Zotero plugin with a Zotero-tailored arXiv browser and deep integration of INSPIRE-HEP.

The arXiv browser works for every arXiv category, from mathematics and computer science to biology, economics and physics: read the daily listings in a Zotero window, then add papers to your library or relate them to items you already have. The INSPIRE integration serves high energy physics and related fields: browse references, citations, author papers and academic lineages directly in Zotero without leaving your library.

📖 中文功能说明 | Technical Reference

4.0.0 (requires Zotero 10):

• arXiv browser: a separate Zotero window for reading arXiv listings of any field. Subscribe to any categories, pick announcement days in a calendar, read titles, authors and abstracts with rendered formulas, search arXiv, and add papers to your library (through INSPIRE when it has the paper, otherwise from arXiv's data) or relate them to your items.

Earlier:

• INSPIRE BibTeX export API for external tools such as zotero-cite.
• Academic family tree: trace advisor–student relationships in the Academic Tree view.

Requires Zotero 10. Version 3.2.5, the last release for Zotero 7 to 9, remains on the Releases page.

1. Download the latest .xpi file from Releases
2. In Zotero: Tools → Plugins → click gear icon → Install Plugin From File...
3. Select the downloaded .xpi file

git clone https://github.com/fkguo/zotero-inspire.git
cd zotero-inspire
npm install
npm run build

Then install build/*.xpi as above.

The arXiv browser is a Zotero window for reading arXiv's announcements. It is not limited to high energy physics: every arXiv category can be subscribed to, and papers that INSPIRE does not cover are added to your library from arXiv's own data.

Open it with View → arXiv Browser, with the arXiv button at the right end of Zotero's tab bar, or with the arXiv button (a red X on a dark tile) next to the INSPIRE button in the item pane's side navigation, also in the Reader. A second request brings the open window to the front. The window can also open when Zotero starts (see Preferences).

1. Subscribe: click New…, name the subscription, and tick categories in the category picker (search by name or identifier, e.g. math.AG or quantum). Choose the sections to show (new submissions, cross-lists, replacements) and click Save.
2. Pick days: click the day button (it reads Newest day ▾ at first) and choose a preset, or pick days in the calendar and click Load.
3. Read: move through the papers with j / k; the detail pane on the right shows the chosen paper with its abstract. n / p turn the page.
4. Keep: press a (or Add…) to add a paper, choosing the library or collection in the save-target picker; press l (or Relate to items…) to relate it to items in your library.

• Subscriptions: named sets of categories, managed with New…, Edit… and Delete; the window opens with the one chosen in Preferences (the first by default).
  • The category picker lists arXiv's groups, archives and categories with a search box. An archive with several categories can be taken whole ("All of …"), which costs one listing page instead of one per category.
  • The chosen categories are listed in the order you set; their listings are shown in that order.
  • The editor shows how many requests a first load takes and its minimum duration, and suggests a whole archive when more than 10 categories are chosen.
• Category chips under the subscription filter the list: click shows only that category, Ctrl/Cmd+click adds or removes one, Shift+click picks a range, and clicking the only chosen chip again shows all.
• Calendar: announcement days (Monday to Friday) within arXiv's last 90 days can be picked. Click picks one day, Ctrl/Cmd+click adds or removes a day, Shift+click picks a range. Picked days are fetched only when you click Load; the calendar shows how many requests that takes if the days are not cached.
• Presets load at once: Newest day, Last 5 announcement days, This week, Unread days.
• Unread days: a blue dot marks each announcement day not yet read in this subscription, counted from the day the subscription was made.
  • A day is marked read once its complete listing has been shown.
  • Mark read / Mark unread act on the picked days; Mark all read clears every dot without fetching anything.
  • Marks are kept per subscription for 100 days.

