Importing from ProCite to Zotero Standalone

kennedyITC

Hi,

I'm new to Zotero, and trying to import my references from ProCite into Zotero standalone. I downloaded the RIS_Endnote style, and saved my refs in that style as a text only file. However, when I try to import into Zotero, it says "File format not supported". Here is a sample ref:

TY - JOUR
A1 - Artursson, Veronica
A1 - Finlay, Roger D.
A1 - Jansson, Janet K.
T1 - Combined bromodeoxyuridine immunocapture and terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis highlights differences in the active soil bacterial metagenome due to Glomus mosseae inoculation or plant species
JF - Environmental Microbiology
PY - 2005
VL - 7
IS - 12
SP - 1952-1966
UR - http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2005.00868.x
KW - BrdU, TRFLP, AMF, bacteria, 16S, plant effects
ER -

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

ajlyon

There's a modified RIS importer you can try--
Please go to http://github.com/ajlyon/zotero-bits/raw/master/RIS.js and save the file to the translators directory of your Zotero data directory (http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data).

If this works for you, please post here so that I can get this version out to all users.

kennedyITC

It worked!! Thanks a million. I'm delighted to get it going. :)

Funnily enough, there was a RIS.js file already in the directory. It asked if I wanted to replace it, and I said yes. So maybe there was something wrong with the old file?

adamsmith

yeah - ajlyon gave you an updated version - of course there was an RIS translator (that worked for almost everyone, but not in your case) before.

ajlyon

Actually, this version has been in the Zotero repository for a while -- but it hasn't been pushed to clients yet... Hopefully this backlog will be cleared soon.

paulchinnock

I'm also new and struggling to import references from Procite. Downloading RIS_Endnote style didn't help so I tried to follow ajlyon's instructions. Two problems:
- the link http://github.com/ajlyon/zotero-bits/raw/master/RIS.js seems to be broken
- I can't find my Zotero data directory; the instructions for this are "Advanced tab of your Zotero Preferences window" but where is the Zotero Preferences window?

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

adamsmith

the RIS link by ajlyon has long since been merged into the RIS importer included with Zotero, don't worry about it.

Zotero preferences:
http://www.zotero.org/support/preferences (this is also linked to from the zotero_data page - is something about that not clear? I'm happy to revise for clarity, but I wouldn't know how.)

edit: actually don't worry about those instructions at all.
What problem are you encountering exactly?

paulchinnock

Fast response! Thanks. OK I'll forget about the RIS link, since you say it is already now included in Zotero. However, having downloaded the RIS_Endnote style to my copy of Procite and saving as text rather than in database format as per the instructions in this forum, the resulting file is still not openable by Zotero which says it does not recognise the file format.

And after further fiddling around I have found Zotero preferences, so no problem there!

adamsmith

Try two things in that order:
1. Instead of trying to open the file using import, open it in a text editor (notepad, TextEdit), the select all (ctrl+a) and copy (ctrl+c).
Then go to Zotero and use "Import from Clipboard". That has worked for many people.
2. If 1. fails, post a sample entry from the RIS file here (see the first post in this thread for an example).

paulchinnock

Thanks. I'm getting "No importable data could be read from the clipboard."

I think my problem is at the Procite end of things. With my Procite file open, I'm doing a save as and have just two options - save as pdt or as 'all files'. I choose all files but the resulting file is not something that a text editor like Notepad will open.

I have tried an alternative - going to Print bibliography and creating a file using the configuraion 'RIS-Endnote' that I downloaded earlier. I then save this file as text only But again Zotero gives me "No importable data could be read from the clipboard."

A typical record from the text only file I created is:
TY - JOUR
A1 - von Kanel, R.
A1 - Mausbach, B. T.
A1 - Dimsdale, J. E.
A1 - Mills, P. J.
A1 - Patterson, T. L.
A1 - Ancoli-Israel, S.
A1 - Ziegler, M. G.
A1 - Roepke, S. K.
A1 - Chattillion, E. A.
A1 - Allison, M.
A1 - Grant, I.
T1 - Effect of chronic dementia caregiving and major transitions in the caregiving situation on kidney function: a longitudinal study
JF - Psychosom Med
PY - 2012/02
VL - 74
IS - 2
SP - 214-20
N1 - Language: eng
AV - Division of Psychosomatic Medicine, Department of General Internal Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland. roland.vonkaenel@insel.ch.
UR - 22286846
SN - 1534-7796 (Electronic). 0033-3174 (Linking)
ER -

adamsmith

That looks right - that's what you want to use.
Start by trying this out here on the forum - select the entire record, i.e. from TY through ER - copy and see if import from clipboard works. It should and does for me.
If it does, the next step would be to import your Procite database in smaller steps.

Simon

It might also help us track the problem down if you can provide a report ID after re-triggering the error.

paulchinnock

Thanks adamsmith for your kind help. Had to suspend all activities for a week due to severe (human) virus infection - flu. Hence my much delayed response.

