This discussion explores features needed for using Discourse in academic contexts, both existing and desired. xiasummer initiated the thread, listing current capabilities such as Markdown, HTML, OneBox, MathJax (via plugin, though conflicting with iframe), footnotes, DOI resolution, and PDF export. They also highlighted tools like Overleaf and Google Docs for collaborative writing, and raised questions about discipline-specific needs — e.g., LaTeX for math/physics, code tools for CS, drawing tools for chemistry, and logic symbols for philosophy. tophee suggested a highlighting plugin for long academic posts, and later proposed integrating Zotero for literature management, allowing users to insert citations without leaving Discourse. allu endorsed Zotero but shared experience with YouTube-based citation tools as a simpler alternative. G_N proposed linking PDF downloads to DOI assignment via Zenodo. robbie.morrison described a use case for co-author collaboration during peer review, suggesting private categories and groups for sensitive paper discussions. pfaffman confirmed this setup is feasible using private category permissions. huynhthai824 referenced Zotero’s WordPress integration and asked if similar citation standards (APA, IEEE) could be supported in Discourse. The thread remains open for community input, with the OP now a wiki for collaborative updates.
P.S. You can reply me about the functions that you think are important for academic use in discourse and whether it has been developed already or in developing.
I’d consider a highlighting plugin (or even as a core function) extremely useful for the academic context, but also for other communities where posts might be a bit longer so that highlights would be a great way of finding the most important parts of those posts. I proposed the highlighting feature in more detail here:
How about a literature database that makes it easy to include references in posts?
A few thoughts on such a literature plugin:
I guess there is no point in creating a database in discourse from scratch, given existing solutions such as zotero, mendeley, endnote and (hopefully soon) Citavi Web.
To start with, I think the focus should be on supporting zotero, since it’s free and open source (and perhaps there will never be a need to support anything else).
My idea would be that the plugin acts as an interface between a dedicated zotero database and the discourse forum.
Starting with an empty db, a user who wants to add a reference (via a button in the editor) gets the option to add a new reference (not sure if this should be done with a dedicated discourse ui or simply using the existing zotero ui, but the user should not have to leave discourse to do it)
Once there are records in the db, users can search them and paste them into their post while editing.
The citation style should probably be fixed via a site setting (cite setting )
There should be a dedicated bibliography page where all db records are listed in alphabetical order with to all the posts where the respective item is cited.
Now, the last point is where it becomes tricky: Since this type of linking is analogous to how discourse already works, the best way to achieve this might be to create a post for every reference, but I’m not sure about this, since there should only be one record for each item and that should be in zotero, I suppose.
But it would also be conceivable that the zotero database is used merely as a way of quickly insert text which would then live a life of its own, without any links, but that would defeat the purpose of making it easy to find all posts citing a specific text.
Zotero is great if you really need to build your own literature database (with all the advantages & disadvantages of this route). I originally had Zotero attached to a Wordpress/bbPress forum, but have moved away from that approach and am using this instead:
For a use case where you basically just want to assist users in providing correct litterature references, I find this a much more practical approach. Check out the demo video below, I would LOVE to see this kind of functionality available on Discourse. It would really help to open it up for academic scenarios.
Download PDF feature may support the possibility to upload the document to obtain a DOI number from, say https://zenodo.org/. My interest is to have a feature (or through a plugin) to submit and obtain DOI number to a selected or featured topics using the API available from Developers | Zenodo through a click of a button (available for the staff users).
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