adding prefixes/suffixes to citations using rtf scan

jonschubert

I am using zotero with scrivener via the rtf scan function, which seems to work quite well. However, I can't seem to find the answer to my problem: how do I add prefixes and suffixes to my citations using rtf scan?

i.e. {Smith, 2009, 7} will result in (Smith, 2009: 7) - all fine. If I want the citation to say (cf. Smith, 2009: 7), is there a way of writing the code into the text so that rtf scan will recognise it? With Endnote {cf. \Smith, 2009} works, but it does not here. I also tried mimicking the word plugin code, typing {"prefix”:”cf. ”Smith, 2009} but it does not recognise it either.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

adamsmith

I don't believe that's possible. There's a reason people are asking for better scrivener implementation/improved RTF scan options. See this thread for details:
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/18064/please-add-better-integration-with-scrivener/

jonschubert

Many thanks for your quick reply, Adam, although I'm not sure it will solve my problem.
There is another bug: Zotero adds edited books into my library coding the editors as contributors, which means they'll not show up in the bibliography. Any ideas?

adamsmith

as an immediate solution, you can just click on the arrow next to contributor and change it to editor.
I assume you're getting these from a library catalog? The problem is that MARC - on which most library translators rely - doesn't distinguish between editors and other contributors. I have implemented a workaround in some of the translators relying on MARC, but most of them still have that problem and I'm not sure how robust the workaround is.
Maybe ajlyon could say something about prospects of fixing this more generally (see e.g. this item:
http://lccn.loc.gov/2009009398 - the unapi for the permanent link turns the editors into authors, if you go to the online (voyager) catalog, they become contributors - so the only thing you can't get them to be is editors).

ajlyon

Exactly. MARC doesn't make this distinction. That means that MARC-derived MODS, like on the LCCN page adamsmith provides, can't do so either (although born-MODS data can include explicit roles).

adamsmith

yes, but wouldn't it make sense to implement something along the lines of what I put into the Encore, Amicus, and Mango translators make sense? - i.e. treat contributors of a book that doesn't have any authors as editors. Sure, this may get some people incorrectly labeled as editors, but right now we're getting every single edited volume wrong on import, so I'm pretty sure we'd dramatically reduce the number of incorrect imports.

edit: I agree that we'd want to keep the MARC translator clean - I'm proposing to put this into library translators relying on MARC.