The Whispering Bibliography: Interrogating Zotero’s Agency in Postdigital Research and Authorship

Abstract Working with and through digital ‘tools’ is integral to the ways in which contemporary knowledge production unfolds. Whilst gathering and organising literature with reference managers is often dismissed as a mundane task, the simplistic view of such software as mere ‘instruments’ looms large in academia, overlooking the ways these platforms actively reshape the epistemic landscape of research. This article presents a close examination of how research-related literacy practices are mediated by the reference management software Zotero and how this mediation is lived, experienced, and managed. The study employs a phenomenological ‘interview’ to directly interrogate Zotero and disentangle its influence on the writing process. Moving beyond traditional discourses that portray the digital as a pristine domain capable of solving problems for human users, the findings reveal a reality fuelled by semiotic glitches, value-laden assumptions about research, and technical exclusions that marginalise specific databases. By uncovering the once-hidden epistemic space enacted within the Zotero-researcher assemblage, this study illuminates slowing down, negotiating, and repairing as essential practices for the ‘digitally literate’ researcher in the postdigital era. Furthermore, it provides pedagogical insights for university research courses, advocating for a critical untanglement of the ‘muddy’ realities through reflexive recognition of the invisible mechanisms constituting Zotero’s infrastructure.