zotero identifying bioRxiv pdfs as reports, not journal articles

RobinRohwer
When I download a bioRxiv preprint from a pdf, either through the chrome plugin or by dragging and dropping the file, zotero classifies the item type as a "Report." However, when a bioRxiv preprint is downloaded from the main bioRxiv website using the chrome plugin, it is correctly classified as a "Journal Article."

I'm using MacOS Mojave, Zotero 5.0.69 (the current release), and chrome.

Here's an example:
download from main page, get journal article: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/530022v2
download from pdf link (or download the pdf and drag&drop), get report: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/01/25/530022.full.pdf

Thanks Zotero developers for taking a look at this bug!!
  • adamsmith
    That's by design. Report is what we currently use for working papers and preprints. These aren't journal articles.
  • RobinRohwer
    Interesting. In terms of ease of use with zotero, I would still prefer them as journal articles so that bioRxiv shows up as the journal name in my library (instead of blank). Also, a matching item type is required for merging citations once the peer reviewed article is available. In terms of what they are considered by the scientific community (for me, microbial ecology), I routinely see preprints cited, using a journal article citation format, as references in peer reviewed journal articles. So for those 3 reasons I do think zotero should classify them as journal articles.

    In any case, there is still inconsistency in how zotero classifies them.
  • zuphilip
    The inconsistency comes from _their_ metadata using tags for journal articles on the one side and categorizing the items correctly as "preprints" in _their_ crossref data along with minting the DOI on the other side. It would be possible to create an independent translator for bioRxiv and then be consistent. I am not sure, that gives any other advantage to the current state... But it should be clear that not every preprint will also be published in a journal.
  • Olivier_LG
    @adamsmith preprint are not Journal Articles indeed, but there are many other types of items than just Journal articles that are recognized as themselves by Zotero. There are many good reasons to develop the use of preprints in several disciplines (it is already the norm in others): see e.g. https://asapbio.org/ for biology. What are the good reasons not to recognize this movement in Zotero? Why not create a "Preprint" (or rather "ePrint") item type? "Report" accommodates a diversity of items but not so well preprints. Note that some preprints have DOIs, e.g. those in bioRxiv.
  • adamsmith
    We'll likely get some version of a preprint item type in Zotero.
  • daeh
    A preprint item type would be very appreciated!
  • dmilton
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, with an explosion of important information only available in PrePrints, the need for a specific Item type is now critical. Please, put this request on "warp speed" like everything else that is part of the pandemic response. We who are actively working in the scientific response to the new virus urgently need this tool.
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