Automatically remove duplicates in Zotero

Author: Jingjing Lin

The Zotero software as a reference management tool is very useful and free for users. However, Zotero does not automatically eliminate duplicates, which is very annoying. Especially if you do not clean up these duplicates over a long while when using the software.

Zotero does provide a button to merge duplicates. But again there is no action of merging files in bulk within Zotero. This tutorial will teach you how to achieve this boring task by automating it through the tool of GhostMouse – free software again. Praise all engineers who are so generous to share.

The mechanism is simple. This GhostMouse software can record a script based on your demonstration of mouse clicking or keyboard typing. The idea is that you start the recording, and manually merge some duplicates. The script will record your operation, and you can save it as a routine script to be used in partnership with Zotero. Once it is done. You can just stay on the same interface on Zotero, click to play the script, and correct mistakes when it happens. The task will be done automatically without boring clicking.

The following video shows you how the work is being automatically executed.

To use this workflow, you just need to download the GhostMouse. Install it. Launch it.

There are only two buttons on its interface: record and play. The right button is the record button, and the left button is the play button. You have to click the record button first. Then you start operating on the Zotero interface. When you finish operating. You click the record button again to stop recording. Then you can click the play button to play the script, which will automatically start repeating your recorded operation earlier. Remember that the script needs to be saved manually. The software does not automatically save the script for you.

Below is a copy of the example script that I generated using the above workflow. Download

I hope this method helps to solve your problem of automatically merging duplicates in Zotero. If you find this tutorial useful, do not forget to share it to your social media channels, or sign in with your orcid account and write your own tutorial.