Can I get the 'Accessed' field to print in a bibliography?

Frithhooton

I'm using Chicago 17th Edn (author-date) to insert citations in an essay, and these are fine. However, I have to show in the bibliography the date I accessed the material. I have made sure the 'accessed' fields are all populated, but how can I get Zotero to include them in the bibliography?
I noticed from other forum discussions that citation styles can be edited, is that right? Does it mean you can tell Zotero which fields you want included, and tailor styles to match style guides that are not accessible via Zotero? (I'm thinking of University College London Harvard style, which I can't find online.) Could someone kindly tell me where to look for instructions on how to edit styles?
Thanks,
Frith

adamsmith

yes. basic instructions are here: https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/citation_styles/style_editing_step-by-step

For Harvard styles you could look at Imperial College London, which I think UCL based theirs on.

Frithhooton

Many thanks for your very prompt answer, Adam. Thanks for the tip, but I did try the Imperial College Harvard style, and it doesn't seem to be very similar to the UCL style guide I've been sent. In fact I think the version I found wasn't even author-date, it changed each in-text citation to a footnote.
I'll go and have a look at the link you've sent.
Thanks again,
Frith

adamsmith

https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id:harvard-imperial-college-london
is a pretty standard Harvard style

Frithhooton

Ah, that one seems to have the 'accessed' field programmed into the bibliography! Thank you SO much, Adam.
Do I actually need to know programming language to edit Zotero styles, if that's not too much of a stupid question? I had a quick look, and it seemed that way.
And one other point: I populated my Zotero library by using the icon, top right, in Google Chrome. Most of the items were recognised as Journal Articles. Does this type of entry have the option of showing the 'accessed' field in the bibliography?
Thanks again,
Frith

adamsmith

You don't really need to know how to program, no, in particular when you're using the visual editor linked at the top of the page.

To show URLs and accessed dates for journal articles, check the "Include URLs" box in the "Cite" tab of the Zotero preferences.

Frithhooton

Many, many thanks - I'll go and have a play with all this and fingers crossed I'll be able to work it out.
Best,
Frith

Tiffanysparks

I want to agree with adamsmith that this site is really easy. I'm not a programmer. For Chicago Style 17th edition I simply loaded the existing Chicago style, clicked on Bibliography Layout, selected the + to add module, Chose Date, Changed the Date variable to "Accessed", and then drug the date module and dropped it between "Locators-article (macro)" and the "access (macro). Then I saved it with a unique name and added it to zotero as a style.

This tip should be available somewhere in the "how to use zotero" section to make it easier to find.

https://editor.citationstyles.org/visualEditor/