CrossRef failures - Report ID:306629084

john.garside

306629084
I have recently been experiencing failures when using the CrossRef locator tab. I have been in touch with CrossRef as directed in the error report and their help desk has referred me back to Zotero. I attach some details as far as space allows

CrossRef ticket #27630: Please forward this message


The response from clicking the CrossRef tab
on the Zotero locate menu is usually a crossRef error message but sometimes works.
The script in Zotero's engines.json file looks like this
[
{
"name": "CrossRef Lookup",
"alias": "CrossRef",
"icon": "
file:///C:/Users/ukjgar/AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/nmsaxbeb.default/zotero/locate/CrossRef%20Lookup.gif
",
"_urlTemplate": "http://crossref.org/openurl?
{z:openURL}&pid=zter:zter321",
"description": "CrossRef Search Engine",
"hidden": false,
"_urlParams": [],
"_urlNamespaces": {
"z": "http://www.zotero.org/namespaces/openSearch#
",
"": "http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
},
"_iconSourceURI": "http://crossref.org/favicon.ico"
},
........
]
A few queries from Zotero work correctly; this one gives "No DOI found" but some do find an identifier.
http://crossref.org/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fzotero.org%3A2&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Advances%20in%20Switched-Mode%20Power%20Conversion%20Part%20II&rft.jtitle=IEEE%20TRANSACTIONS%20ON%20INDUSTRIAL%20ELECTRONICS&rft.volume=IE-30&rft.issue=1&rft.aufirst=Slobodan&rft.aulast=%C4%86uk&rft.au=Slobodan%20%C4%86uk&rft.au=R.%20D.%20Middlebrook&rft.date=1983-02&pid=zter:zter321

Most queries, however, give an error such as the one I first reported.

I'll create a specific example --
http://crossref.org/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fzotero.org%3A2&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adissertation&rft.title=Methodology%20for%20switching%20characterization%20of%20power%20devices%20and%20modules&rft.aufirst=J.B.&rft.aulast=Witcher&rft.au=J.B.%20Witcher&rft.date=2003&pid=zter:zter321

Gives an error message beginning

HTTP Status 400 - Please forward this message to support@crossref.org:
Unsupported referent metadata format:
[url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fzotero.org%3A2&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adissertation&rft.title=Methodology%20for%20switching%20characterization%20of%20power%20devices%20and%20modules&rft.aufirst=J.B.&rft.aulast=Witcher&rft.au=J.B.%20Witcher&rft.date=2003&pid=zter:zter321]
[ { "declaringClass" : "org.crossref.qs.controllers.OpenUrlController",
"methodName" : "processRequest", "fileName" :

aurimas

The issue here is that we're sending an info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation as the referent type. Although CrossRef states here that it supports San Antonio Profile #1, which does mention dissertation as a possible referent type, it also explicitly mentions that it only supports book and journal. So I guess we're supplying it with a referent type that it cannot handle (though it should be more graceful about rejecting it).

I'm not sure what we can do about this. There doesn't seem to be a mechanism to filter out item types for locate engines.

john.garside

You echo the point I made to CrossRef: I have no objection to having my query rejected but the error message in most inelegant and no very informative for the ordinary user.

The example I gave was just one type, I guess the same thing happens for anything that is not a book or a journal. I am aware that it isn't really a Zotero fault, it restricts the attractiveness of CrossRef as compared, say, with Google Scholar.