How to Export and Sync Papers to Zotero

You have spent the last few days swiping through papers on ZiNote. Your Liked collection is growing. Abstracts that once scrolled past in an endless feed are now neatly saved, waiting for deeper reading. But at some point, a familiar question surfaces: how do I get these papers into my actual reference manager?

If you use Zotero — and there is a good chance you do, given that it is the most popular free reference manager among researchers — the answer is straightforward. ZiNote offers two methods to sync papers to Zotero, each designed for a different workflow. One is automatic and seamless. The other is manual but universally compatible with virtually any tool you might use.

This guide walks you through both options so you can choose the one that fits your setup.

Why Getting Papers Out of Discovery Tools Matters

Discovery is only the first step. The papers you save during a browsing session are not useful until they land in the system where you actually read, annotate, cite, and organize your references. For most researchers, that system is Zotero, Mendeley, or a LaTeX workflow built around BibTeX files.

The gap between "I found this interesting" and "this is properly filed in my library" is where papers get lost. You bookmark them, star them, or add them to a list — and then never transfer them. Weeks later, when you need that one paper about attention mechanisms in graph networks, you cannot remember whether it was in your email, your browser bookmarks, or some app you tried once.

Closing that gap requires either automation or a dead-simple export process. ZiNote provides both.

Method 1: Zotero Direct Sync via Plugin (Recommended)

This is the fastest and most hands-off way to sync papers to Zotero. Once set up, every paper you right-swipe in ZiNote automatically appears in your Zotero library — complete with title, authors, abstract, publication venue, and DOI. No copying, no pasting, no manual imports.

How to Set It Up

Step 1: Download the ZiNote Zotero Plugin. Visit zinote.app and download the Zotero connector plugin. The file is an XPI package, which is the standard format for Zotero plugins.

Step 2: Install the Plugin in Zotero. Open Zotero on your desktop. Go to Tools, then Add-ons, then click the gear icon and select "Install Add-on From File." Choose the XPI file you just downloaded. Zotero will prompt you to restart — do that.

Step 3: Connect Your ZiNote Account. After restarting Zotero, you will see a ZiNote option in the Zotero menu or preferences. Sign in with the same account you use on the ZiNote mobile app. This links your discovery feed to your Zotero library.

Step 4: Swipe and Forget. From this point forward, any paper you right-swipe (like) in ZiNote will sync to a designated collection in your Zotero library. The sync happens in the background. You do not need to open Zotero or trigger anything manually.

What Gets Synced

The plugin transfers full metadata for each paper:

• Title
• Authors
• Abstract
• Publication date
• Journal or conference name
• DOI and URL
• Keywords and tags

This means your Zotero entries are immediately searchable, sortable, and ready for citation. You do not have to look up the DOI yourself or fix broken metadata — ZiNote pulls structured data from Semantic Scholar's academic graph, so the records are clean from the start.

When to Use This Method

Choose Zotero direct sync if you want a completely passive workflow. You discover papers on your phone during a commute or a coffee break, and by the time you sit down at your desk, everything is already in Zotero. It is the closest thing to a zero-friction pipeline between discovery and reference management.

Method 2: BibTeX Export via Email (Universal)

Not everyone uses Zotero, and not everyone wants automatic sync. Maybe you prefer to review your liked papers before adding them to your library. Maybe you use Mendeley, or you work primarily in Overleaf and need BibTeX files directly. The export method covers all of these cases.

How to Export

Step 1: Open Your Liked Page. In the ZiNote app, navigate to the Liked page where all your right-swiped papers are collected.

Step 2: Select the Papers You Want to Export. You can select individual papers or choose all of them. This step is where you get to curate — maybe you liked fifty papers this week but only want to export the twelve that are directly relevant to your current project.

Step 3: Export as BibTeX. Tap the export button and choose BibTeX format. ZiNote generates a properly formatted .bib file containing the citation entries for your selected papers.

Step 4: Send via Email. ZiNote sends the BibTeX file to your email address. Open the email on any device, download the attachment, and you have a standard BibTeX file ready to import.

Step 5: Import into Your Tool of Choice.

• Zotero: File, then Import, then select the .bib file.
• Mendeley: File, then Import, then BibTeX.
• Overleaf: Upload the .bib file directly to your project and reference it in your LaTeX document.
• Any other tool: If it reads BibTeX (and nearly every academic tool does), it will work.

When to Use This Method

Choose BibTeX export when you want manual control over what enters your library. It is also the right choice if you use multiple reference managers, collaborate with people on different tools, or need to feed citations directly into a LaTeX project. The BibTeX format is the universal language of academic citations — every serious tool supports it.

Comparing the Two Methods

| Feature | Zotero Direct Sync | BibTeX Export | |---|---|---| | Setup required | Install XPI plugin, connect account | None | | Sync trigger | Automatic on right-swipe | Manual selection and export | | Metadata quality | Full structured metadata | Full BibTeX entries | | Supported tools | Zotero only | Zotero, Mendeley, Overleaf, any BibTeX-compatible tool | | Best for | Passive, hands-off workflow | Curated exports, multi-tool setups | | Offline access | Syncs when Zotero is online | Email delivers the file anytime | | Effort per paper | Zero after setup | A few taps per batch |

Most researchers who use Zotero as their primary tool will prefer direct sync — it eliminates every manual step. If you split your work across tools, or if you like to review before committing papers to your library, BibTeX export gives you that flexibility.

A Workflow That Combines Both

You do not have to pick one method exclusively. A practical approach is to enable Zotero direct sync for your everyday discovery sessions, so that interesting papers flow into your library without any effort. Then, when you are preparing a specific manuscript or literature review, use BibTeX export to pull a curated set of citations into Overleaf or share them with a collaborator who uses Mendeley.

This way, your Zotero library stays comprehensive and up to date, while your project-specific citation files remain clean and focused.

Getting Started

If you have not tried ZiNote yet, download it from the App Store and set up your personalized research feed. The app learns what you care about from your swipe behavior, so the more you use it, the better your recommendations get.

Once you have a collection of liked papers, come back to this guide and set up whichever export method fits your workflow. Your Zotero library — and your future self writing that literature review at midnight — will thank you.

Download ZiNote at zinote.app and start syncing papers to Zotero today.