• Order of arrival: the newest day is fetched and shown first. With several categories, a day appears as soon as its first category arrives, and the others are added as they come ("Still fetching: …" under the date). A category that failed gets Retry; a stopped load can be resumed with Continue.
• Pages: 50 papers per page by default (Per page, 10–500), with ‹ Previous, page numbers and Next ›. The day chips above the list jump to a day.
• Sort: Announcement order (grouped as New submissions, Cross-lists, Replacements), arXiv ID ↑ / ↓, or Primary category. The New submissions, Cross-lists and Replacements boxes choose the sections shown and are saved with the subscription; a paper listed in several sections appears once.
• Abstracts are folded in the list by default: Abstract ▸ on a row or Space unfolds one, the Abstracts box unfolds all. Formulas are rendered as set by Abstract LaTeX in Preferences.
• Detail pane: title, authors, arXiv ID, version, announcement date, categories, where the paper was announced (e.g. "hep-ph: new submission; hep-th: cross-list"), comments, journal reference, the paper's library state with its actions, Copy BibTeX, PDF, HTML, and the abstract. The divider between list and pane can be dragged (or moved with ← / → when focused); its position is remembered. For a paper with several versions, version is a chooser: picking an older version fetches it once from the arXiv API and shows its title, authors, abstract and submission date; PDF and HTML then refer to that version.
• Filter box: words or "quoted phrases" matched against authors, title, arXiv ID, categories, comments, journal reference (including shorthand such as PRL, PRD, JHEP) and abstract. Its history is shared with the References panel.
• Quick filters (⏳): Local items, Online items, ≤10 Authors, Published (has a journal reference), arXiv only.
• In-library marks (by arXiv ID, over all your libraries, trash excluded): ● in your library (click selects it in the main window), ②, ③ … several items, ⊕ not in your library (click adds it), ? the library could not be read (click tries again). The detail pane shows ✓ In your library with Show in library.
• PDF button: green when the paper's item has a PDF, which a click opens in Zotero. A paper in your library without a PDF shows the blue download icon, as in the References panel: a click runs Zotero's Find Full Text on its item, and the button turns green when a PDF is found (in the detail pane the button reads Find Full Text; for an older version chosen there, PDF opens arXiv's PDF of that version). A paper not in your library: a click opens arXiv's PDF in your web browser.
• Author card: hover an author name. When INSPIRE has the paper, the INSPIRE author card appears; otherwise a local card. Both show the author's papers in your library and a link to the author's arXiv search.

Type in the Search arXiv box and press Enter. Plain words search all fields and must all match; arXiv's own syntax works too, e.g. au:witten, ti:tetraquark, abs:"chiral perturbation", cat:hep-ph, AND, OR, ANDNOT, parentheses, submittedDate:[202601010000 TO 202612312359].

• Results are listed newest submission first, grouped by month, and fetched one page at a time. arXiv gives the first 10000 matches only.
• The filter box and quick filters apply to the results.
• The search box has its own history.
• ×, or Enter in the empty box, returns to the listed days, at the same page and paper.

Add a paper with a, Add… in the detail pane, or a click on ⊕. The save-target picker (the same one as in the References panel) chooses the library or collection, tags and a note. The route is chosen from the data:

• INSPIRE has the paper (a record whose arXiv identifier is this paper): imported from INSPIRE, as from the References panel.
• INSPIRE does not have it: created from arXiv's data, as a Preprint (see Keep Preprint item type for unpublished papers) with the complete author list and arXiv:<id> [category] in Extra.
• Add the journal version… (shown when arXiv gives a journal reference): when INSPIRE has no record, the journal DOI is looked up with Zotero's own DOI lookup; if the result does not match the paper, the preprint is added instead and a notice says why.
• If INSPIRE cannot be reached, nothing is added until you choose Add from arXiv data or Try later.

A paper already in the target library (by arXiv ID, INSPIRE record or journal DOI) is not added again; Show in library selects it.

