Index Medicus journal abbreviations in Zotero 

wallford1
The journal that I'm supplying an article requires Vancouver style bibliography with Index Medicus abbreviations. Regretfully, there is no check box Use MEDLINE journal abbreviations on the screen in my Zotero (Edit>Preferences>Cite>tab Styles> highlighting Vancouver), as listed on various Zotero help sites. I use MS Word processor on a PC.

I need to convert all my citations to Index Medicus ASAP. What can be done so I can see this check box? Or perhaps there is an easier way. Please help! Thanks in advance.

Kind regards

Norm
  • adamsmith
    You're looking in the wrong place: you change citation styles and turn on journal abbreviations under Document Preferences in the Zotero Word add-on
  • wallford1
    Adam

    Indeed, I did find this screen under Document Preferences in the Zotero Word add-on and checked the box Use MEDLINE journal abbreviations. Thanks for your guidance!

    But what step-by-step commands should I use to convert ALL my numerous citations to Index Medicus? Whatever I pushed didn't produce a desired conversion.

    Please help! Thanks in advance.

    Norm
  • adamsmith
    That should apply to the entire document (assuming you have inserted citations using the Word add-on). If it doesn't, try clicking "Refresh" and if that doesn't work, switch to any different citation style (again under Document Preferences in Word) and back.
  • wallford1
    Adam thanks again for your help.

    The following is a detailed description of what I am doing to create Vancouver style Index Medicus journal abbreviations:
    1. Open Zotero icon on the desktop. It shows my 'article-1' collection of citations. Majority of citations were downloaded from Google Scholar and attached to the article in MS Word using Zotero Connector for Edge. A limited number of citations that are not listed in Google Scholar were directly created in Zotero by using New Item icon.

    2. Open the article with inserted numerically listed citations from Zotero in MS Word. Click on tab Zotero – select icon Document Preferences – select Citation Style: Vancouver – check radial Fields (recommended) – check boxes Use MEDLINE journal abbreviations and Automatically update citations – OK. (After that for a minute a horizontal green line appears in Zotero, with a moving lighter color and a cursor changing to a rotating circle. However, when opening a Zotero my 'article-1' collection screen, no medical journals names have been abbreviated.)

    3. To create a List of References, in Zotero right click on 'article-1' collection. In the cursor menu select Create Bibliography from Collection… – in screen Create Bibliography/Citation select Citation Style: Vancouver – Output Mode: Bibliography – Output Method: Copy to Clipboard – OK – in the article Paste Special: Unformatted Unicode Text. (After that a properly numbered list of references appears in the article; regretfully no medical journals names have been abbreviated either.)

    4. As you suggested, I also clicked button Refresh without or after closing and opening both Zotero and Word again; no medical journals names have been abbreviated anywhere either. I also switched to American Medical Association 11th edition citation style (again under Document Preferences in Word) and back to Vancouver style; no medical journals names have been abbreviated anywhere either.

    What am I doing wrong?

    Thanks in advance.

    Norm

  • enozkan
    edited December 30, 2022
    Never having used the style you are using, but...

    (3) Why are you creating Bibliography from a collection in Zotero? The Add/Edit Bibliography button in the Zotero tab in Word would do that for you. This would create and insert a bibliography from your cited items right in your Word document where you last clicked (preferably at the end), and would enforce the "Use MEDLINE journal abbreviations" option. This way, any changes you make to the document preferences would automatically apply to the inserted bibliography. (You can also just delete the whole thing and insert again wherever you want in the document, but there is rarely a need for that.)

    That's the most common workflow, unless you have a lot of citations uncited in the text, but still added to the bibliography (never done in journal articles in my field, but done in others apparently). Also, you can still add uncited citations in an existing Bibliography using the Add/Edit Bibliography button, I think.

    I don't think using a collection per document strategy works as well, or is the intended workflow, but I may be wrong on that.
  • wallford1
    enozkan: an obvious solution that I had overlooked. Worked as a charm.

    Many thanks!

    Kind regards

    Norm
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