Yes! Seems like I can import the biography generated by Procite if I do no more than 2000 records each time. (My Procite database is 22,000 records.) But doing it that way means that the abstracts, which I need to have in there for the work I am doing, don't come through to my new Zotero database.

Sadly, I think I may need to give up on this one. Next time I create a NEW database I'll use Zotero but I'll have to finish my current project using Procite ...unless anyone has any new ideas as to how I can import the whole database to Zotero, including the abstracts?

adamsmith

As you can see above, your entry doesn't have an abstract. If you can find a way to export with abstracts from Procite we'll likely (no guarantees) be able to help you get the abstract into Zotero, but I don't think anyone here knows much about procite, so unless you figure this out yourself, procite support or a dedicated forum are probably the better places. What you want to find out is if Procite can export bibliographic records including the abstract in RIS, Refer, or Bibtex.

DWL-SDCA

If I recall correctly:

Within ProCite, select Print Bibliography from the File menu.

Select the RIS output style and configure the RIS output to include the fields you want. Abstract is off by default; so select it.

Select Save, and Text Only as your file type.

maevepotter

I have a slightly different problem than the poster above, everything loaded fine, but the fields that didn't correspond have gone into notes. See below:

----
Can anyone give me some hints on a better import of a Procite database into Zotero? It did it overall pretty well, but some extraneous fields that didn't have corresponding fields in Zotero, were simply added into the notes pages. In some cases, this left out information such as the author's role, i.e. editor. While this information is attached in the notes, it is only the field "author role" which contains "edited by". The editor is converted to a contributor in Zotero. (This is a chapter within a book record, where you have a primary author, and then what is referred to in procite as the "monographic author" or the editor/author of the whole book.)

I followed this example to import with a RIS file: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/551

Here is a sample record that I am talking about above:

TY - CHAP
N1 - Record ID: 708
A1 - Fletcher, A.
T1 - The Arikara
A2 - Hodge, F. W.
N1 - Author Role: edited by
T2 - Handbook of the American Indian North of Mexico
CY - Washington, D.C.
PY - 1906
SP - 83-86
T3 - Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin
N1 - Series Volume ID: 30 (1)
KW - Arikara
KW - Dissertation
ER -


If anyone has ideas on how to export the data from Procite to better correspond to Zotero fields, that would be great. Otherwise I will have to manually modify 5000+ records.

adamsmith

Zotero will import ED - as an editor.
How to deal with this exactly depends on the database - are there any A2 people that are anything different than editors? That would make things complicated.
Otherwise, you can just run a search and replace (A2 - --> ED -) in a good text editor and you should be fine in that respect.

maevepotter

Hi Adam,

it does seem complicated. See the records below. As you can see, under N1, in my previous post it was "edited by" in the one below "editor" so it doesn't appear very standardized. In addition, there is not always an A2 as editor. I think it depends on what kind of reference it is, like a journal article, book chapter, conference proceeding, whole book, etc. Procite has this odd thing with "monographic author" and "analytic author", where the monographic author could be the editor of the whole volume, and the analytic one would be the writer of the specific chapter. Any ideas here? I can send you the complete RIS file if that would help. I am really at a loss with how to better configure the transfer, and have editors in procite remain editors in zotero. Many of them transfer only as authors.

Another problem that appears to be a dinosaur from Procite, which no longer matters in Zotero is "N1 - Connective Phrase: In". From what I gather, this connective phrase "in" would link between a chapter of a book "in" such and such a volume. I realize that the citation styles in zotero should make this unnecessary, however, there are all of these junk notes that transfer over with this extra field into Zotero. Could I simply delete all of the N1's (before importing the RIS file) that say "Connective Phrase: In"? Am I right in assuming this field is unnecessary? It doesn't bother me personally, but my boss would prefer that the transfer be clean.

I can bluff my way through computer programming instructions and googling, but it is really not my skill set to deal with any kind of code. I appreciate your assistance.

TY - CHAP
A1 - Abel, Annie H.
N1 - Author Role: editor
T2 - Chardon's Journal at Fort Clark, 1834-1839
CY - Pierre
PB - South Dakota State Department of History
PY - 1932
N1 - Notes: seen
KW - Arikara
KW - ethnohistory
KW - fur trade
KW - Upper Missouri
ER -

TY - CHAP
A1 - Abel, Annie H.
N1 - Author Role: editor
T2 - Tabeau's Narrative of Loisel's Expedition to the Upper Missouri
CY - Norman
PB - University of Oklahoma Press
PY - 1939
N1 - Notes: have, seen
KW - Arikara
KW - ethnohistory
KW - Upper Missouri
ER -

TY - CHAP
A1 - Adams, Robert McC.
T1 - The Emerging Place of Trade in Civilizational Studies
N1 - Connective Phrase: In
A2 - Sabloff, Jeremy
A2 - Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.
N1 - Author Role: edited by
T2 - Ancient Subsistence and Trade
CY - Albuquerque
PB - University of New Mexico Press
PY - 1975
SP - 451-465
KW - trade
ER -