• PDF: when Auto "Find Full Text" after adding to library is on, the arXiv PDF of the paper's current version is attached ("arXiv preprint PDF vN"). No arXiv PDF for journal articles added from the arXiv browser leaves it out for journal items.
• Tag: with arXiv Primary Category Tag on, the primary category (e.g. hep-ph, math.AG) is added as a tag.
• Several papers: tick the boxes (x, Shift+click for a range). The toolbar in the first day header offers Select all (all pages), Clear and Import. Import uses the References panel's batch import: a duplicate check, one save target, each paper added once, Escape to cancel (which also stops its requests), and a summary of what was not added.
• INSPIRE completion: the status line reports "N preprints added recently have no INSPIRE record yet" for items added in the last 30 days with an arXiv ID and no INSPIRE record. Check now asks INSPIRE and lists the records found; for the items you tick, only the INSPIRE record ID, the citation key (where it is empty) and the citation counts are written; bibliographic fields are left unchanged.

l, Relate to items… or the row's link button opens Zotero's Select Items dialog on the paper's library; choose one or more items. A paper not yet in your library is added first. The relation is written in both directions in one step and can be undone with Ctrl/Cmd+Z in the window or Edit → Undo. Items in different libraries cannot be related. The link button is green when the paper's item has related items, which its tooltip lists; remove a relation in the item's Related section in Zotero.

• Copy BibTeX (button, row button, right-click menu, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+C): INSPIRE's BibTeX when INSPIRE has the paper, otherwise arXiv's. The citation key is the library item's key when the paper is in your library, otherwise INSPIRE's texkey, otherwise one made like INSPIRE's: first author's family name (or the collaboration), year of the arXiv ID and the first significant title word, e.g. Finkelberg:2022kostka. The notice says which source was used.
• Right-click menu in the list and the detail pane: Copy / Copy Selection, Copy as LaTeX (on an abstract with formulas in the detail pane), Select All, Open Link in Web Browser, Copy Link Address, and on a paper Copy Title, Copy arXiv ID, Copy Link to the arXiv Page, Copy INSPIRE link, Copy BibTeX.
• Ctrl/Cmd+C copies the selected text with each formula once; Ctrl/Cmd+A selects the text of the list or the detail pane.
• A click on a title, or Enter, opens the paper's arXiv page in your web browser.

The HTML button in the detail pane and the </> button on each row (hidden when the listing says arXiv has no HTML version of the paper) open the saved snapshot in Zotero if there is one, and otherwise show arXiv's HTML version in the window, in the detail pane's place. Their ▾ menu offers Show in This Window, Open in the Web Browser, Save HTML Snapshot to the Library and Open Snapshot in Zotero.

In the window, the page has the detail pane's width (drag the divider or enlarge the window for more room). ‹ Details above it, or focusing another paper in the list, returns to the details; Open in the Web Browser opens the same page there.

• Links within the page (sections, citations, footnotes) move within it; links to elsewhere (abstract page, PDF, DOIs) open in your web browser. The buttons of arXiv's page header work, including the table of contents and the reading mode.
• Resting the pointer on a link to an equation, a figure, a table, a reference or a section shows it in a small box beside the link: the equation with its number, the figure or table with its caption, the reference with its links, a section, subsection or appendix as its heading and its first lines (cut off at the box's height). The box stays while the pointer is in it (its links work) and closes when the pointer leaves it, on a click elsewhere, on scrolling the page and with Escape in the page.
• Selecting text that contains citations (such as "[12, 13]") shows below the selection, as the INSPIRE look-up in Zotero's PDF reader does, a small bar with their numbers. Resting the pointer on a number shows the INSPIRE card of that reference: authors, journal, citations, abstract, whether it is in your library, Add to Library, Copy BibTeX and more. A reference INSPIRE's list of the paper does not have, and every reference of a paper INSPIRE has no record of, shows arXiv's entry text instead. The paper's references are fetched from INSPIRE once, at the first such selection, and kept in the plugin's cache (the References panel's).
• Ctrl/Cmd+F finds in the page: Ctrl/Cmd+G and Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G go to the next and previous match, Escape closes the find bar. The find bar is the Firefox platform's and is in English; ss and ß do not match each other.
• Keys pressed in the page belong to the page (Space, arrows, Ctrl/Cmd+C, Ctrl/Cmd+A). Right-click copies the selection and, on a link, opens it or copies its address.

