Automatically fetch and display TL;DR summaries from Semantic Scholar in Zotero 7
- 🔍 Automatic TL;DR Fetching - Summaries are automatically fetched when you add new items
- 📚 Semantic Scholar Integration - Uses both DOI and title matching for best coverage
- 💾 Syncs Across Devices - TL;DR data is stored in the Extra field, so it syncs with your Zotero library
- 🔄 Smart Retry - Automatically retries failed API requests
- 📊 Statistics Dashboard - Track how many items have summaries
- 🌐 Multi-language - English and Chinese localization
- When you add items to your library, zTLDR automatically queries Semantic Scholar
- It first tries to find the paper by DOI for accurate matching
- If no DOI or no match, it falls back to title-based search
- The TL;DR summary is stored in the item's Extra field as
TLDR: <summary> - Summaries are displayed in a dedicated section in the item pane
- Download the latest
.xpifile from Releases - In Zotero, go to Tools → Add-ons
- Click the gear icon and select Install Add-on From File...
- Select the downloaded
.xpifile - Restart Zotero
By default, TL;DR summaries are automatically fetched when you add new items. You can disable this in preferences.
- Right-click an item → Update TL;DR - Refresh the summary for selected items
- Right-click an item → Copy TL;DR - Copy the summary to clipboard
- Right-click an item → Open in Semantic Scholar - View the paper on Semantic Scholar
- Right-click a collection → Update TL;DR for Collection - Fetch summaries for all items
- TL;DR Statistics - View counts of items with/without summaries
- Retry Failed TL;DR Fetches - Retry items that failed due to API errors
- Clear All TL;DR Data - Remove all TL;DR data from your library
- Fetch TL;DR for All Items - Process all items in your library
Go to Zotero → Settings → TL;DR to configure:
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-fetch on add | ✅ Enabled | Automatically fetch TL;DR when items are added |
| Auto-retry errors | ✅ Enabled | Automatically retry failed requests |
| Request delay | 100ms | Delay between API requests (rate limiting) |
| Retry delay | 30 min | How long to wait before retrying failed items |
When a TL;DR cannot be retrieved, the plugin shows the specific reason:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
[No DOI or title available] |
Item lacks searchable metadata |
[Paper not found in Semantic Scholar] |
Paper not in the database |
[Paper found but no TL;DR available] |
Paper exists but has no summary |
[API error - will retry] |
Temporary error, will retry later |
TL;DR summaries are stored in the item's Extra field in the format:
TLDR: <summary text> [SS:<paper_id>]
This means:
- ✅ Summaries sync across all your devices via Zotero Sync
- ✅ Data is preserved in library exports
- ✅ Other Extra field content is preserved
- TLDR: Extreme Summarization of Scientific Documents (Cachola et al., Findings 2020)
- TL;DR summaries provided by Semantic Scholar
- Inspired by Zotero-TLDR by syt2 (archived)
- Built with zotero-plugin-scaffold
- Uses zotero-plugin-toolkit
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.