Problems with epidemiology citation styles from repository in MS Word

swsyoun

I have installed some new citation styles from the repository, but when I go to use them in MS Word, nothing changes. I can switch freely between the standard styles that came installed with Zotero, but when I go to use one of the new styles, it just displays the previous style that was used. I am using version 2.1.7 and I have tried re-installing the styles. The specific styles I have added are: American Journal of Epidemiology and International Journal of Epidemiology.

adamsmith

those styles are both exact copies of the Vancouver style, so you can use that instead. If that's not correct, please report the differences here.
But to clarify - you've tried switching to an entirely different style - like APA - and then to one of the Epidemiology journals and the citations stay in APA?
That would be a bug then and an error report, created right after switching styles would be helpful:
http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs

swsyoun

Correct, if I switch to APA and then back to AJE, it remains APA.

Differences between AJE and Vancouver styles:
- AJE style only lists 3 authors, then et al. (Vancouver style lists 6)
- Journal title is italicized in the AJE style
- Only the year of date is listed in the AJE style (Vancouver style includes month and day)

adamsmith

OK - I'll fix AJE as soon as possible and I hope Simon can have another look into the larger issue, but even if this were to work correctly at this time, AJE would look exactly like Vancouver - I suggest you use Vancouver right now and I'll post here once a correct AJE style exists.

adamsmith

oh and an error report as specified above would still be helpful.

engerk

I'd also noticed the above differences between AJE and Vancouver style. After reading the posts above, I've just updated the AJE Zotero style (dated 5/18/2011) and found that journal title is now properly italicized, but the month is inappropriately added and all authors are listed (instead of 3 authors + et al., as AJE prefers). Quotes around article titles are inappropriately added also.
I'll ask if AJE can work with Zotero to produce a style if I get the opportunity during my manuscript submission.
Would it make sense to have a separate bug reporting system devoted entirely to style errors/updates?
Thanks for your help - Zotero is awesome!

adamsmith

The journal title still shouldn't be italicized - the update date is a fluke of moving the repository to a new version - currently AJE is still a Vancouver copy and I don't see how/why it would put journal titles in italics.

Why do you not think the forum is a good place to report style issues?

engerk

I've just noticed an error RE my previous post. It turns out I wasn't in AJE (or Vancouver) style after all. On my system, AJE style appears identical to Vancouver. This morning, when I attempted to switch styles in my Word document, it threw the same error twice (something like 'style undefined' - I can't currently reproduce it), but later it worked; perhaps that also happened yesterday, but I missed the error message. This is a Word 2003 document being edited in Word 2010 on Windows 7, Zotero 2.1.7 in Firefox 4.0.1.

RE the forum & style issues, it seems to me that tailoring styles requires attention to many small details and that a more formal 'bug' reporting system might facilitate tracking those details. Of course whether this is actually a good idea depends on the requirements of the developers/maintainers - just a suggestion on my part.

adamsmith

People are actually working on such a feedback system for styles, though I'm at this point still skeptical - precisely because styles contain so many details I prefer the longform of the forum - has worked pretty well so far, I think.

Unless you can reproduce the style undefined error I wouldn't worry about it. Also, you should update to 2.1.8. I'll post here once AJE is fixed.

adamsmith

OK I've replaced AJE with a corrected style - should show up very soon, let me know how it goes.
If someone still needs the IJE style, please start a new thread following these guidelines:
http://www.zotero.org/support/requesting_styles

engerk

Sadly, my paper has been rejected by AJE, but no doubt I will use the new style at a later date. Happened to be browsing the International Journal of Epidemiology the other day and their instructions for authors require Vancouver style. Thanks, adamsmith!