Future Reference: Zettelkasten and Zotero

Are you writing an academic paper or book? Is your desk littered with printouts and post-its? Do you wish you could have all your sources and notes in one place, accessible anywhere, anytime?  

Zettelkasten (lit. “slip box”) is a notetaking method for creating a hypertextual knowledge base. Zotero is an open-source reference management software. Although older versions of Zotero could have utilized the Zettelkasten method, the newest version (6.0, released in 2022 and which Juris-M has yet to fork) allows the user to open and annotate PDFs in-application.

Learn how I souped up Zotero with plug-ins, created a citation style language with bibliographic support specific to the dissertation requirements for CWRU’s SJD program, and overhauled my research workflow from gathering sources to citing them. Oh, and free quick start guides (with screenshots)!