Automatic update of the citation keys (BibTex keys) with Zotero 5.0.33

edited January 2, 2018
Hello everyone,

I'm using Zotero and then export my references for LaTeX. Zotero used to automatically name the BibTex keys for my references this way: goffman_forms_1981, i.e. author_firstwordofthetitle_year. Zotero has been automatically updated to 5.0.33 and all the citation keys have changed. I'm currently writing my thesis and I have hundreds and hundreds of references that now need to be updated in my text. Thus I would like to know how to change the automatic bib keys in Zotero to reinstall the previous format.

I have changed the code to write this in Zotero: [auth]_[veryshorttitle]_[year].

It partly works, yet the first letter of the author's name and of the title are in capital letters (for instance, Goffman_Forms_1981) while it was in lower case before. I have also noticed some conflicts when the first word of the title is not the 'key word', as in: ducrot_les_1980 that has become Ducrot_mots_1980 (the title is: Les mots du discours).

I also have problems with names with particles (such as "de" or "von"). They used to be indicated as follows: de_cock_profiling_2014. Now they are: DeCock_Profiling_2014.

This results in conflicts with my LaTeX files and the references are not recognised anymore.

My questions are the following:
- how can I have the exact same citation keys I had before the update, i.e. only lower case and first word of the title?
- how can I change ALL the citation keys in my Zotero library at once? I have 4000 references, and even though I don't use them all for my dissertation, it would cost me an extensive amount of time to refresh each single citation key by hand. I have already tried selecting all the references, right-click on "Refresh BibTex key", but it did not work.

Thank you very much in advance!
- a PhD student quite stressed despite the New Year :)
  • The original forms you've posted are still the forms used in the stock version of Zotero. You seem to be using the better bibtex extension. You may either switch back to the stock exporter or tweak the better bibtex citation key. You'd likely need to use the
    :lower
    and
    condense,_
    formats to address some of those issues. But @emilianoheyns can provide more insight into how to make his extension mimic the stock keys.
  • Thanks, @noksagt! I have already opened another thread with @emilianoheyns on GitHub, so should I delete this one?
  • no, just leave this one as is, thanks
  • I've added a popup on BBT first-run which allows selecting the pattern in a simplified way for easier onboarding. New users (not Naomi, because the first-run marker has already been set for her) will be given the choice between Zotero and BBT default keys.

  • The best way to mimic the stock keys is to use [zotero:clean] BTW.
  • For those who stumble into this thread: BBT did not do an automatic update of the citation keys; it just generated different keys than the stock Zotero BibTeX would. The stock export including the keys it generates is of course still available. The onboarding process for BBT now also allows (or to put it more accurately: forces) you to choose whether you want zotero-like keys or BBT-like keys to start off with.
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