RefWorks XML Italics Scientific Names

ktrei2

I am trying to help a faculty member export his RefWorks library. He has over 2000 citations with scientific names. RefWorks no longer has "plain" xml to export and I think the only way to retain the italics is with RefWorks XML. However, I can find no way to import this file into any other citation manager (like between EndNote xml and Zotero).

There is no find & replace for style in either EndNote or Zotero either, and I am at a loss of how to help him.

Any suggestions, is there a work around with Zotero for this import by chance?

adamsmith

have you checked that the italics are in the RefWorks XML before putting in any work? (there is no such thing as "plain" XML, btw. -- Endnote used to call its export format "XML", I think, but that was always "Endnote XML").

There are no work arounds. It'd require an import translator for RefWorks XML, which, while somewhat more doable since it's likely related to the tag format, is still a lot of work (and requires basic-intermediate javascript skills).

ktrei2

They are in the Refworks XML code, yes. And yes, I didn't know what else to call it, they used to have "Refworks XML" and "XML", they removed the latter export filter. I've asked EndNote for an import filter, as well as others, but this has been requested before, by quite a few people. It's too bad, because whomever makes this more feasible will likely corner the market on biologists. It is a ridiculous amount of work to fix citation by citation. A find and replace function in the managers would be good as well. EndNote has one, but without style edits. And hey Adam, I talked with you on Twitter :).

adamsmith

Could you post RefWorks XML of one item with italics to gist.github.com ? (open in text editor, select all, copy, paste to the window on that page, create secret gist, link to it from here)

No promises, but would like to get a sense of how hard this would be.

ktrei2

I think I did it correctly: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/d2c6c70d23256aa65c35

Thanks, I presume it is probably difficult, since no one has done it. Many institutions and libraries are moving away from RefWorks now, because of cost vs. use, and the many free options available. RW has decided no longer to sell individual accounts, which is unfortunate, and forcing the hand of some researchers, thus the questions. :)

I appreciate the look though. Let me know if you can see it.

adamsmith

Yes, that's right, thanks. It's not a very sophisticated XML format, but that might actually help us here.
I don't think I'll have time to write an importer super soon, but I think a set of search&replace operations might be able to convert this into RefWorks Tagged.

You did check, btw., that there are no italics in the RefWorks Tagged output, right?

You don't happen to be semi-comfortable with the commandline?
E.g., if I gave you a command to run, would you be comfortable doing that?

RW has decided no longer to sell individual accounts, which is unfortunate

wow, that's just awful. What a reprehensible move by them. I really hope they go under.

ktrei2

Yes, the RW Tagged just looks like this: T1 Physicochemical characterization of pomegranate wines fermented with three different Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strains

I'm really iffy with commands, BUT I have people I could have help me here.

And yes, I agree it was a poor decision they made!

adamsmith

Earliest this will happen is the weekend. I'll keep you posted.

ktrei2

That's awesome, thank you!

akochan

Hello, I tested RefWorks xml records to Zotero. It did not recognize the text file. Has this been resolved?

adamsmith

no, I wasn't able to get to this yet, sorry. RefWorks Tagged does work, though.