APA style - "Available from" vs. "Retrieved from"

scheydec

Hi all,

I can't figure out how to tell Zotero when to use "Retrieved from" rather than "Available from". All of my citations are coming out as "Available from", which isn't correct.

According to the APA style guide at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/
"If the work is not directly available online or must be purchased, use "Available from," rather than "Retrieved from," and point readers to where they can find it."

So the following should be _Retrieved_, not Available:
Belanger, Y. (2005). Duke University iPod first year experience final evaluation
report (Tech. Rep.). Durham, N.C.: Duke University. Available from
http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod initiative 04 05.pdf

FYI, I'm exporting to BiBTeX in APA 6th, and using LaTeX (TeXshop) for the document.

My Zotero window has
Item Type: Report
Title: Duke {University} iPod First Year Experience Final Evaluation Report
Author: Belanger, Yvonne
Place: Durham, N.C.
Institution: Duke University
Date: 2005
URL: http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf
Accessed: 07/01/10

My .bib file has
@techreport{belanger_2005,
address = {Durham, {N.C.}},
title = {Duke {{University}} {iPod} First Year Experience Final Evaluation Report},
url = {http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf},
institution = {Duke University},
author = {Yvonne Belanger},
year = {2005}
},

I've tried putting "Retrieved from: http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf" in Archive (doesn't help) and Loc. in Archive (doesn't help).

How do I get Zotero to do this correctly? I have a lot more than this one citation that is wrong, so I really don't want to do them all manually. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

noksagt

It sounds like you're exporting BibTeX from Zotero & using some bst style in a LaTeX document (apa? apalike? apalike2?). If this is the case, you need to consult the documentation for the BibTeX style that you're using. If this is not the case, please elaborate on what you're doing.

scheydec

Yes, I'm using the apacite style file in my LaTeX document, and exporting from Zotero to BibTeX using the "American Psychological Association 6th Edition" as the default export format.

But according to
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/contrib/apacite/apacite.pdf
the field I need to use is
- "howpublished†
- A description of how something was “published”. For example, “Unpublished
- manuscript”
- or “Paper presented at the meeting of the American Professional Society
- on the Abuse of Children”. Also used for more retrieval information about
- electronic documents, e.g.,
- “Retrieved November 19, 2000, from the PsycARTICLES database”,
- or
- howpublished = {Retrieved August 24, 2000, from Columbia University,
- Institute for Learning Technologies Web site: \url{http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/
publications/papers/newwine1.html}\bibnodot{.}}

Great, but what field in Zotero matches "howpublished"? I don't see that when the item type is Report or Journal Article or Webpage (or any of the item types that I use.)

I found http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1302/export-bibtex-webpage-specific-fieldsinformation-missing/

But (1) it seems to force it to be "Last accessed:", while I want it to be "Retrieved from" or "Paper presented at" etc.
and (2) I don't understand what that page means about how/what to edit to make it work, because I'm new to all of this.

Any suggestions?
Thanks!

adamsmith

For what it's worth I don't think APA 6th in Zotero is able to make that distinction and I wouldn't know how to.

I don't think Zotero ever exports "howpublished" to BibTex - is there any reason you couldn't add this in the bibtex file, as it's going to have to be done manually anyway?

edit:

Zotero to BibTeX using the "American Psychological Association 6th Edition" as the default export format.

that doesn't make sense to me - I assume you're exporting bibtex, right? Zotero only exports one bibtex.

scheydec

% I don't think Zotero ever exports "howpublished" to BibTex -
% is there any reason you couldn't add this in the bibtex file,
% as it's going to have to be done manually anyway?

I guess I'll have to do it manually then. It's just that there are 100+ references in my BibTeX file, and if I use some of these again for a later paper, it would be better to have it all in Zotero, so I can export a new BibTeX file for the new paper, including any new references. Since Zotero is supposed to be the place for you to gather all sorts of references for all of your publishing needs, it should be able to do this. Maybe I'll submit it as a Feature Request.

% that doesn't make sense to me - I assume you're exporting bibtex,
% right? Zotero only exports one bibtex.

What I mean is that under Zotero's "Preferences" --> Export, I have set "Default Output Format" to "American Psychological Association 6th Edition", which I assume has an effect on what gets exported in the BibTeX and how. Or is that an unused / useless thing to set?

Thanks! Now I'm off to start making manual changes to the BibTeX. Groan.

adamsmith

The default output format is irrelevant if you select an export format. This isn't super clear from the display, but it's actually the "Quick copy default output" - i.e. if you drag and drop and item to a text field or word processor, that's the citation style it uses. There is only one BibTex export.

I think this distinction might be doable within Zotero itself - one could, for example, test for the content of the archive field or so - but it won't be doable for BibTex output from Zotero, probably ever. My sense is that there is a tendency in the BibTex community to just tag on an extra field whenever something unusual occurs. That means that all major citation styles have a bunch of extra fields (like "howpublished"). That's not an approach that's shared by Zotero, not least because it turns data exchange into an unsolvable nightmare as soon as people don't use the same citation template. So essentially, as long as you're using Zotero and BibTex, this is likely never going to be solved.