Author import problem: "J. Smith" and "Smith, J." in one database

andre_xs

Hi All,
I just recently switched to Zotero (from Endnote) and I really like it. My (quite big) reference database/library has grown over the years and was initially started using BibTex on Linux, then converted to Endnote, then to a newer version of Endnote, and now to Zotero.

I now have the problem that due to the history, a lot of author fields were defined as:
"J. Smith" and not as "Smith, J."

I'm using the American Psychological Association 6th Ed. Style, and this results in Zotero believing that in the case of "J. Smith" the "J." is part of the last name. Thus, I might get a reference like "J. Smith & Meyer, 2000" (which is usually only used for disambiguation).

My question is: Is there a quick/automatic way to fix this, or would I have to adjust this manually / re-import the citations?

Best wishes,
Andre

bwiernik

If the authors are stored in "single-field" mode, then click the double-rectangle button next to the author name to switch to two-field mode (the names will move automatically). If the authors are stored in two-field mode, then right-click on the author names and choose Swap First/Last Names.

andre_xs

Thanks a lot, that's already much quicker than manually changing the fields. Any chance there is some kind of automatic / batch / script way to do this?

Endnote didn't have a problem with that, could I possibly get that right during Endnote import?

bwiernik

How did you export from Endnote? And how were the data entered in Endnote?

If you are comfortable with Python, you can use PyZotero to interact with the Zotero API and do batch edits.

andre_xs

I used the way recommended by the Zotero homepage, i.e. exported as XML file. I've only now noticed that a style (like APA 6th Ed) can be used during saving/output. May it be worthwile to change that to something other?

Data were entered in Endnote partially by import from BibTex (years ago) and by the Endnote internal internet database search.

I won't get into programming for that, in that case I'll just do it by hand when there's need for it...

bwiernik

No, definitely exporting as XML is the correct way. It seems like Endnote treats single-field names as though they always mean "First Last" formatted personal names. That seems like a very fragile and bad idea (e.g., would "African Union" get rendered as "Union, A."?), and Zotero definitely won't try to do that. So you will need to correct your data either in Endnote or in Zotero.