Item title w/o book title?

Is there any way to search for a term in an item title (e.g. book section or conference paper) but exclude matches for the collection title (i.e. book title or proceedings title). I'm fine including matches in both, but I want to exclude if *only* the collection title matches.
  • Use Advanced Search. Search for “Title” “contains” [leave the box blank] and “Book Title” “does not contain” [leave box blank].
  • In advanced search, I see "Title", "Series Title," and "Short Title," but not "Book Title" or "Proceedings Title". I'm on Zotero 5.0.60. Am I missing something?
  • "Book Title" and "Proceedings Title" are the "Publication" condition. You can hover over a condition in the menu for the list of fields it covers.
  • I'm confused by @bwiernik 's suggestion. Where do I put the search term I want to find if I leave the boxes blank?

    Say I want all item titles with "clock", whether or not the publication title has "clock". But I don't want item titles without "clock" in publications whose titles have "clock". How would I implement that search?
  • Sorry, I misremembered in my suggestion.

    Use Advanced Search. Search for “Title” “contains” [leave the box blank] and “Publication” “does not contain” [leave box blank].

    For your "clock" example, set the Match box to "any", then search for "Title" "contains" "clock" and "Publication" "contains" "clock".
  • Umm...sorry, still confused @bwiernik . Your first line says "Publication" "does not contain" and the second line says "Publication" "contains"...

    And if the match is "any", won't the 2nd line search also match items without "clock" in the title, but with "clock" in the publication title? That's what I'm trying to avoid.
  • I was describing two different searches. The first would find all the items that have a title but don’t have a book title.

    Regarding the second one, sorry I misunderstood what you were asking for there. Set the search to be Match “all”.
  • Hi @bwiernik, re: the 2nd one, if I set the search to match "all", then won't I get matches with "clock" in both the Title and Publication? I want to find items with "clock" in the Title whether or not "clock" is in the Publication.
  • Sorry, I've now read what you're trying to do three times and I still don't understand it.
    There are four possible combinations of "clock" being present or not in title and publication title. Could you say which ones of these you want the search to find and which ones not?

    1. Clock is in both title and publication title
    2. Clock is only in the title
    3. Clock is only in the publication title
    4. Clock is neither in the title nor in the publication title

  • @adamsmith, I want the search to find 1 and 2, and not find 3 and 4.
  • That's just
    title -- contains -- clock
    in advanced search, so I feel like I'm still missing something. Does that not work?
  • On reflection, I see my original question was about using quick search. When doing a "title, creator, year" quick search the "title" matches include book titles and proceedings titles. @bwiernik suggested using advanced search, but I got tied up in the actual instructions. I now see the correct answer is "use advanced search, where 'title' doesn't include book and proceedings titles."

    The quick search documentation says "“Title, Year, Creator” - matches against just these three fields." Is the quick search supposed to match not just item 'title, but also 'book title' and 'proceedings title'? If so, it would be great if someone with editing privileges would clarify that in the documentation, and if not, perhaps create a ticket to change that.
  • Yes, "Title, Creator, Year" matches "Publication Title" too (which includes "Book Title" and "Proceedings Title"). I've clarified the docs.
Sign In or Register to comment.