Saving uses Zotero's own web snapshot of the listed version, titled "arXiv HTML vN", attached to the paper's item (the paper is added first if needed). The snapshot is a copy of arXiv's full-text HTML page, formulas and figures included; read and annotate it in Zotero's reader. Like other attachments it syncs, so it can also be read in Zotero's mobile apps.

In the INSPIRE References panel, HTML after a paper's arXiv number opens a menu: Show in the arXiv Browser opens the window (or brings it to the front) with arXiv's HTML version of the paper on its right-hand side, the list unchanged; Save HTML Snapshot to the Library saves the newest version to the paper's item (a paper not in your library is added first, where you choose); once a snapshot is saved, the button is green with a ✓ and the menu also offers Open Snapshot in Zotero.

Requests to arXiv are spaced as arXiv asks (15 s for its web pages, 3 s for its API); the status line counts down to the next one. Listings are cached for 100 days, so reopening the window costs no requests until the next announcement; Reload fetches the newest listing again. An HTML page shown in the window is loaded when you click, as a web browser would load it.

Right-click any item → INSPIRE:

• With abstracts — Full metadata including abstract
• Without abstracts — Skip abstract field
• Citation counts only — Just update citation numbers

The plugin automatically fetches metadata when you add new items (configurable in Preferences).

Escape or INSPIRE → Cancel update stops an update. Items INSPIRE gives no usable answer for are left unchanged.

Right-click any item → INSPIRE for quick copy options:

• Copy BibTeX — Fetch and copy BibTeX from INSPIRE
• Copy citation key — Copy the INSPIRE texkey
• Copy INSPIRE recid — Copy the INSPIRE record ID
• Copy INSPIRE link — Copy the INSPIRE literature URL
• Copy INSPIRE link (markdown) — Copy the INSPIRE literature URL in format of [texkey](link)
• Copy Zotero link — Copy Zotero select link
• Copy Funding Info — Extract and copy funding information from PDF acknowledgments

Select an item with an INSPIRE record, then find the INSPIRE section in the right panel:

• Related: hybrid ranking = weighted bibliographic coupling (shared refs) + optional co-citation re-ranking; by default it ignores the PDG Review of Particle Physics as a seed anchor (too generic).
• Academic Tree: explore advisor–student relationships in the shared Connections Graph window. See Explore Academic Tree.
• Citation Graph: a 1-hop visualization (refs/cited-by configurable up to 200 per side). Open Connections Graph via the panel button or the main toolbar button next to the search box; with no selection it opens an empty canvas where you can add seeds. Drag the time-range sliders under each x-axis to zoom the time window. Use the Reviews toggle to include/exclude review articles (incl. PDG).

Open Academic Tree from an author preview card or the Author Papers profile. You can also switch to Academic Tree at the top of the Connections Graph window and search for an author. The shared window can be resized or maximized.

• Choose generations: set ancestors from 0 to 10 and descendants from 0 to 8, with 2 in each direction by default. Zero hides that direction.
• Sort within families: students of the same advisor follow Surname A–Z (default) or Education year ↑; unknown years come last. Card tooltips show education end years.
• Remember searches: the ▾ button beside the author search box opens recent queries; Tab or → accepts an inline suggestion, ↓ opens the history.
• Follow a name: click an author's name to make them the tree's center and display their author page in the sidebar. Hover for the usual author preview, including favorites and paper actions.
• Explore a branch: click a card's background to select the person, then expand one generation of advisors or students; click a name at the edge to continue from a new center.
• Revisit a tree: Back and Forward restore earlier trees as you left them.
• Co-advisors: supplemental co-advisors (light gray cards) are hidden by default; Show co-advisors shows them.
• Find / path: find a person in the loaded tree by name, INSPIRE ID or affiliation; choose two people to highlight the shortest path between them.
• Relationship qualifications: labels under each name give the relationship to the visible advisors (PhD, Diploma, Bachelor, Master, Habilitation, Laurea, Other, Unspecified), not the person's highest degree; the relationship filter shows one type, Specified qualifications, or all.
• Fit to page (beside Fit all, Center root, − / +): wraps long generations into several rows at the window width; read left to right, then the next row. Toggle off to restore the tree layout.
• Branches: Expand all shown ancestors’ students adds one generation of students under every ancestor shown; the same button then collapses them again. You can also collapse or restore the selected person’s student branch.
• 📤 Export▼: SVG, PNG, JSON or CSV, for Current view or Full loaded tree (SVG is best for large trees).

