Zotero not differentiating between J.Article & Thesis

Sajid Nadeem · August 8, 2015

I am using up to date Zotero. I have noticed this error quite a few times now so i decided to report it. The most recent mis identified item was:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=4107720312169102985&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&sciodt=0,5

which is a Masters Theses but was identified as a Journal Article instead. i tried both, the CITE exporting via Scholar as well as import via zotero`s folder icon in Firefox.

adamsmith · August 8, 2015

that's because google scholar classifies it as an article. Nothing we can do about that. Google scholar isn't the best source form importing citation data in general. Lots of mistakes and missing data.

DWL-SDCA · August 8, 2015

I've learned to --never-- use GS to download metadata -- wrong journal name, wrong authors, etc. However, I find GS indispensable as a way to follow links to items (usually on publishers' sites) where the correct metadata may be found. The links seem to always be to the correct place.

[As curator of a bibliographic database, I work with Google so my records are available in a format that works with GS. Google initiates contact every few months by phone and email to alert me about optional changes I can make to mate with coming improvements and expansions to the GS system. These are not edicts but give-and-take conversations with back-and-forth testing. I've asked about the metadata inaccuracies with many GS listings from publishers. I was told that certain publishers present their metadata inconsistently and those practices poison the automated processes Google uses to grab the data. My contact says this is maddening to her and to Google Scholar staff in general. If GOOGLE (!) takes the time to work with my relatively small project, it is clear to me that they want GS to be both available and accurate.

It was really straightforward to automatically place accurate GS-friendly (and Zotero-friendly) metadata in the headers of the web pages generated from my SafetyLit database. Witness the problems uncooperative publishers create for those who write Zotero translators. I don't understand the lack of cooperation -- publishers care about Impact Factors and IFs are dependent upon accurate citations to their journal articles.]