Zotero workshop
8.1 How Zotero does interact with LaTeX
It is possible to use Zotero as a bibliographic reference manager while editing your document in a TeX editor. To do this, you must load the BetterbibTex plugin into Zotero
BetterbibTex allows you to assign a unique key to each of the references in your Zotero library.
By using this plugin you can export a file in bib format to the directory where the tex file is located. This file will be updated automatically each time a new item is added to the corresponding collection.
The Plugin can be downloaded here:
If the browser does not support direct loading of this xpi file (this is the case with Firefox<53) proceed as for loading Zotfile.
Once this plugin has been loaded into Zotero, the software proposes to assign a unique key to all the items in the user's library.
Here's what it looks like:
8.2 How to manage the .bib file ?
Right-click on the reference collection you want to integrate into your document.
In the menu, select "Export collection".
The Betterbibtex plugin opens new export options:
- to BetterBibLatex
- to BetterBibTex
- to BetterBibTex Json, etc.
If you work with an editor that supports BibLaTeX, choose BetterbibLatex
Check the Keep-up-to-date box: this will make each addition of a reference in a given collection to increment the corresponding bib file.
Rename your file if necessary and save it preferably in the same directory where your.tex file is located
8.3 How to include a bibliography in a TeX document
To use BibLaTeX, you will have to load first at the beginning of your document the packages csquotes et biblatex
In this example, let us assume that we use Biber as programme to generate a bibliography with BibLaTex.
We have also chosen Nature as the bibliographic style that we need for this situation. there is a list of styles you can use with the biblatex package.
You will have then to specify to Zotero in which directory the .bib file which was just generated is located. As it is in the same directory as our .tex file, you just have to provide its name (respecting the case of the elements of the file name)
8.4 How to add a reference in a TeX editor
In the text where you want to insert a citation:
Go to the Zotero collection, select the relevant item, do Ctrl + Shift + C
In the.tex file, at the relevant place, press Ctrl + V.
This commands do the same as insert \cite{<key to the item>} in the text
Depending on the form required, it may be necessary to transform this \cite into \parencite (quotation in brackets)
| Command | Result |
| \cite{<clé>} | Jones et al.(1990) |
| \cite*{<clé>} | Jones, Baker, and Smith (1990) |
| \parencite{<clé>} | (Jones et al.,1990) |
| \parencite*{<clé>} | (Jones, Baker, and Smith,1990) |
| \parencite [chap. 2]{<clé>} | (Jones et al.,1990, chap 2) |
| \parencite [e.g.][]{<clé>} | (e.g. Jones et al., 1990) |
| \parencite [e.g.][p.32]{<clé>} | (e.g. Jones et al., p.32) |
| \citeauthor{<clé>} | Jones et al. |
| \citeauthor*{<clé>} | Jones, Baker, and Smith |
| \citeyear{<clé>} | 1990 |
Source : LE GARREC, Vincent. Formation LaTeX par la pratique,. Institut Universitaire de la Mer, URFIST (Rennes) 11 et 12 janvier 2018
8.5 How to use Zotero with Markdown
Zotero can also interoperate with Markdown if you use Pandoc to compile the different files you need:
the.md file (your text written in markdown format)
the.csl file (which contains the bibliographic style, for example ieee.csl)
the.bib file (which contains the list of references, as in the case of LaTeX)