Michael Percillier

Citation management with Zotero

The larger the paper and the more numerous the revisions, the more likely it is that formal citation mistakes are to creep their way in. So why not automate the process? That's where citation managers such as Zotero come in handy.

Zotero acts as a curated repository for your literature collection. Entering one's literature can be quite an effort when first setting things up. Luckily, there is a little magic wand button that lets you enter an indentifier such as a DOI or ISBN, and Zotero will automagically pull the relevant information to create an entry in the database. You may want to check the accuracy of the entry and fix any incorrect fields.

Zotero provides plug-ins for word processors such as Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, and Google Docs. With the relevant plug-in installed and Zotero opened in the background, inserting citations is as simple as doing the following:

• Place your cursor where you want to insert a citation.
• Under the "Zotero" tab, click the button "Add/Edit Citation". When inserting the first citation in your document, you will be prompted to choose a citation style for your document.
• A red Zotero search bar will appear and prompt you to find the publication you want to cite. Searching by author and year is usually the fastest strategy to find the relevant hit. Once you select your publication, hit Enter or click the arrow on the right to insert the citation into your text.
• By default, Zotero inserts the parenthetical style to place both the author(s) and the year in parentheses. To have an in-text citation, click on the search result to reach an interface in which you can check the box to leave out the author(s) and also specify a page range. You will then have to type the name of the author(s) yourself in the text.
• To cite multiple items, just add them to the list of items in the search bar before confirming your selection.
• Clicking the button "Add/Edit Bibliography" will generate a list of references matching the citations in your text at the end of your document. Clicking the "Refresh" button will update the list according to the citations that you have added or removed in your text.

The video below shows the steps for Microsoft Word. The process is very similar for LibreOffice Writer and Google Docs.

Zotero is also useful to generate BibLaTeX files for use with LaTeX and Pandoc Markdown, but that is its own separate topic.

Data processing with Python

You can find a hopefully gentle introduction to the basics of Python in sections 1–3 of the script for a Python workshop which I taught in June/July 2022 for the DFG-funded Research Unit Structuring the Input in Language Processing, Acquisition and Change (SILPAC).

Statistics with R

I have written a brief tutorial for the platform Toolbox Anglistik Ⅳ, which you can read here.