including former researchers and librarians. Altmetric is interested in any communication that involves the use or spread of research outputs, so in addition to analyzing the initial dataset, they’re eager to add the upcoming API to their workflow.

The Altmetric team parsed the aggregated data and checked it against the set of documents known to have been mentioned or saved elsewhere, such as on blogs and social media. Their analysis revealed that approximately 60% of the items in their database that had been mentioned in at least one other place, such as on social media or news sites, had at least one save in Zotero. The Altmetric team was pleased to find such high coverage, which points to the diversity of Zotero usage, though further research will be needed to determine the distribution of items across disciplines.

The next step forward for the Altmetric team involves applying the data to other projects and tools such as the Altmetric bookmarklet. The data will be useful in understanding the impact of scholarly communication, because conjectures about reference manager data can be confirmed or denied, and this information can be studied in order to gain a greater comprehension of what such data represents and the best ways to interpret it.

Based on this initial collaboration, Zotero developers are verifying and refining the aggregation process in preparation for the release of a public API and dataset of anonymized, aggregated data, which will allow bibliometric data to be highlighted across the Zotero ecosystem and enable other researchers to study the readership of Zotero data.

Streamlined saving (Zotero for Firefox)

In Zotero for Firefox, it’s now easier than ever to save items from webpages.

Zotero senses information on webpages through bits of code called site translators, which work with most library catalogs, popular websites such as Amazon and the New York Times, and many gated databases.

In the past, there have been two different ways of saving web sources to Zotero:

• If Zotero detected a reference on a webpage, you could click an icon in the address bar — for example, a book icon on Amazon or a journal article icon on a publisher’s site — to save high-quality metadata for the reference to your Zotero library.
• If a site wasn’t supported or a site translator wasn’t working, you could still save any webpage to your Zotero library by clicking the “Create Web Page Item from Current Page” button in the Zotero for Firefox toolbar or by right-clicking on the page background and choosing “Save Page to Zotero”. In such cases, you might need to fill in some details that Zotero couldn’t automatically detect.

In Zotero 4.0.27, we’ve combined the address bar icon and the “Create Web Page Item from Current Page” button into a single save button in the Firefox toolbar, next to the existing Z button for opening the Zotero pane.

The new save button on a New York Times article

(Don’t be confused by the book icon in the address bar in the top left — that’s a new Firefox feature, unrelated to Zotero.)

You can click the new save button on any webpage to create an item in your Zotero library, and Zotero will automatically use the best available method for saving data. If a translator is available, you’ll get high-quality metadata; if not, you’ll get basic info such as title, access date, and URL, and you can edit the saved item to add additional information from the webpage. The icon will still update to show you what Zotero found on the page, and, as before, you can hover over it to see which translator, if any, will be used.

This also means that a single shortcut key — Cmd+Shift+S (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+S (Windows/Linux) by default — can be used to save from any webpage.

The new save button also features a drop-down menu for accessing additional functionality, such as choosing a non-default translator or looking up a reference in your local (physical) library without even saving it to Zotero.

Additional save options

(This functionality was previously available by right-clicking on the address bar icon, though if you knew that, you surely qualify for some sort of prize.) The new menu will be used for more functionality in the future, so stay tuned.

Prefer another layout? In addition to the new combined toolbar buttons, Zotero provides separate buttons for opening Zotero and saving sources that can be added using Firefox’s Customize mode.

Custom button layout

With the separate buttons, you can hide one or the other button and rely on a keyboard shortcut, move the buttons into the larger Firefox menu panel, or even move the new save button between the address bar and search bar, close to its previous position. (Since the new save button works on every page, it no longer makes sense for it to be within the address bar itself, but by using the separate buttons you can essentially recreate the previous layout.)

While all the above changes apply only to Zotero for Firefox for now, similar changes will come to the Chrome and Safari connectors for Zotero Standalone users in a future version. For now, Zotero Standalone users can continue to use the address bar (Chrome) or toolbar (Safari) icon to save recognized webpages and right-click (control-click on Macs) on the page background and choose “Save Page to Zotero” to save basic info for any other page.

Easier bibliography language selection

Making Zotero accessible to users around the world has always been a priority. Thanks to a global community of volunteers in the Zotero and Citation Style Language (CSL) projects, you can use the Zotero interface and also generate citations in dozens of different languages.

Now, thanks to community developers Rintze Zelle and Aurimas Vinckevicius, it’s much easier to switch between different languages when generating citations.

Previously, Zotero would automatically use the language of the Zotero user interface — generally the language of either Firefox or the operating system — when generating citations. While you’ve always been able to generate citations using a different language, doing so required changing a hidden preference.

You can now set the bibliography language at the same time you choose a citation style, whether you’re using Quick Copy, Create Bibliography from Selected Items, or the word processor plugins.