Set as center makes the selected person the center. Refresh from INSPIRE fetches the current tree again; Retry appears after failures and Continue loading after Stop.

Relationships come from public INSPIRE author records; arrows point from advisor to student. Dashed cards have no linked author record and cannot be expanded. A missing record does not mean there is no relationship.

From Zotero's search bar: Type inspire: followed by your query and press Enter.

inspire: a Witten           → Search by author
inspire: t quark mass       → Search by title
inspire: arXiv:2305.12345   → Search by arXiv ID
inspire: j Phys.Rev.D       → Search by journal

From the panel (more convenient): Click the 🔍 Search tab and enter your query directly (no prefix needed). Search history is saved and accessible via dropdown (use right or tab to accept inline hint from history records).

Zotero's main item list supports two additional columns:

• Cites — Citation counts from INSPIRE (stored in Extra by this plugin). Default: includes self-citations (configurable).
• arXiv — arXiv ID extracted locally (from Journal Abbr. / Extra / URL / DOI).

Enable them via the column picker in the items list header. Preferences:

• Cites column: exclude self-citations — Switch between total vs. without self-citations. If the list doesn't update immediately, switch collections or restart Zotero.
• Legacy: write arXiv ID into Journal Abbr. — Disabled by default now that an arXiv column exists (kept for backward compatibility).
• Keep Preprint item type for unpublished papers (on by default) — Preprint items stay Preprint until INSPIRE reports a journal publication; untick it to convert everything to Journal Article.

• Text filter: Type keywords to filter entries; supports multi-word, phrase search ("exact phrase"), journal abbreviations ("PRL", "PRD", "JHEP", etc.), and international characters (ä→ae)
• Quick filters: Click the Filters button for presets (high citations, recent papers, published only, etc.)
• Sort options: INSPIRE order, relevance (Related tab), newest first, or most cited first
• Chart filters: Click bars in the statistics chart to filter by year or citation range; Ctrl/Cmd+click for multi-select

• Back/Forward: Use the ← → buttons to navigate between previously viewed items, like browser history
• Keyboard: Arrow keys, Home/End, and vim-style j/k navigation (see Keyboard Shortcuts)

The ⭐ Favorites tab lets you quickly access your favorite authors, papers, and presentations:

• Favorite Authors: Click the star (☆/★) button in the Author Papers tab or author preview card to add authors to favorites
• Favorite Papers & Presentations: Right-click any entry within the INSPIRE References panel and select "Add paper to favorites" (or "Add presentation to favorites"), or use the right-click menu in Zotero's main window. Items of type "Presentation" are automatically categorized under "Favorite Presentations".
• Quick Access: All favorites are displayed in the Favorites tab with drag-and-drop reordering within each category (Authors, Papers, Presentations)
• Filtering: Use the text filter to search within your favorites

1. Use checkboxes to select multiple entries
2. Click Import to batch import selected items
3. The plugin detects duplicates automatically before importing; the dialog says how many items match a paper and, when group libraries are involved, in which libraries
4. A paper shown in several rows is imported once; press Escape to cancel, which also stops the requests in progress

Click the export button in the toolbar:

• Copy to Clipboard — BibTeX, LaTeX (US), or LaTeX (EU) format
• Copy citation keys — Comma-separated keys for \cite{}
• Export to File — Save as .bib or .tex file
• Select Citation Style... — Export using any Zotero citation style

When reading a PDF in Zotero:

1. Select text containing citations (e.g., "see Refs. [1,2,3]")
2. Hover over the INSPIRE Refs. [n] button to preview the reference (title, authors, abstract)
   • In the preview card: click In Library to select the item in Zotero; click Online to open the record in your browser (prefers INSPIRE)
3. Click to jump to and highlight the corresponding reference in the panel

Supported formats: [1], [1,2,3], [1-5], [Smith 2024], [arXiv:2301.12345], superscripts

Keys act on the focused paper and are ignored while you type in a text box.

