Zotero is a free and open-source research data management platform developed by the Corporation for Digital Scholarship and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Through its desktop application, browser connectors, word-processor integrations, and cloud-based services, Zotero enables researchers to systematically collect, organize, cite, and share scholarly and grey literature.
Dried Fish Matters (DFM) maintains a shared Zotero library that can be accessed through both the web interface and the desktop client. While the web library supports most core functions and allows access from any shared computer or mobile device, the desktop application provides advanced capabilities such as offline access, saved searches, collection reports, and seamless integration with word-processing software for collaborative writing and citation management.
The DFM Zotero library serves as the project’s central knowledge infrastructure. It currently contains over 4,000 publications and functions as the primary platform for assembling, curating, and sharing literature on the dried fish economy. Originally developed to support collective literature reviews and cross-country comparative research, the library has grown to encompass a wide range of interconnected fields, including human rights, political ecology, feminist commodity-chain analysis, social economy, governance, and development studies, bodies of scholarship that together shape the conceptual foundations of Dried Fish Matters.
Word cloud generated from the literature in the Dried Fish Matters Zotero library
As the project enters its concluding phase, the library is being systematically reorganized and curated to become a publicly accessible archival resource. This involves developing a clear thematic structure, standardized metadata, and intuitive pathways across regions, value-chain segments, and analytical themes. Once this curatorial process is complete, the library will be released as a structured digital archive, and this page will be updated to reflect its public interface and navigational architecture.
