Zotero on The Augmented Scholar

Zotero — Reference Manager for Researchers

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Why Zotero is the Researcher’s Default

Zotero is the reference manager I recommend without hesitation. It’s free, open-source, and has no meaningful competition for academic use cases.

The workflow that changed how I research:

Literature Note Template (Zotero + Obsidian)

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How the Template Works

When you trigger the template in Obsidian, Templater runs a script that reads your frontmatter and optionally queries the Zotero API (if you supply the citekey). In the simplest version, you fill in the citekey manually and the template structures everything else.

The Complete Obsidian Setup for PhD Researchers (2026 Guide)

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

After three years of helping researchers set up their Obsidian vaults, I’ve noticed a pattern: most fail in the same way, and most succeed for the same reasons.

The failing vaults share one trait — they were built for a blog-post workflow, not a research workflow. Too many plugins, no clear structure, and a daily note template designed for a productivity YouTuber rather than someone managing 400 papers and three parallel projects.