wrong citation style in Biogeosciences (copernicus journal)?

chaoyue

Hi all,

Is there anyone using zotero for submitting paper in Biogeosicence?
I got several questions here:

First, there are citation errors:
the citation sytle guide is here:
http://www.biogeosciences.net/Copernicus_Publications_Reference_Types.pdf

1. the journal ask listing FULL author list, while currently with zotero omits some authors:
[original paper link here:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2010JG001390/abstract]

*Notice the et al. in the citation*
Amiro, B. D., Barr, A. G., Barr, J. G., Black, T. A., Bracho, R., Brown, M., Chen, J., Clark, K. L., Davis, K. J., Desai, A. R., Dore, S., et al.: Ecosystem carbon dioxide fluxes after disturbance in forests of North America, Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, 115, doi:Article [online] Available from: internal-pdf://Amiro BD_JGR_2010_Ecosystem carbon flux after disturbance in forests in North America-3527831040/Amiro BD_JGR_2010_Ecosystem carbon flux after disturbance in forests in North America.pdf, 2010.

2. the journal ask abbrieviated name when available. However in the above example, the "Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences" does not show as the abbreviated name. However with another paper at the same journal, it appears like this with zotero:
[original link here:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2003JD003635/abstract]

French, N. H. F., Goovaerts, P. and Kasischke, E. S.: Uncertainty in estimating carbon emissions from boreal forest fires, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D14S08, 2004.
In this third example, it's again from the same journal, but with wrong journal name in the reference (notice the incompletename):
[original link here:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2006JG000380/abstract]
Balshi, Clein, J., Burnside, T. J., McAllister, J., Kurz, W., Apps, M., Shvidenko, A., McGuire, A. D., Zhuang, Q., Melillo, J. M., Kicklighter, D. W., et al.: The role of historical fire disturbance in the carbon dynamics of the pan-boreal region: A process-based analysis., Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences, 112, 18 pages, doi:10.1029/2006JG000380, 2007.

3. In the first example, what the use of the information that appears after "doi:"? while in the second example, No dio information is provided?

4. In the 4th example below:
Bond-Lamberty, B., Gower, S. T., Goulden, M. L. and McMillan, A.: Simulation of boreal black spruce chronosequences: Comparison to field measurements and model evaluation, Journal of Geophysical Research, 111(G2), doi:10.1029/2005JG000123 [online] Available from: http://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/34258?show=full (Accessed 17 February 2013), 2006

what's the use for the information like "[online] Available from: .......", why some others don't have this? Do I need always to drag the small page sign (used to save the reference information from firefox to zotero) ONLY when I stays the OFFICIAL webpage of the journal, with the article being appeared?

Last, all these issues DO appear also on the zotero citation style webpage http://www.zotero.org/styles, when you stay your mouse on the link for "Biogeosciences", does it mean this CSL file is wrong?

I am waiting to submit the MS but get stucked by all these issues? I try to avoid editing them one by one as If I want to change to another journal later (if the submtting fails,) then I need to do all over again....

thanks for any information,
cheers,

Chao

adamsmith

1. we'll fix
2./3. aren't problems with the style, but with your data in Zotero. Zotero only prints a journal abbreviation if one is in the Journal Abbr. field and the doi field in the example above should hold a DOI, but apparently doesn't - looks like that may have been from an Endnote import that didn't work out quite right.

4. The reason the URL is here is because there is no page range, so Zotero assumes - correctly - an online publication, though we should probably override that when, as in this case, there is a DOI, I'll take a look.

chaoyue

Hi adamsmith,

thanks for your reply. This is VERY helpful. when I changed the corresponding fiels in my zotero entry as pointed by you in the 2./3. case, the reference also changed.

In fact this is a quite useful tip. This means the CSL is fine but the information that zotero drags from the weblink is not complete, therefore needs some further editing.

Could this be summerazied somewhere as guidance on our zotero website? Because I know nothing about XML so the CSL code is quite daunting for me. But with some bit more editng in the source information, this could be used for future purpose. I believe it will be very help to put some "general ruels" when zotero tries to create reference list, as the case I have here.

thanks again for all this fantastic work!

Chao

adamsmith

1 and 4 are now fixed.
The style fix is now up. It will appear on the style repository within 30mins.. (See here if you need instructions for installing styles in standalone.)
Any further problems please let us know.


Not sure where to put information on this - it basically comes down to making sure your data in Zotero is correct.

DWL-SDCA

I think that it may be helpful to prominently state that, while Zotero will accurately download metadata from the publisher or database, this metadata may be incomplete, incorrect, or in an inappropriate format. Much is made of "it just works" which is true, but for users who aren't familiar with a citation style (and use Zotero to turn their unedited data into a formal style for a manuscript or paper) there are a few things that Zotero itself cannot automate. I have been thinking of adding a statement concerning this to the documentation wiki but as @adamsmith points out, the question is where to put the statement so that it will be noticed and followed. I think this is akin to reading through a manuscript to be sure that it says what the author thinks it should say. However, beginners may not realize that the software cannot do the all of the necessary proofreading and formatting of what goes into their Zotero library.

DWL-SDCA

Here is a (revised) first draft of the cautionary statement:

Zotero will accurately import metadata supplied by most bibliographic databases, library catalogs, publisher sites, and webpages. It will even make adjustments to the metadata to compensate for known quirks (author names in all upper case, etc.) in what the supplier provides. That said, sometimes the metadata that Zotero receives is incomplete or incorrect. For example, Microsoft Academic Search often provides the wrong serial name with otherwise correct metadata. Even major publishers sometimes provide individual author names in the wrong order and inconstantly within the same journal volume and issue or even within the same article. Some publishers' metadata may omit important items (author names when there are many, journal ISSNs, DOIs, etc.) Some metadata is provided with only author last names and one or two initials when the authors' full names are provided on the full text version of the article. Publishers have different conventions fot the casing of titles. No software can accurately and reliably convert title case to sentence case. If titles are entered in (or converted to) sentence case, Zotero can accurately convert them to title case if the style requires that format.

It is essential that users become aware of these issues and verify that the records in their library are accurate and in the correct format so that Zotero can produce well-formed citations in the text and the bibliography of your manuscript.