Upgrade StorageAccess to all fields in generic item type (Document)
Hello,
Many documents (e.g., press releases, product datasheets, legal documents in many jurisdictions outside of the USA) do not fall easily in the specific item types of Zotero. I think there are two ways this limitation can be handled:
1. Creating extra item types (either custom types or hard-coded Zotero types)
2. Using a generic item type where all the useful information to retrieve the document can be saved, and whose name does not mislead the user.
I appreciate that option 1 has been ruled out for practical reasons by the Zotero team, so that leaves option 2. Logically, Document should be the most generic item type, and I understand it is the fallback in CSL. However, the number of accessible fields is very limited (e.g., no DOI, place, genre).
Would it be possible to give access to all CSL variables (or at least, those already mapped to Zotero fields) in the Document type?
Many thanks,
Pierre-Jean
Many documents (e.g., press releases, product datasheets, legal documents in many jurisdictions outside of the USA) do not fall easily in the specific item types of Zotero. I think there are two ways this limitation can be handled:
1. Creating extra item types (either custom types or hard-coded Zotero types)
2. Using a generic item type where all the useful information to retrieve the document can be saved, and whose name does not mislead the user.
I appreciate that option 1 has been ruled out for practical reasons by the Zotero team, so that leaves option 2. Logically, Document should be the most generic item type, and I understand it is the fallback in CSL. However, the number of accessible fields is very limited (e.g., no DOI, place, genre).
Would it be possible to give access to all CSL variables (or at least, those already mapped to Zotero fields) in the Document type?
Many thanks,
Pierre-Jean
CSL doesn't actually typically deal that well with fallbacks. I'd recommend trying to fit items into item types that best represent them in a bibliographic sense - in many cases report (something published, typically by an organization, in a semi-formal way), or manuscript (something that hasn't been published formally), or even webpage
provide good fits and will produce better citations.
DOI will be added to all (or at least almost all) item types in the future, likely Zotero 4.2
I have been doing what you recommend for a long time and have for example recorded hundreds of press releases as manuscripts. It works well enough in terms of fields, but doesn't make much bibliographic sense: it is hard to do more formal in terms of publication than press releases of listed companies.
Similarly, report implies some research, which is not the case for product datasheets, although the fields correspond quite well.
So from a user experience point of view, I think it is best to fit documents which do not fall into the existing Zotero types into something generic. It is also better for the consistency of shared libraries: in the current situation, my colleagues could decide that reports are the best fit for press releases, and we would end up with two different representations of the same class of documents.
If CSL doesn't deal well with fallbacks, then maybe Zotero could do it under the hood just before generating citations. CSL types are fairly well characterised by their fields so when sending a generic item to CSL, Zotero could look at which fields have been filled and decide which type is the best fit for citation.
You could also leave it to the user and let them map by hands types of generic documents (defined in the same way as manuscriptType or reportType) to citation formats.
That would maintain a more logical separation between library management and citation, which I think is a great strength of Zotero.