unwanted blank lines between references

hs

Hello,

I installed the preview version of Zotero and I am using it with Firefox 3.0 and OOo 2.4.1 on Debain Linux (Lenny).

I notice that when I insert a bibliography (IEEE style) to get a list of references in my OOo document, each reference is separated by a newline. In other words, there is a blank line between each reference. I don't think this is supposed to be like this.

So, why does Zotero give those blank lines and how do I get rid of them?

Thanks
->HS

arggem

check out these threads:

http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/2252/
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1849/
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1691/

hs

Hi arggem,

The links just verify that Zotero has an inheret problem of introducing a blank line between references.

IMHO, this is not the correct way to go about formatting the list of references. It should be done, and all my colleagues do, using styles in MS Word and OOo.

I hope Zotero fixes this so that the un-needed blank lines are removed.

Regards.

Tjowens

hs, read this thread again. http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/2252/

Zotero is not adding breaks to all bibliographies, it is style specific. There is info in that thread about editing your own local copy of the style. If you can point to a example of how IEEE wants bibliographies spaced we can make a global change to the IEEE CSL.

hs

Hi Tjowens,

Okay, I read the thread again. I also understand what you say about line breaks being style specific (more on this near the end my message).

Based on your suggestion, I looked up the IEEE bibliography and references style in IEEE's author guidelines (http://www.ieee.org/web/publications/authors/transjnl/index.html). I looked at "IEEE Style Manual", a PDF document, linked on this web page. Here are a few of my comments:

Please look at Section B1 in the PDF document (link is: http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_iportals/iportals/publications/authors/transjnl/stylemanual.pdf). Based on that section, Zotero is not really following the IEEE style properly. It does not have the references' numbers in their own column in the list of references. So this needs to be fixed. As an example, a references list is given in that very section.

And in that very example, pages 6 and 7 of the PDF file, there are no blank lines separating the references!

I hope this is enough proof that IEEE does not require blank lines and that it will be fixed in Zotero.

BTW, I am curious, when IEEE style was made, how did Zotero dev team come to the conclusion that the blank lines are necessary? I don't recall seeing them in any IEEE publication. A link would be helpful to solve this mystery, or it might just have been an oversight.

Also, I am also intrigued as to which journals do want such a list. It goes against best practices in typography, I would say.

Regards,
->HS

bdarcus

@trevor:

Zotero is not adding breaks to all bibliographies, it is style specific.

But this should NOT be the case. Zotero should never, ever, add line-breaks between items. Rather, it should set the style's properties to achieve this, so that users can override it if needed. Users should NOT be editing CSL files to fix this.

hs

In an earlier post, I wrote "It does not have the references' numbers in their own column in the list of references". I created a new bibliography last night and noticed that this problem is not there anymore. So either something went wrong when I noticed this a few days ago, or maybe the IEEE style has been updated, not sure which one. In any case, that problem appears to be resolved now.

So only the unwanted newlines or blank lines problem remains.

Regards.

hs

"Please look at Section B1 in the PDF document (link is: http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_iportals/iportals/publications/authors/transjnl/stylemanual.pdf). Note that in the example given there, pages 6 and 7 of the PDF file, there are no blank lines separating the references."

Hi,
Just bringing up this older problem. Could somebody please look into this and fix the problem in the IEEE style bibliography by removing the blank lines between the items.

Will be much appreciated.
Regards.

Rintze

I removed the blank line between items. Until this change is incorporated in the 'official' IEEE style, you can get the corrected (dev-)style here:

http://www.zotero.org/styles/ieee/dev/install

By the way, wouldn't it make more sense to set this entry spacing to "off" by default? At least in the natural sciences, hardly any styles require spacing between entries.

hs

Rintze: Thanks a ton!

About the default "off" option, I agree. Plus see bdarcus's comment above. I agree with him in that the line spacing should be handled by the authors using styles in their document processors. So the default "off" option makes perfect sense.

You know what would be interesting, to see the proof which led the developers to insert these blank lines in the first place! I am yet to see any journal or publication which requires it.

Regards.