URL not displayed for journal articles

Rintze

Calling the URL in CSL (e.g. <text variable="URL"/>) doesn't output the URL for journal articles, although it does work for the other items types I tested (newspaper articles, patents, books). This problem occurs both in csledit.xul as in bibliographies generated by Zotero 1.0.7.

noksagt

This is probably intended. Search for past discussion or, under the "Export" tab in Zotero preferences, set "include URLs of paper articles in references."

Rintze

That did the trick. I do find this option in Zotero a bit tricky though, as:

a) this option (hiding the URL when the pages-field is filled) is currently active when unchecked. If the text of the option would be phrased in the negative, like "Hide/exclude URLs for paper articles in references", then the option would be checked when it's active, which IMHO is better UI design.
b) because this option is active in a standard Zotero installation, the formatting specified in the CSL styles is overridden by default. I understand that having this option may reduce number of required styles, but it does seem to undermine the purpose of CSL a bit: to be an interoperable standard which, independent of the implementation, results in a certain citation layout. As the option to exclude 'superfluous' URLs can also be implemented in CSL with the use of a conditional, I'm not convinced that this option should be included as a preference in Zotero.

dstillman

The option was added to address a problem with some of the Zotero translators that incorrectly save non-canonical URLs (e.g., OPAC URLs) into the URL field, so it's a data problem rather than a styling problem. (We'll probably offer a feature eventually to migrate such URLs to link attachments.) The idea, I believe, was that CSLs should be able to expect correct data from the implementation and not all require workarounds to deal with problematic data.

bdarcus

I'd also think that the default should be to include the URLs.

erazlogo

@dan This option may still be useful after the translator problem is fixed because it lets users omit URLS while the CSL still conforms to style guidelines. Many styles used to require URLs for database articles but now consider them optional. For example, APA and Chicago recommend including a ProQuest URL if an old New York Times article was taken from ProQuest, but most users would prefer to cite the printed version even if they got it online. The default should include URLs I agree.

On related default options issues--it may be better to have "Automatically tag items with keywords" off at least until unwittingly added tags can be easily deleted all at once. And it may be better to have "Automatically attach associated PDFs and other files" option turned on by default--some first users I know had blamed translators or slow connections for days before realizing they had to turn on the option to download files.

rene.hamburger

I am also trying to include URLs for journal articles. Has the option "include URLs of paper articles in references" been removed from the Zotero preferences? (I'm using Zotero standalone 3.0.3)

I also absolutely agree that URLs should be included by default and that Zotero should not by default (!) override the formatting specified in the CSL.

adamsmith

it's still there in the cite tab. The default is not going to be changed - there are hundreds of styles depending on it.

rene.hamburger

Thanks! Sorry, I should have really seen that.