if number-of-volumes (single-vol. book: "1 vol."?)

MHSmith

Clueless beginner.

Since many catalogue entries give the information "1 volume" and I would like to eliminate the information without going though the whole database, I tried to write something like this:

<macro name="vols">
<choose>
<if number-of-volumes="1">
</if>
<else>
…[output]…
</else>
</choose>
</macro>

Apparently this isn't correct, how should it be coded?

Gracile

As far as I know, that is not possible. With csl, you can test the existence but not the content of a variable.

Edit:
The solution would be either:
1) to update catalogues translator (but I don't think that is desirable) ;
2) batch editing which is planned.

MHSmith

Thanks!

ajlyon

If there is a specific translator or catalog that gives "1 volume" everywhere, I think we could reasonably suppress it in the translator. I don't think that that is valuable bibliographic information (but reasonable people may disagree-- I could see myself disagreeing, were I in a different mood today).

Gracile

I was thinking about translators which save nb-of-vols data whatever its content... (and I agree that that is not valuable information but it's a personal opinion).

ajlyon

In general, I think that marking something as consisting of one volume isn't very useful, but there is a part of me that doesn't want to throw away correct, meaningful bibliogragraphic data. Perhaps Zotero could be smart enough to not pass it on to citeproc-js when nb-of-vols=1?

An option for suppressing nb-of-vols=1 in CSL seems reasonable as well; and that behavior could well be the default.

Rintze

An option for suppressing nb-of-vols=1 in CSL seems reasonable as well;

It would only make sense to include an option in CSL if some styles require the number of volumes to be indicated for single volume works ("1 volume") and other styles demand that it should be omitted. Unless that has been shown to be the case, I'd much rather see the translators modified to leave number-of-volumes empty for single volume works.

adamsmith

I agree with Rintze - this seems like it'd be better to fix at the translator level.

ajlyon

Except that Zotero isn't only for citations. I hope there's room in Zotero's roadmap for increased flexibility with regard to what makes it into citations; a somewhat similar case is the Edition field, which is sometimes used because the researcher can benefit from details on the edition, even when it is irrelevant for citations. Consider "hardcover" versus "softcover", which may even have distinct ISBNs. Nonetheless, that edition information is not considered relevant for citations. While I might not record the binding for a contemporary book, there are similar cases with older volumes that I would want to record for my own reference, while still not needing an "edition" field in citations.

As I said, I think that we can get rid of "1 volume" without causing any major issues, but the issue of data that might be kept for bibliographic completeness (and the researcher's non-citational use) is a real one.

MHSmith

Just be careful that the translator doesn't discard "1 vol." in cases such as "1 vol + 1 portfolio", or "1 vol. + 1 CD".