Import .txt files to Zotero

mmckone

Can anyone advise me in the best way to import a text file (.txt) of citations in this kind of format into Zotero?

I have two files that have dozens of citations like this with each separated by a blank line in the file.

TY - JOUR
ID - 647
T1 - Parental distress during pediatric leukemia and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) after treatment ends
A1 - Best,M.
A1 - Streisand,R.
A1 - Catania,L.
A1 - Kazak,A.E.
Y1 - 2001/07//
N1 - DA - 20010606
IS - 0146-8693 (Print)
LA - eng
PT - Journal Article
PT - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S
SB - IM
KW - Adaptation,Psychological
KW - Adolescent
SP - 299
EP - 307
JA - J.Pediatr.Psychol.
VL - 26
IS - 5

adamsmith

Have you tried just importing them? I think that should just work. This is RIS format, which Zotero understands. It looks like it's missing end or record tags, so if it doesn't import right we can give you some pointers on how to reformat, but I believe our import is smart enough.

mmckone

Thank you Adam! One of the files---the small one---loaded quickly as is and on quick look seems fine!

The larger file seemed to be taking forever so I stopped it. (20 minutes and nothing had loaded). is there an import file size limit? This file is: 5.5 MB.

adamsmith

a 5.5MB txt file is huge -- I think Zotero will probably be fine ingesting that in one load but it will take significant time, easily 1h during which it may well freeze (which is fine, just ignore the "not responding" message).

Close down all other applications and try importing when you can let it run for 1-2hs without interruption.

mmckone

Hi Adam:
I separated the large file into 3 smaller ones and the parts loaded fine (also closed down all the other applications!). In looking at load results, I noticed that the ISSN number consistently loaded into the "issue" field rather than the issn field.

Is there an efficient way to deal with a problem like that? Thank you for all your help with this!

noksagt

Is there an efficient way to deal with a problem like that?

The best thing to do is fix the exporter you used, which is exporting ISSN as "IS" rather than the appropriate "SN". Failing that, you should probably fix it through find/replace in the original file (particularly if the file stores issue #s somewhere too).

adamsmith

The full RIS tag mapping Zotero uses as a basis for import (which follows the official specifications) is here: https://github.com/aurimasv/translators/wiki/RIS-Tag-Map
If you get ISSNs as issues, a simple search and replace for
IS -
to
SN -

should do, though depending on the nature of the RIS file that may cause issues with other item types.

kabuek

Zotero is not giving me the option of importing a .txt file. Even if i change the file extension to RIS it doesn't work. How did you get this to import?

DWL-SDCA

RIS files must conform to certain criteria and standards. Are you sure that this is an RIS file? Does each record begin with "TY -" and end with "ER"?

kabuek

Up above it said a text file was the same as RIS. And the thread is about importing txt files... so I want to know how to do that.

DWL-SDCA

All RIS files are text format files but they are a particular type of text file. There are countless other types of text files and several types of bibliographic record file types that are in text format. Please excuse me if I am stating the obvious.

DWL-SDCA

If you will paste one example of one item record from the file you wish to import someone here will be able to give you specific instructions.