Personal database for journal abbreviations

edited May 31, 2019
Hi there,

Since the internal abbreviation algorithm is not giving the correct results and automatic lookup for journal abbreviations (CASSI etc.) is not coming soon, could it be possible to use a personal list to populate the abbr. journal field of the library items based on the journal titels? That would safe me a lot of time filling these.

thank you for your help and this great piece of software

Edit: Something like this in Mendeley would be perfect http://static.blog.mendeley.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/abbr-prefs.png
  • edited June 6, 2019
    Nice. Will read into that.

    Maybe I'll try to parse the Web of Science Database for a start and commit it.(although i'm not completely sure how correct it is) https://images.webofknowledge.com/images/help/WOS/A_abrvjt.html
  • Hi all,
    I made a custom abbreviations.json file (https://we.tl/t-pnzxBXbiOE) and dropped it in the Data directory; my bibliography Styles are using form="short", but regardless if I check or uncheck the "use Medline abbreviations" option, regardless if in Zotero preferences I have automatic journal abbreviation boolean variable false or true, it doesn't use my abbreviations list... any ideas? very grateful!
    Best,
    Oliver
  • @othornse would you by chance be trying to get abbreviations.json to work with a journal title that contains the word "the"?

    If so, that would be consistent with what I've found at present also.
  • Thanks @dstark - I read your threads (eg https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/388624/#Comment_388624).

    Since previous post, this issue is partially resolved (maybe through zotero update). The custom abbreviations.json file in my zotero data directory is unchanged; it omits all "the" from journal titles; and when my word document preferences are set to "use MEDLINE" then entries in my custom abbreviations.json override the "Journal Abbr." field entry during bibliography creation, so I get what I want in Word. For example, the journal "The Journal of the American Chemical Society" is not given its default Journal Abbrev. entry or MEDLINE standard "J. Am. Chem. Soc." but instead my short form "JACS" like I wanted.

    What still doesn't work is getting these short forms outside Word:

    I went into abbreviations because (1) I use a lot of Quick Copy (cmd+shift+C) e.g. to rename multiple files (datasets etc) associated to each article, and (2) I wanted to allow automatic renaming via Zotfile which would use my short forms (like "JACS") in the file titles: thus eg

    Carroll 2021 (Shi) COCB - Comments on ‘A critical evaluation of probes for cysteine sulfenic acid’ (gspp)
    as
    LastAuthor Year (FirstAuthor) ShortForm - Title (ShortDOI)

    I never worked out how to get the ShortForm used direct from Zotero.

    Any ideas?
  • You currently can't get the automated abbreviations outside the word processor add-ons (and the BBT extension). I'm honestly not sure why Zotero never got around to implementing that.
  • Thanks @adamsmith :/) well, it's still an awesome software. But if it's ever on an update list, please someone give me a bell!
  • @othornse, I could be wrong, but I think I saw in another thread that this is materially related to the issue that's been pending here.
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