Choosing a bibliography language for Quick Copy

In the above example, even though the user interface is in English, the default Quick Copy language is being set to French. If an item is then dragged from Zotero into a text field, the resulting citation will be in French, using French terms instead of English ones (e.g., “édité par” instead of “edited by”).

The new language selector is even more powerful when using the word processor plugins. The bibliography language chosen for a document is stored in the document preferences, allowing you to use different languages in different documents — say, U.S. English for a document you’re submitting to an American journal and Japanese for a paper for a conference in Japan.

Note that, of the thousands of CSL styles that Zotero supports, not all can be localized. If a journal or style guide calls for a specific language, the language drop-down will be disabled and citations will always be generated using the required language. For example, selecting the Nature style will cause Zotero to use the “English (UK)” locale in all cases, as is required by Nature’s style guide.

Other changes

Zotero now offers an “Export Library…” option for group libraries, allowing the full collection hierarchy to be easily exported. If you find yourself facing many sync conflicts, you can now choose to resolve all conflicts with changes from one side or the other. For Zotero Standalone users, we’ve improved support for saving attachments from Chrome and Safari on many sites, bringing site compatibility closer to that of Zotero for Firefox. And we’ve resolved various issues that were preventing complete syncs for some people.

There’s too much else to discuss here, but see the changelog for the full list of changes.

Get it now

If you’re already using Zotero, your copy of Zotero should update to the new version automatically, or you can update manually from the Firefox Add-ons pane or by selecting the “Check for Updates” menu option in Zotero Standalone. If you’re not yet using Zotero, try it out today.

I am excited to begin as the outreach coordinator for Zotero! I have worked as an intern at the Library of Virginia and in the Collections Department of Hillman Library at the University of Pittsburgh. I have also been employed as a public librarian. When I complete the Ph.D. program I am hoping to work as a digital public historian. My goal as outreach coordinator is to make Zotero more accessible and user-friendly by updating existing documentation, creating new documentation for improved functionalities, and managing Zotero’s social media presence. I am looking forward to working with the Zotero community and increasing public awareness of Zotero.

You will work primarily on Zotero’s website and web application functionality, working with both front- and back-end technologies, including emerging standards for rich client-side web applications. You’ll be maintaining existing systems and implementing new functionality, helping to shape the Zotero ecosystem going forward. In addition to working on website functionality, that might mean extending the API, optimizing the cloud infrastructure, or building back-end services to power new features. As part of a small team, you’ll have responsibility over core components of the project and the freedom to find creative solutions to challenging problems. Most importantly, you’ll participate in a vibrant global open-source community with amazing community developers and passionate users.

You will be working at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, a leading center for digital humanities recognized internationally for its innovative projects. More details about the position are available at https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/85119/

We look forward to hearing from you!

The Zotero project is looking to hire a full-time, contract developer to help extend the Zotero ecosystem. At first you will work primarily on a specific new tool. If all goes well, we’d hope and expect that you’d be interested in remaining a full-time paid member of the Zotero team longer term.

Initially, you’ll be designing and building a pluggable server-side tool to bridge the Zotero API and external services — think IFTTT for research data. You’ll be building both the base program and one or more sample plugins to help guide the tool’s development and serve as examples for other users of the tool.

Beyond the initial contract, you would begin working on other parts of Zotero, with the ability to focus on the things that interested you. That might mean improving the client or website, extending the API, optimizing the cloud infrastructure, or building back-end services to power new features. As part of a small team, you’d have responsibility over core components of the project and the freedom to find creative solutions to challenging problems. Most importantly, you’d participate in a vibrant global open-source community with amazing community developers and passionate users.

The Zotero development team meets periodically in person, but you’ll primarily be working remotely, communicating with Zotero developers and users via chat rooms, forums, mailing lists, and GitHub. Our hours are flexible and variable: we might be debating a feature request at 1 p.m. or deploying a major upgrade at 1 a.m.

Requirements:

• Extensive experience with JavaScript, PHP, and/or Python
• Experience working with and/or developing web APIs (HTTP/REST/JSON)
• Experience with command-line Linux/Unix systems and services
• Comfort using version control (e.g., Git)
• Strong attention to privacy and security issues
• Willingness to participate in an open-source community

Bonus:

• Experience with open-source infrastructure software: MySQL, Memcached, Redis, Node.js, Elasticsearch, Hadoop, or other tools you use to solve difficult problems involving lots of data
• Experience with Amazon Web Services
• Experience building user-friendly front-end software used by many people or the back-end services powering it, or both

Please send a cover letter and résumé, including relevant programming projects and experience, to jobs@zotero.org with subject line “Contract Developer”. We will begin considering applications immediately and continue until the position is filled. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.