Software

Zotero

IPBES adopted Zotero as its reference manager: it is free to use, it allows large groups to work together, and an intuitive plugin in Microsoft Word allows for easy linkage of the references in documents.

References can be added to Zotero using the magic wand, using various identifiers, such as doi, ISBN, PubMed ids (PMIDs) or arXiv ids, or manually (using the ‘add file’ symbol on the left of the magic wand).

The dropdown menu shows the different options of documents that can be added, except for ‘website’. When adding a website, choose any other option, and change it to website when entering the other information (it is the very last option in the drop down menu). Add as much metadata as possible, and make sure that an identifier is added (such as a url, as for references with a doi or isbn, it is advised to use the magic wand, so that all metadata is added automatically).

References can also be added in bulk, using bibtex files. Please only upload references that are of interest and relevant to the assessment, and do not upload your full individual library. With 80 or more experts working on an assessment, this would drastically increase the references in the library, making the use of Zotero increasingly slow and frustrating.

A library dedicated to each IPBES assessment will be set up, and all experts will receive an invitation to join the library. To be able to add references in a Word document using the Zotero plugin, the desktop version should be downloaded (http://zotero.org/download). Downloading the desktop app, automatically downloads the plugin with the word processor plugin. To be able to use it, the desktop app should be opened. In Word, the Zotero menu can be found in the top bar:

To add a reference to a Word document, the left option should be selected. In the search bar that pops up, the name of the reference or the name of one of the authors can be searched. When you are a member of multiple Zotero libraries, please make sure that the reference is part of the assessment library.

GitHub

GitHub (www.github.com) is a repository platform, which is often used to store coding scripts. It keeps track of changes made to stored files and allows users to see what changed between the versions. It is good practice to always add a ‘ReadMe’ file, which explains in what way the repository is used, how users can use the information and how the scripts should be cited, and any updates that were done in the different versions.

Microsoft Teams

IPBES uses Microsoft Teams to collaboratively work on the assessment. For each assessment, there is a whole directory with folders for each chapter and project undertaken. Experts can use the chat and meet functions to stay in touch.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/) is an open source code editor. For each new file, the coding language can be chosen, which adds colours that help with coding and helps with the indention. VS Code has an option to use a terminal, and an intuitive integration with GitHub: repositories can be cloned from GitHub (in which case you have full access to all files from the repository in a folder like structure), and any changes in the files can be easily pushed back to GitHub.

R

A recommended open source statistical software is R (https://www.r-project.org/). R can be easily run in RStudio (https://posit.co/), an integrated development environment, where different windows are easily viewed and used together: a window for the R-script, one for the terminal, and optionally a window for the results, the generated figures or uploaded data.

Python

Python (https://www.python.org/) is one of the most commonly used programming languages. It is open source, versatile and beginner-friendly.