Link Zotero and Obsidian

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How to cite Zotero’item in Obsidian’s note.

Install

It needs to install one plugin in Zotero and two plugins in Obsidian.

  1. Install Better BibTeX for Zotero plugin in Zotero
  2. Install Zotero Integration, Pandoc Reference List plugins in Obsidian

Configuration

After installing plugins in Obsidian, additional configuration is required for both plugins.

Zotero Integraion

  1. In Citation Formats, add a citation style you want. Name is just a name for you to choose from in command palette when you add a citation later.
  2. Set the Output Format to Pandoc. So, the actual styling task is done by Pandoc Reference List plugin.

Pandoc Reference List

  1. Enable Pull bibliography from Zotero.

  2. In Citation style, choose actual citation style you want. In this example, we choose APA 7 edition.

Usage

To cite a reference in Obsidian,

  1. Click Open command palette. Create a hotkey for this for convenience.
  2. Chose Zotero Integration: APA. This is the name we configured in the Zotero Integration setting.
  3. Zotero citation window would show up just like it would in MS Word.
  4. Type the name of reference.
  5. in-text citation is added like this in the note. Abernathy & Utterback (1978)
  6. Click Open command palette, choose Pandoc Reference List: Show reference list, then the referents would show up on the right panel8.
  7. Copy the contents of References, and paste them in the note.

References

Signal Processing with Paul (Director). (2024, July 16). How to use Zotero in Obsidian [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yMko1m8XSQ

Better BibTeX for Zotero. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2024, from https://retorque.re/zotero-better-bibtex/