Transfer Papers 3 Mac to Zotero

What is it?

This is a collection of stuff to help you move from Papers 3 to Zotero. I made it because Papers 3 is no longer being updated, and ReadCube Papers is not good enough (e.g., missing scripting support and a decent iPad app).

It consists of three things:

• A script that helps you get your papers from Papers 3 into Zotero, including your BibTeX keys (forked from this gist)
• A script to extract your collections from Papers 3
• A script to recreate your collections in Zotero

Note: this procedure will duplicate the way Papers 3 handles collections, so every paper in a sub-collection will also be in the parent collection.

Prerequisites

• You need to be running Papers 3 on a Mac.
• You need to be running Zotero 5 also on your Mac.
• You should be comfortable with the possibility for failure. I've tested this about once, with my own library.
• You need to install JSON Helper for AppleScript (Mac App Store link)

How to use it?

It's not a single click process, unfortunately, but it should be doable.

1. Follow the instructions from the Papers3_to_Zotero.py file. That will help you get all of your papers from Papers 3 into Zotero.
2. Make sure Papers 3 is running and you've installed the JSON Helper above. Open Papers 3 Export Collections.scpt and run it. This will create a file on your desktop called papers_collections.json.
3. In Zotero, open both Tools→Developer→Error Console and Tools→Developer→Run JavaScript. The Error Console will help you see if anything goes horribly wrong.
4. Copy and paste the contents of Desktop/papers_collections.json into the left pane of the Run JavaScript window.
5. Copy and paste the contents of import_papers3.js below that.
6. Make sure Run as async function is checked.
7. Hit Run and sit back and watch.