How to Merge Citations

ayuroman
I try to add few citation after sentence. But all of them appear as separate citations: like [1][2][3] or (Autor1 et al. 2017), (Autor2 et al. 2017), (Autor2 et al. 2017)
But it should be combined as [1,2,3] or [Autor1 et al. 2017; Autor2 et al. 2017; Autor2 et al. 2017]

I know that Endnote automatically combine multiple citations, but I can't find how to do it in Zotero.
  • adamsmith
    you can't merge after the fact, but here's how you enter them: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage#citations_with_multiple_cited_items
  • wh_fzj_ste
    I coded a Word VBA macro to join separate citations and just updated it. See https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/3262/single-to-multiple-citations-in-word-plugin/p3
  • mcs
    It's really unfortunate that Zotero doesn't allow you to merge citations. I'm a librarian who has been trying to help a user who had to change a citation style to match a journal format. I edited the style for her & when she updated her Word document, all the citations that had been 1-3, etc, were now [1] [2] [3]. For me & the users I support, merging citations in this way is really necessary. People forget citations all the time (or PIs insist that certain citations should be added); it shouldn't be a big deal & it isn't in other programs.
  • bwiernik
    @mcs It's not clear what you mean exactly. If the citations were previously 1-3, that indicates they were entered properly as a single citation. What style is your user using?
  • mcs
    AMA, edited to change the in-text citation style from superscript to number in parentheses. It's a relatively simple edit to the style, so I don't understand what happened.
  • bwiernik
    Can you post your edited style to https://hastebin.com/, save it, then give a link here?
  • mcs
    https://hastebin.com/jexuyowawa.rb Let me know if this doesn't work/if you need more info.
  • adamsmith
    you want to put the parentheses into layout, not the group, i.e.
    <layout prefix="(" suffix=")" delimiter=",">
    <text variable="citation-number"/>
    <group prefix=", ">
    <label variable="locator" form="short" strip-periods="true"/>
    <text variable="locator"/>
    </group>
    </layout>
    I still don't see how you would have gotten [1] [2] [3] with this style rather than (1),(2) and (1)-(3) but I think this will solve your problem.

    There absolutely is a case for merging references in some workflows where you move references around a lot in a draft, but things like changing citation styles and adding forgotten citations work perfectly with Zotero's current capabilities.
  • SunnyStubbs
    edited February 10, 2024
    So there is no way to merge if I forgot one?
  • adamsmith
    Two things:
    a) For about a year and a half now (since 6.0.16), adjacent citations will merge when you click refresh
    b) if you just forgot a citation, you can move your cursor in an existing citation, click add/edit citation, and simply add it. That -- as I pointed out 5 years ago -- has always been possible.
  • SunnyStubbs
    Three things:
    a.) Adjacent citations are not merging when I click refresh (in 2024).
    b.) Thanks so much. This is tremendously helpful. My problem is solved.
    c.) I do not see these instructions anywhere on the thread. If I could see them, I would not asked. The, “That --- as I pointed out 5 years ago -- has always been possible” comment is why I rarely resort to asking for help on forums. Will most likely abandon Zotero as this is what asking for help is like.
  • aborel
    Things not working as they should is different from "no way to do XXX", and this situation can be addressed if you describe it in details. See https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems . You'll find that many people are ready to help you, but they can only do it if you provide enough information to them.
  • adamsmith
    I literally said right above your post, "things like changing citation styles and adding forgotten citations work perfectly with Zotero's current capabilities." and instructions for editing citations are in the second post,
    so I don't think that was unreasonable to point out, especially since you didn't just ask, but started from the assumption that wasn't possible (and while I very much appreciate you editing your original post (really!) I did get a notification when you posted that, so I am not sure you should be quite so sensitive about tone...)

    If refresh doesn't work, happy to troubleshoot -- note that there can't be a space between the two
  • rohanvernekar
    I have the same issue. Adjacent citations are not merging with the default IEEE style when I press refresh.

    I am coming back to Libreoffice with zotero after a long time and I don't really remember this being an issue for me before.

    So to describe the issue a bit more, when I combine citations, as in the attached image,
    I get [1], [2], instead of [1,2] as I would expect with numeric IEEE style.

    I am using Linux mint 21.3, Libreoffice writer 7.3.7.2.
  • rohanvernekar
    edited February 13, 2024
    I tried attaching an image with the post above, but that did not work. So here it is...

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2106231/0sjf7vizmjhgz3z6su1m.png
  • adamsmith
    What you are getting is correct IEEE since the last update of the manual
  • rohanvernekar
    I see. Thanks for the quick reply.
    Is there a default style that would reproduce something like what I would get with biblatex with the settings "style=numeric-comp" and "sort=none" currently in the zotero style selector options, or would I have to edit this to my requirements?
  • adamsmith
    edited February 13, 2024
    No other numeric style behaves like IEEE, so you have a broad choice among them, but https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id:association-for-computing-machinery&amp;dependent=0 is probably going to be close to biblatex's numeric-comp

    edit -- sorry, that one sorts alphabeticallyl. This would probably work though https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id:springer-lecture-notes-in-computer-science&amp;fields=engineering&amp;format=numeric&amp;dependent=0
  • laurenbradley7
    Hi! I know this has been addressed previously but I am stillstruggling. I have finished my paper and I am trying to turn citations that are formatted [2] [3] [4] [5] to [2-5]. What I am gathering is that is not possible to change this after the fact and I would have to input them together to have them grouped together?
  • adamsmith
    @laurenbradley7 no, that's not correct (anymore). Which citation style are you using? If you're using IEEE style, this is simply correct. If you're using any other numeric style, make sure there are no spaces between the references, then press the "Refresh" button to merge them.
  • laurenbradley7
    Thank you for responding so quickly. I am using Vancouver and now that I have removed the spaces from between the citations it is working perfectly. Thank you for your help; you have saved me a very tedious task!

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