Abstract
When thinking about the use of data, we always have to think about workflows and data management, too. Therefore, the aim of this contribution is to show how Articulations handles bibliographic data through Zotero to manage and implement references to the platform, the advantages this has brought and the difficulties encountered in the implementation process.
To begin, I offer a short explanation of what ‘Zotero’ is and how it came to be used for bibliographic data management in EXC 2020 Temporal Communities, and consequently in its digital journal, Articulations. I then provide an overview of how this reference management tool is used as part of the Articulations workflows, the actors involved in the process and the challenges we faced during its implementation. Finally, I elaborate on the opportunities Zotero offers Articulations and conclude with a summary of its broader implications for collaborative digital editing.
What is Zotero and why do we use it?
Zotero is a free, open-source reference management software that can be used to store and implement bibliographic data online as well as locally. This type of software provides a simple means of gathering bibliographic data, the opportunity to work collaboratively through group libraries and the possibility of making stored data available to other researchers. Zotero offers numerous serviceable features for research in a university context. For example, users can add new data manually or use the browser extension to import data automatically, although this might require minor corrections. The bibliographic data gathered can be organised into collections and structured further via tagging. There is also the option to import a PDF file and attach it to a reference. Another practical solution for collaborative work is the annotation of bibliographic data through notes. Group libraries can, furthermore, be shared with other Zotero users, who are granted either ‘reading access’ or ‘full editorial access’, which promotes collaborative working. Users have the added option of sharing sources from group collections, tagging them with key terms, and communicating with other users via those tags or the note function. And finally, researchers are able to create references from the bibliographic data in Zotero libraries in almost any desired citation style, if they have a connection to a word-processor, such as Microsoft Word, GoogleDocs, Pages, LibreOffice Writer, or the like.1If you are interested in a detailed tutorial for the use of this software, we can recommend this introduction on YouTube. Alternatively, you can look for materials provided by universities and general research libraries; they usually also offer introductory workshops.
Zotero is an accessible and adaptable software that was first introduced at EXC 2020 in 2019, as an initiative of Research Area 5 to assemble and coordinate the Cluster’s bibliographic information and to provide a sustainable solution for recording the publications of its members. This use of Zotero in the Cluster and other projects employing the Open Encyclopedia System(OES), such as the Online Compendium on German-Greek Entanglements, served as the model for its integration with Articulations, as implemented with the OES.
How do we use it?
While the potential benefits of using a reference management tool like Zotero for any individual text have been well documented in academic literature (see Full reference in Zotero Library; Full reference in Zotero Library; Full reference in Zotero Library; Full reference in Zotero Library; Full reference in Zotero Library), the practical use of such tools for the implementation of multiple texts in digital publishing platforms, the workflows involved, and the unique challenges of such an endeavour have not yet been sufficiently acknowledged. Publishing Projects using Zotero like the Corpus Criticorum (1450–1640) Full reference in Zotero Library and the University of Heidelberg Full reference in Zotero Library only mention the associated workload anecdotally and do not disclose further details on the specific challenges they encountered throughout this process. This insight represents an initial step towards addressing this gap in knowledge.
Zotero is used in two different ways for Articulations. First, it is a research environment for the curatorial teams to gather the resources used for their insights and share them within the team. Second, it is used to generate the references on the Articulations platform.
Collecting, checking, and writing references can be a tedious task, which we hope to alleviate for all actors involved by using Zotero. Unfortunately, the implementation alone does not solve all the problems posed by those tasks. To create a helpful tool, we had to devise a number of working strategies:
- Create a workflow that keeps the work manageable for all actors involved.
- This led to questions, such as: Who enters the data? Who is responsible for fact-checking? Who is responsible for style checking? Who can modify the data once an entry was published?
- Create regulations for a standardised data-input system, to maintain clarity and avoid irregularities and messy data.
- This especially refers to names of publishers and places of publication that differ sometimes depending on which library catalogue is used as reference.
- Create resources that translate the workflows and regulations so that they accessible for the contributors who are not members of the editorial team.
- This includes organising introductory workshops and providing materials like guidelines and checklists for data implementation
In all of the above, it proved to be a process of trial and error. The creation of an Articulations-citation-style, the addition of sources from unconventional types of media (such as TikTok posts, exhibitions, court hearings), references in non-Latin scripts, limitations of the software, and the high turnaround of staff all constantly required us to rethink and adapt the processes and regulations that were developed. The editorial team collaborated with the curatorial teams to resolve these issues and develop solutions.
How is it useful to us?
