Upgrade StorageFeature Request: Comprehensive Authority Control for Journal/Publisher Lineage, Rank(Meta), and Tag
Subject: Comprehensive Authority Control for Journal/Publisher Lineage, Rank Metadata, and Tag Customization
Dear Zotero Development Team,
First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your continuous efforts in making Zotero the most reliable and indispensable tool for researchers worldwide. Your commitment to data integrity has set a gold standard in reference management.
I am writing to propose a visionary enhancement: a "Journal and Publisher Authority Manager." Currently, Zotero treats different titles of the same journal or publisher—which have evolved over decades—as unrelated entities. While it is bibliographically essential to preserve the original metadata at the time of publication, this creates significant fragmentation when managing long-term archives.
A clear example of this complexity is the "Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing" (JKAN) and its publisher, the "Korean Academy of Nursing." As documented on their official history (www.kan.or.kr), both the journal and the academy names have changed multiple times since 1970 (e.g., from "Academy of Nursing" to "Korean Academy of Nursing" in 2005). In many regional databases like the Korea Citation Index (KCI), searching for old titles often forcefully redirects to the latest one, making it harder for researchers to verify historical metadata manually.
I suggest the following core capabilities for this feature:
1. Journal and Publisher Lineage Management: A dedicated interface where users can link various journal titles AND publisher/academy names into a single historical lineage, assigned with their respective active years.
2. Integrated Search Logic: When a user searches for any title or publisher within a linked lineage, Zotero should retrieve all related items across the entire history (e.g., searching for a current academy name should also bring up results from its previous era), while strictly displaying the original publication metadata for each record.
3. Visual Differentiation and Expanded Tag Colors:
- In the library view, items belonging to the same lineage could be highlighted with grouping labels or distinct colors to help users recognize their connection intuitively.
- Furthermore, I propose removing the current 9-color limit for tags and supporting custom Hex/RGB color codes. For researchers categorizing items by multiple criteria (Journal ranks, methods, priority), 9 colors are insufficient.
4. Integration of Journal Rank Metadata:
- It is vital to track the "Rank" of a journal (e.g., SSCI, SCIE, SCOPUS). I propose adding a dedicated "Journal Rank" field within the Management interface.
- This should allow for "Year-specific status" since a journal's indexing status can change over time.
5. Global and Regional Data Sync: The system should be flexible enough to import metadata from global standards like NLM or Crossref, as well as regional indexing services like KCI (Korea) or CNKI (China), to automatically populate these lineage and rank tables.
6. Multilingual and International Support: As many journals and academies change titles during internationalization (e.g., from a local language to English), the manager must support multilingual mapping to ensure seamless tracking across different linguistic eras.
By linking "Journal Lineage" with "Publisher History," "Expanded Visual Tagging," and "Rank Metadata," Zotero will evolve into a comprehensive Academic Intelligence Tool. This would allow researchers to maintain historical integrity while managing the prestige and quality of their sources with professional precision.
Thank you very much for your time and for considering this proposal for the future of Zotero.
Sincerely,
With deep gratitude.
Dear Zotero Development Team,
First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your continuous efforts in making Zotero the most reliable and indispensable tool for researchers worldwide. Your commitment to data integrity has set a gold standard in reference management.
I am writing to propose a visionary enhancement: a "Journal and Publisher Authority Manager." Currently, Zotero treats different titles of the same journal or publisher—which have evolved over decades—as unrelated entities. While it is bibliographically essential to preserve the original metadata at the time of publication, this creates significant fragmentation when managing long-term archives.
A clear example of this complexity is the "Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing" (JKAN) and its publisher, the "Korean Academy of Nursing." As documented on their official history (www.kan.or.kr), both the journal and the academy names have changed multiple times since 1970 (e.g., from "Academy of Nursing" to "Korean Academy of Nursing" in 2005). In many regional databases like the Korea Citation Index (KCI), searching for old titles often forcefully redirects to the latest one, making it harder for researchers to verify historical metadata manually.
I suggest the following core capabilities for this feature:
1. Journal and Publisher Lineage Management: A dedicated interface where users can link various journal titles AND publisher/academy names into a single historical lineage, assigned with their respective active years.
2. Integrated Search Logic: When a user searches for any title or publisher within a linked lineage, Zotero should retrieve all related items across the entire history (e.g., searching for a current academy name should also bring up results from its previous era), while strictly displaying the original publication metadata for each record.
3. Visual Differentiation and Expanded Tag Colors:
- In the library view, items belonging to the same lineage could be highlighted with grouping labels or distinct colors to help users recognize their connection intuitively.
- Furthermore, I propose removing the current 9-color limit for tags and supporting custom Hex/RGB color codes. For researchers categorizing items by multiple criteria (Journal ranks, methods, priority), 9 colors are insufficient.
4. Integration of Journal Rank Metadata:
- It is vital to track the "Rank" of a journal (e.g., SSCI, SCIE, SCOPUS). I propose adding a dedicated "Journal Rank" field within the Management interface.
- This should allow for "Year-specific status" since a journal's indexing status can change over time.
5. Global and Regional Data Sync: The system should be flexible enough to import metadata from global standards like NLM or Crossref, as well as regional indexing services like KCI (Korea) or CNKI (China), to automatically populate these lineage and rank tables.
6. Multilingual and International Support: As many journals and academies change titles during internationalization (e.g., from a local language to English), the manager must support multilingual mapping to ensure seamless tracking across different linguistic eras.
By linking "Journal Lineage" with "Publisher History," "Expanded Visual Tagging," and "Rank Metadata," Zotero will evolve into a comprehensive Academic Intelligence Tool. This would allow researchers to maintain historical integrity while managing the prestige and quality of their sources with professional precision.
Thank you very much for your time and for considering this proposal for the future of Zotero.
Sincerely,
With deep gratitude.