One book - multiple series

Would it be possible using Zotero to add more than one series title (and series number) to a single book?
  • No, not yet. Can you provide details on the item, so this can be kept in mind for future revisions of the item schema?
  • Well for instance I would like to be able to enter the following data in Zotero:

    author: Tomasz Jasiński
    title: Kruschwitz, Rimini und die Grundlagen des Preussischen Ordenslandes. Urkundenstudien zur Frühzeit des Deutsche Ordens im Ostseeraum
    series1: Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens
    series1 volume: 63
    series2: Veröffentlichungen der Internationalen Historischen Kommission zur Erforschung des Deutschen Ordens
    series2 volume: 8
    series1(&2) editor: Udo Arnold
    publisher: N.G. Elwert
    place: Marburg
    Date: 2008
  • and would that ever be cited?
  • You mean the second series? Normally I would cite that, I think.
  • Has this ever been addressed? This is a major limitation as it is very common for books to be published under multiple series headers.
  • No. I'm just really surprised this would be a "major limitation". I'm pretty rarely seeing series cited at all, but if so certainly not more than one. Which field is this in?
  • It's major in the humanities, and in particular ancient Near East studies, which is where I do most of my work. Not only are series some of the most prominently cited materials, but probably 25-30% of all series volumes are published in more than one series simultaneously. And, yes, we include that bibliographic information in our citations and bibliographies. Thus, although I use Zotero, it's hard for me (as a librarian service provider) to confidently recommend it to students and colleagues in our fields because they will reach these limitations and find it frustrating that they cannot accomplish what they want. They need to be able to accommodate entries like this:

    Horst Steible and Fatma Yildiz. Wirtschaftstexte aus Fara II. Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 143. Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft in Fara und Abu Hatab. Die Inschriften von Fara 4 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2015)

    This format is very, very common.
  • To be quite honest, I'm just not seeing that happen anytime soon. Duplicating entries of individual fields (other than creators) isn't a concept that exists in Zotero at all, so that'd have to be newly introduced both at the database and at the GUI level. In addition, we'd have to add handling for that in the Citation Style Language and in the processors handling that. Best case, this is two years down the line, but even that seems unlikely.

    If this is routinely cited, just put the whole thing into the series field: "Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 143. Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft in Fara und Abu Hatab. Die Inschriften von Fara 4"


    All that said, I think these aren't actually two series but a series and multi-volume publication: The series is "Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft" the publication is "Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft in Fara und Abu Hatab. Die Inschriften von Fara" and this is volume 4 with the title "Wirtschaftstexte aus Fara II". That's both what the book cover suggests and how it appears to be most commonly cataloged.

    That also isn't currently possible in Zotero, but all that's missing for that is a variable for volume title, which is much likelier to happen sooner.
  • edited August 14, 2017
    Fair enough. I understand the issues involved on the development side. There's many options to make such accommodations, but I also realize the problems of getting major changes implemented into an open source platform like Zotero. I'm not sure if users will favor the work around (better than nothing, however). Here's a few more examples:

    Georg Neumann. Altorientalische Siegel und Keilschriftdokumente im Archäologischen Museum der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster. Die Stiftung der Sammlung Tono Eitel. Altertumskunde des Vorderen Orients 20. Veröffentlichungen des Archäologischen Museums der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster 6 (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2016)

    L. Kogan, N. Koslova, S. Loesov, and S. Tischenko. Proceedings of the 53e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Volume 2: City Administration in the Ancient Near East. Babel und Bibel 5. Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale 53. Orientalia et Classica 31. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2010.

    In any case, I provide these examples only for the sake of the future, if others have similar issues or questions and the problem is ever revisited.
  • I second that; this is a major issue for humanities. Books published in two series at once are quite often cited also in my field of study. For example the British Archaeological Reports, International Series has multiple subseries, such as in this example: Nordström, Hans-Åke, and William Yewdale Adams. 2014. The West Bank Survey from Faras to Gemai. 1. British Archaeological Reports International Series 2650; Sudan Archaeological Research Society Publication 20. London: Sudan Archaeological Research Society. ISBN 9781901169195
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