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Step-By-Step: Adding Zotero Footnotes And Citations In Obsidian
Introduction
This article aims to demonstrate the process of adding footnotes in Obsidian, whether you’re creating a new note or editing an imported one. We will also explore the application of this concept within Cornell Notes, a well known note-taking method ported to the digital age in Obsidian by TfTHacker. We will also examine how citations from Zotero bibliographies can be integrated into your working notes.
Why Add Citations and References
Citations and references significantly enhance the credibility of any written piece, be it notes or published articles. They also serve as a useful reference point for tracing back the source of information.
There are various methods to include these citations in your work. Often, you’ll find tiny numbers on book pages or online articles indicating footnotes. Alternatively, you might see what’s known as a citation where someone’s name when referenced in a sentence, is followed by the year of publication. Another method is at the end of a sentence there may be an author’s name and publication year in brackets denoting the source.
The final page usually contains comprehensive details about each citation including its location, publishing journal etc., providing robust backing for your work and statements made throughout your article.
Referencing Manager
Incorporating footnotes, citations, bibliographies and so on in your Obsidian notes, articles or even YouTube videos requires a referencing manager to track the origin of your references.
There’s a range of them available for download such as EndNote and MyBib. While I’ve utilised both before, I wasn’t particularly fond of EndNote. On the other hand, MyBib is quite impressive and free. Another worth mentioning is Mendeley, although I have not used it. However, Zotero is my current go-to. I prefer Zotero because it seamlessly integrates with Obsidian and allows me to annotate any PDFs within its interface itself. In addition, there are also browser extensions you can use to add articles direct to a Zotero collection and many research programs such as Consensus, Elicit, Research Rabbit and Litmaps.
