zoResearch

A notes and annotation manager built on top of Zotero

Uses

Zotero is a fantastic resource for keeping track of source metadata and citations. But when it comes to note-taking, it's lacking.

ZoResearch takes the sources in your Zotero library, extracts any annotations from associated PDFs and displays them in an easy-to-use interface. For a given project, keep all you notes in an accessible place that updates alongside your research.

• Organize sources by Zotero collection
• Automatically extract annotations from source PDFs
• Add notes for each source

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Installation

pip install zoresearch

How to use

import zoresearch

zoresearch.open(zotero_folder_location, zotero_collection_name=all)

zotero_folder_location

• Filepath for Zotero folder installed on your system.

• Ex: C:\Users\Username\Zotero

zotero_collection_name, default all

• Name of Zotero collection for start-up. Defaults to sources in all collections. Multiple words permitted. Case agnostic.

• Ex: My Research Project

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Interface

Zotero sources are displayed on a scrollable sidebar. The main window displays the selected source with user-generated notes as well as citations from the source's associated PDF (if any).

• Use dropdown menus to select different Zotero collections and to filter sources by either 'Starred' or 'Unread'.

• Click 'Show PDF' for thumbnails.

Source annotations

Highlighting and adding comments to PDFs are convenient ways to take notes. But extracting them can be a pain! zoResearch extracts all these annotations for easy access.

• Annotations are labeled with their absolute page number in the associated PDF and type (highlight, sticky note).

• New annotations are added at zoResearch startup.

Adding notes

In addition to PDF annotations, users can add additional notes directly to the viewer.

• zoResearch automatically saves these notes.

Starring a source

Want to designate some important sources? Simply 'Star' the source so that you can easily find them using the dropdown menu.