citing notes

aclabo

How does one have Zotero include a note that can then be cited as an endnote in a manuscript. For example, "J. Smith, private communication" or "R. Jones, research in progress" or "For an alternate interpretation, see reference 13" or "Software V3.9, A. Allen and B. Best, AB Software, Inc., absoftware.com"?

When I add such standalone notes to my library then insert them as a citation in Word, either the footnote is blank or incomplete.

adamsmith

You can't currently, sorry. I'd love a better integration of notes into citations, but it's not going to happen any time soon.

bwiernik

For the third example, just enter that as a Computer Program item and cite as normally. For the first, Enter it as an E-mail, Letter, or Interview and cite as normally (I usually use E-mail for my personal communications, as most occur over email).

For the second, you can enter such notes the title of a Document item and cite that normally. However, the reference to a previous citation can’t be automated, so you will have to keep the correct number updated manually. You can also cite the contents of a Standalone note by selecting it in the Classic View of the citation dialog. Note here that citing a note like this is limited to 120 characters.

aclabo

"Computer Program" doesn't list the name of the program first, so that's not the way it's normally cited in the literature, but I guess it will have to do -

Using "Classic View" still does not incorporate all of my standalone note, just from the last author's name and following ("A. Able, B. Best, and C. Charlie, research in progress," is always just "C. Charlie, research in progress"...or blank - right now it's just blank: "14. "

bwiernik

Formatting of computer program is driven by the style. If you tell us what style you are using, we can correct that.

Like I mentioned above, citing a Standalone note only shows the first 120 characters. To get an unlimited length note field, use the title of a Document item. But again, the example you give doesn’t really need to be stored as a note. Just store that as a regular reference with authors and a title (even just a descriptive title like “research in progress”)—Manuscript would be a good fit for such an item.

I recommend you take a step back and try to fit any items that are not purely descriptive text (i.e., anything that has a title and/or authors) into a Zotero item of some type. If the citations aren’t being formatted the way you want, it’s much much better to fix that in the .csl style rather than trying to hack something in using notes.

Can you give some real examples of citations you are having a hard time formatting? (Please don’t do the A. Able type citations—actual examples are much easier to work with.)

aclabo

It doesn't matter what the names are - the problem is I don't know how to use Zotero to create an endnote from "C. M. Welch, W. T. Boatwright, and D. A. Clabo, Jr., research in progress" - that's a real one... And the style I use doesn't include the title of the document, so "title of a Document item" doesn't help - for example, "Bader, R. F. W.; Stephens, M. E. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1975, 97 (26), 7391." is a real endnote from the same manuscript (lost some bold/italic in the copy/paste...). I'm asking for help. Thanks.

bwiernik

What style are you using?

aclabo

OK "Manuscript" works sufficiently for the "research in progress" and the "Computer Program" formatting is what the style has, so ok, it's just not what I expected - Thank you for your help - I suppose a little better documentation of styles, Zotero item types and when to use them, etc. might be helpful for users.

bwiernik

Glad it’s working for you. If you have any future questions, it’s really helpful for the volunteers here if you provide more detail (e.g., what style are you using, exactly what the problem you are having is, etc.). That can save having to go back and forth with many follow up questions.