lit-tag: An app for adding custom tags and notes to a citation database

TL;DR

lit-tag is an R Shiny app that enables researchers to add custom tags and notes to citations, facilitating literature review and analysis without requiring database skills.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible, non-specific tagging tool for citation management that integrates with Zotero and offers visualization and reporting features.

Findings

Supports any research field with customizable tags and notes.

Provides tools for exporting, graphing, and reporting citation data.

Does not require programming skills for use.

Abstract

To facilitate the review, evaluation and analysis of scientific literature, the lit-tag R Shiny application provides a convenient interface for users to generate a citation database with custom, user-defined tags and notes. Lit-tag is not subject-specific and is useful for any field of research. Starting with a table of citations exported from a Zotero library and a user-generated Excel file describing a set of tags and notes fields, lit-tag provides tools for assigning tags and notes to papers ("lit-tag-builder" module) and for exporting, graphing, and generating reports from the resulting database ("lit-tag-viewer" module). The app fills a need not met by the limited tagging tools available in bibliographic software and does not require database programming skills.