Even though the first steps of the implementation are not straightforward, there are advantages that come with using this tool. To start, the ability to create group libraries proved highly beneficial. Authors and curatorial teams were able and required to enter their resources themselves prior to submitting curated collections. The editorial team then modified these entries within the same library to adapt them to the style guide, during which no further modifications were made by authors. These “finished libraries” served new curatorial teams as examples on how to format the references they needed to enter. Zotero group libraries also offered ways to establish methods of communication for the editors within the libraries. This was achieved through tags that indicate the status of an entry in the fact-checking process (‘fact-checked’ / ‘style-checked’), or by way of notes in which the editors indicated any complex problems that required further discussion (‘reference could not be fact-checked’ / ‘there is missing or conflicting data’ etc.).
Another advantage of the tool is that the data entries in Zotero can easily be modified anytime, and the changes appear in the Articulations front-end in real-time, using the ZotPress-Plugin in combination with the OES. This meant that, although editors could not manually change the automatically generated reference in the OES-Editor, the entries could be quickly modified in the Zotero collection, and every mention of the source was automatically updated accordingly.
Another benefit of using Zotero is the opportunity for interconnection it offers. The Zotpress-Plugin can generate an automated list of every contribution which has referenced a source. This list can be accessed through clicking on the Zotero-symbol which appears after each reference (mentioned) in a published contribution on Articulations. This gave us the opportunity to highlight connections within the research corpus of EXC 2020, as represented and documented on the Articulations platform, beyond a single entry or particular tag.
Implications for the LHTC in the working process and on a broader scale
In the long term, we hope the advantages and opportunities outlined above will minimise the effort required to gather bibliographic research data. This would also facilitate more efficient sharing of information. Furthermore, it would be valuable to consider how knowledge beyond bibliographic data is disseminated to the editorial team and contributors, across the OES- and Zotero-communities and the potential for sharing material with institutions engaged in similar projects.
Using Zotero as a reference management software for a digital publication has had an impact on how the editorial team organised its workflows. Incorporating this software required someone to coordinate the work within Zotero, as outlined above. For Articulations, this task is carried out by a student assistant with expertise in the use of this tool. Most of the bibliographic data for individual project work was also entered by student assistants. The citation style for Articulations, which is also used across the Cluster, was programmed and continues to be updated by the IT-Researcher, wherever changes are required. Without his extensive programming knowledge, we would not have been able to generate the outcome, that is available on Articulations now. The success of a digital publishing project in which a digital reference manager is implemented therefore depends on a team who possess the necessary expertise and allotted working hours to coordinate workflows, build resources like style guides, and train new members of staff in the use of the software. There also needs to be time allotted to fact- and style-checking the references in the workflow after peer-review in the process of copy-editing before publication.2In this case fact-checking does not just include checking if the data was added in correctly, but also checking whether every reference in the submitted bibliography was added to Zotero. Style-checking refers to testing if the Zotero-entries are producing the references in the desired style correctly and adapting them in case they are not.
Throughout the development of the Articulations platform, we have constantly relied on resources that other Zotero-users make available. For the training of our Zotero community,we rely on co-learning sessions, organised by Research Area 5 of EXC 2020, and the resources that are offered at the university libraries, such as introductory workshops and tutorials. Concerning implementation, the CeDiS-Team at the Freie Universität Berlin, which is responsible for the development of the OES, was an important actor and a constant supporter of our work. Their experience with the use of Zotero in a number of other digital publishing projects enhanced our understanding of the technical possibilities for developing an infrastructure that uses Zotero data to display connections for readers in the frontend of Articulations. Another important resource for us is the Zotero-forums, where a community of invested users devise workarounds for the limitations of the software in special cases (for example, regarding unconventional types of media); it provides a great resource for learning more about the tool.
These connections to other institutions, be it within or outside the Freie Universität Berlin, are essential for the tool’s accessibility. Maybe in the future there will even be the opportunity for workshops on how Zotero or other digital reference management tools can be useful for digital editing across institutions that are involved in digital publishing. With this, we will see new communities of expertise emerge.
Conclusion
To summarise, the use of Zotero for the Articulations publishing platform has developed since it was first established at EXC 2020 and integrated with the OES. The long-term goal of using this tool is to enhance workflows related to editorial tasks and to facilitate the tracing of bibliographic networks within the Articulations content collection. Our aim is for Articulations to serve as a model for the potential benefits of learning from existing communities of practice, as well as the opportunities the use of digital literary management software can offer to digital publishing. We hope this will be a starting point for further development in this field.