Those damned citation superscripts again...

maryblack

Hi

The BMJ uses Harvard style with small superscript numbers and then a numbered list of citations at the end of the document.I am using British Medical Journal style for my citations.

What should happen in Zotero is: I type in my sentence, then add a citation and it should look like this:


Many people like icecream. 1
(the citation number 1 should be a small superscript but for some reason I cannot reproduce it in this message)

But instead I get

Many people like icecream. (1)
(the citation number has brackets round it and is full sized)

So how do I fix this? I


Help!

adamsmith

Install and use Vancouver with superscript instead - do you have a link to the BMJ style guide to confirm this? We could change this easily.

maryblack

Thanks Adam.

The British Medical Journal is listed as a style in Zotero, but it has a (dev) after it. Not sure what that means.

All the research articles can be seen on bmj.com as they practice open access, so if you want to have a look at one please do.

Here is the section from the BMJ -

http://resources.bmj.com/bmj/authors/bmj-house-style

It says:
" References should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text. At the end of the article the full list of references should follow the Vancouver style (www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).

Please give the names and initials of all authors (unless there are more than six, when only the first six should be given followed by et al).

The authors' names are followed by the title of the article; the title of the journal abbreviated according to the style of Index Medicus; the year of publication; the volume number; and the first and last page numbers.

References to books should give the names of any editors, place of publication, editor, and year. Examples:

21 Soter A, Wasserman SI, Austen KF. Cold urticaria: release into the circulation of histamine and eosinophil chemotactic factor of anaphylaxis during cold challenge. N Engl J Med 1976;294:687-90

22 Osler AG. Complement: mechanisms and functions. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1976.

For material published online, give the authors, title, name of website, date of publication as given on the web page, and URL.

Please add the URL if material (such as official reports) is available online as well as in print.

Information from manuscripts not yet in press or not yet published online, papers reported at meetings, or personal communications should be cited only in the text, not as a formal reference.

Authors should get permission from the source to cite personal communications."

Now, how do I switch my ENTIRE thesis so that all the references are superscript instead of this (1). Am nervous.

Any chance you can just fix BMJ style?

adamsmith

for your purpose, forget about the name of the style.
just install and use Vancouver with Superscript from the style repository.
All that "fixing" BMJ would entail on my part would be to set a link from BMJ to that style anyway.
I'll see when I can get to that.

maryblack

Dear Adam

I do not understand you

1. What does it mean in the Style repository when it says British Medical Journal (Dev). Does this mean it is not yet correct?

2. What do you mean superscript from the Style repository. I go into set document preferences and can pick Vancouver. There is nothing else. Do I just pick Vancouver? Because that does not give superscript.

Mary

ajlyon

Scroll down to the longer list at the bottom of the page:
http://www.zotero.org/styles/vancouver-superscript/dev?install=1

maryblack

Eureka - thanks guys. Marry me!

maryblack

Ok, the style converted ok and now I have my superscripts and it looks like all 200 or so references are in place.
But I have a new problem. When I add a new citation to the document, it adds in ok, but then I get about 10 minutes of rapidly flickering box coming on and off. It looks like am empty search box with some text under it. At the bottom of the word document. the little book has a pen running across it. Eventually it all stops and I can start working on the document again. If I do not wait then word quits.

This is really slowing me down. I have 200 more references to enter and four chapters to put together (they are all in differnt word documents.)

Any ideas?

Mary

ajlyon

That sounds like the word processor repaginating the document. If it is, it's not much we can do much about, although there has been discussion of ways to help word processors work more efficiently with Zotero. Maybe you could take a screenshot of the box you refer to?

adamsmith

do you already have a bibliography? If so, it might be worth deleting it and waiting until the end before inserting it.
Also, try working in different styles to see if that makes a difference - you can always switch in the end.

maryblack

Having removed the bibliography the annoying flickering is now much shorter - about 20 seconds - and the entire bar at the end now vibrates on and off. So I think you are right, it must be Word/Zotero interface.

But I do wonder why it only started happening when I did the style switch.

Cannot take a screen shot as it goes on an off so fast - also not sure I can add a pic to this forum?

Thanks for all your help. !!!

ajlyon

I'm pretty sure that we know what it is, so no need for a screen shot. Having the bibliography at the end of the document forces Word to update both the current position in the text and the bibliography at the end. Word doesn't do that kind of editing very efficiently, since people usually work in a slightly more linear fashion-- they don't usually edit in disparate parts of a document simultaneously. Just don't add the bibliography section until you've finished composing the document, so that you don't make Word work too hard.

maryblack

I have got used to the delays now and it seems to be working fine. However the Vancouver superscript style does not put commas between the superscript reference nos. So in cases where there are four references listed at the end of one sentence I end up with an eight digit number, which looks all wrong. Anything I can do to fix this? There should be commas there or it makes no sense.

Thanks!