Separate versions for Zotero and Mendeley

tipichris

I'm kind of testing the water here.

I've come across a problem caused by Zotero and Mendeley mapping CSL fields in different ways. In particular, the way they map the CSL note field. Zotero maps this to 'extra', and in one style sheet I have used this to allow support for some specific points in the style guide that wouldn't otherwise be possible to support with Zotero (see http://www.oak-wood.co.uk/oss/coventry-harvard-csl).

Unfortunately, it seems that Mendeley maps 'note' to the content of the notes about an article / entry. Which makes for a bit of a mess if the note field is actually included in the CSL.

So I'm wondering what would be the view on maintaining separate versions of a style sheet for Zotero and Mendeley?

adamsmith

definitely not going to happen. One of the major points of CSL is to not go the bibtex route and have a whole range of "flavors".

We try to discourage the use of "note" for the most part because it's not clearly defined (and Zotero's extra field doesn't have a clear purpose. It's only current "official" use is for storing PMID numbers)

We're working on better support for legal items. For leaflets and unpublished works I'd suggest you use "manuscript" and the manuscriptType (=genre) field to specify the type.

tipichris

Thanks for the manuscript tip. I'll look into that.

adamsmith

(arguably, btw., full notes on items should be mapped to "annote" and not "note" — see their respective descriptions here: http://citationstyles.org/downloads/specification.html#standard-variables ) but you'll have to take that up with Mendeley. It would be understandable if they're reluctant to change mapping now*, but worth asking.

*especially because we use "note" not "annote" for the annotated bibliography styles - which may also not have been the best choice, but I don't think anyone currently uses annote)

tipichris

Mmm, no publisher for manuscript :(

adamsmith

we'll get a publisher for manuscripts:
https://github.com/ajlyon/zotero-bits/issues/19
(the debate there is about the naming in Zotero - it'll definitely map to publisher in CSL)
edit: and if you need a workaround until then, you can enter publisher in "Place".