Definite ID from Reference Manager

Saganaki · January 14, 2013

I need to convert my database from Reference Manager (RM) to Zotero since the former one is no longer supported at my institution. RM gives to every record in the database a definite number or key called Ref ID (which also appears in the RIS Format as ID). Unfortuntely I have sorted the printed copies of my publiations according to this unique Ref ID. In order maintain this system I need to export the Ref ID to Zotero in a way I can search easily for IDs. In order to continue with this system I would need a unique ID which is assgined to any entry in the database by Zotero. Any help?

adamsmith · January 14, 2013

Zotero currently does not have an easily visible nor a human readable ID for items. (it does use internal identifiers like 0_9UND58GD but you can't change those).

I believe currently the Ref ID is imported into a note, is that correct? It'd be possible for you to customize the import translator to import it into the extra field, though that's not ideal. Otherwise, I don't see a good solution for you, unfortunately.

dstillman · January 14, 2013

You're not the only person who's wanted this. It's possible that there'll be a user-defined ID field in the UI in a future version (along with expanded third-party ID support in general), but what adamsmith applies for now.

Fionaussie · January 21, 2013

I'd also like to see a unique ID for the records in a database. I recently stumbled on Zotero and decided I'd check it out. Yesterday I imported a client's database from Reference Manager and, yes, the Ref ID is imported into a note as having no corresponding Zotero field. I'm disappointed to hear there's still no solution (I've been looking over the posts that go back to 2008 and expected Zotero would have resolved this by 2013) :-(

adamsmith · January 21, 2013

See my post above: Zotero items do have unique IDs. Zotero just doesn't allow users to define or change them.
While implementing this is, as Dan says, planned, it's more of a challenge for software like Zotero that allows cooperation in groups, syncing across libraries, etc. than for something like RefMan which is decidedly web 1.0.