Extract grant numbers from PDF acknowledgment sections for reporting:

1. Select one or more items with PDF attachments
2. Right-click → INSPIRE → Copy Funding Info
3. Paste into your funding report

Output format (single item): NSFC: 12345678; DOE: SC0012345 Output format (multiple items): Tab-separated table with Title, arXiv, Funding columns

Supported funders include: NSFC, MoST, CAS, DOE, NSF (US), ERC, DFG, JSPS, and many more.

Note: Extraction results may be incomplete due to PDF text quality, non-standard acknowledgment formats, or unrecognized funder patterns. Please verify manually for critical use cases.

Right-click items or collections → INSPIRE → Download references cache to prefetch data for offline viewing.

Enable Preprint Watch in Preferences to automatically check if your arXiv preprints have been published. Both Journal Article items carrying arXiv data and Zotero Preprint items are monitored (see Keep Preprint item type above).

• Check by hand with right-click → INSPIRE → Check Preprint Status (items), Check Preprints in Collection, or Check All Preprints in Library (My Library and every editable group library).
• A record whose title or first author differs from the item's is shown with a warning and left unticked.
• Besides published papers to update, the results list preprints INSPIRE has a record of while their items lack it; for these only the INSPIRE record ID, citation key and citation counts are written.

Enable Smart Update in Preferences to preserve your manual edits when updating metadata. You can protect specific fields (title, authors, abstract, journal) and author names with diacritics.

Authors are never dropped silently: if INSPIRE's list lacks authors the item has, the item keeps its list.

The plugin automatically sets INSPIRE citation keys in Zotero's Citation Key field, which Better BibTeX can use for pinning.

Add this to your Zotero engines.json for quick INSPIRE lookups:

{
  "_name": "INSPIRE",
  "_alias": "INSPIRE",
  "_description": "INSPIRE",
  "_icon": "https://inspirehep.net/favicon.ico",
  "_hidden": false,
  "_urlTemplate": "https://inspirehep.net/literature/{z:archiveLocation}"
}

Access via Tools → Add-ons → INSPIRE Metadata Updater → Preferences:

arXiv Browser section and related options:

Item not found in INSPIRE?

• Ensure the item has a DOI, arXiv ID, or INSPIRE recid
• Check the Extra field for arXiv: or Citation Key: entries

Panel not showing?

• The item needs an INSPIRE record ID (shown in "Loc. in Archive" field)
• Try updating metadata first to fetch the record ID

Citation counts not updating?

• Use Update Metadata → Citation counts only from the right-click menu
• Falls back to CrossRef if INSPIRE record not found

zotero-inspire registers an authenticated POST /connector/zinspireBibtex endpoint for trusted local clients such as fkguo/zotero-cite, a fork of the zotero-cite VS Code extension with INSPIRE-HEP support. Use that fork: the upstream zotero-cite has no zotero-inspire settings and does not call this endpoint. Given Better BibTeX/CAYW citation keys, the endpoint finds the matching items across personal and group libraries, fetches their BibTeX from INSPIRE using the record ID stored by zotero-inspire, and rewrites each entry key to the requested citation key. Items without an INSPIRE record fall back to a Better BibTeX export. The endpoint is read-only and uses its own token, separate from the write API. Full versioned contract: docs/EXTERNAL_INSPIRE_BIBTEX_API.md.

Since 3.0.3, zotero-inspire registers an authenticated POST /connector/zinspireWrite endpoint so trusted local tools can do what Zotero's read-only Local API cannot: attach a local file to an item, and trash/erase items. This is what the nullius zotero-mcp / hep-mcp integration uses for PDF attachment and deletion. Full contract (auth, operations, errors, dependency notes): docs/EXTERNAL_WRITE_API.md.

Mozilla Public License (MPL) Version 2.0

Built with zotero-plugin-template. Inspired by zotero-shortdoi and zotero-citationcounts.