Some abstracts from pubmed truncated

When importing citations from PubMed some of the longer abstracts are truncated. Is there a way to change this to enable the entire abstract to be imported?
  • Please provide examples.

    Know that Oxford University Press journal articles' abstracts (in their metadata) are 'pre-truncated' by the publisher at a specified number of characters.
  • I saved this txt pubmed file: ( I have inserted several lines of space at the point where the abstract gets cut off.)


    PMID- 31642559
    OWN - NLM
    STAT- MEDLINE
    DCOM- 20200225
    LR - 20200421
    IS - 1365-2184 (Electronic)
    IS - 0960-7722 (Print)
    IS - 0960-7722 (Linking)
    VI - 53
    IP - 1
    DP - 2020 Jan
    TI - Withaferin A triggers G2/M arrest and intrinsic apoptosis in glioblastoma cells via
    ATF4-ATF3-CHOP axis.
    PG - e12706
    LID - 10.1111/cpr.12706 [doi]
    LID - e12706
    AB - OBJECTIVE: Withaferin A (WA) is a bioactive compound with a remarkable anti-cancer
    effect derived from Withania somnifera, commonly known as ashwagandha. However, the
    anti-cancer mechanisms of WA in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are still unclear.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cell viability assays and xenografted nude mice were used to
    evaluate the effects of WA, along with flow cytometry to detect apoptosis and cell
    cycle of GBM. RNA-seq analysis, Western blotting, immunofluorescence staining,
    qRT-PCR and siRNA gene silencing were carried out to determine the signalling
    pathways affected by WA. RESULTS: Withaferin A significantly inhibited the growth of
    GBM in vitro and in vivo and triggered the intrinsic apoptosis of GBM cells by
    up-regulating expression of Bim and Bad. WA arrested GBM cells at the G2/M phase of
    the cell cycle through dephosphorylating Thr(161) of CDK1 by activating
    p53-independent p21 up-regulation. Knockdown of p21 restored cell cycle progression
    and cell viability by down-regulating the expression of Bad rather than Bim. We
    demonstrated that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress induced by WA through the



    ATF4-ATF3-CHOP axis, initiated apoptosis and G2/M arrest in GBM cells. CONCLUSION:
    We revealed a novel pathway that elucidated WA activation of apoptosis and G2/M
    arrest in GBM cells through the ATF4-ATF3-CHOP axis. This discovery is important for
    optimization of WA-based regimens for prevention and/or treatment of GBM.
    CI - © 2019 The Authors. Cell Proliferation Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
    FAU - Tang, Qin
    AU - Tang Q
    AD - The State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substance and Function of Natural Medicines,
    Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union
    Medical College, Beijing, China.
    AD - Key Laboratory of Drug Target Research and Drug Screen, Institute of Materia Medica,
    Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
    FAU - Ren, Liwen
    AU - Ren L
    AD - The State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substance and Function of Natural Medicines,
    Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union
    Medical College, Beijing, China.
    AD - Key Laboratory of Drug Target Research and Drug Screen, Institute of Materia Medica,
    Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
    FAU - Liu, Jinyi
    AU - Liu J
    AD - The State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substance and Function of Natural Medicines,
    Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union
    Medical College, Beijing, China.
    AD - Key Laboratory of Drug Target Research and Drug Screen, Institute of Materia Medica,
    Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
    FAU - Li, Wan
    AU - Li W
    AD - The State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substance and Function of Natural Medicines,
    Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union
    Medical College, Beijing, China.
    AD - Key Laboratory of Drug Target Research and Drug Screen, Institute of Materia Medica,
    Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
    FAU - Zheng, Xiangjin
    AU - Zheng X
    AD - The State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substance and Function of Natural Medicines,
    Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union
    Medical College, Beijing, China.
    AD - Key Laboratory of Drug Target Research and Drug Screen, Institute of Materia Medica,
    Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
    FAU - Wang, Jinhua
    AU - Wang J
    AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-8367-0787
    AD - The State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substance and Function of Natural Medicines,
    Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union
    Medical College, Beijing, China.
    AD - Key Laboratory of Drug Target Research and Drug Screen, Institute of Materia Medica,
    Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
    FAU - Du, Guanhua
    AU - Du G
    AD - The State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substance and Function of Natural Medicines,
    Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union
    Medical College, Beijing, China.
    AD - Key Laboratory of Drug Target Research and Drug Screen, Institute of Materia Medica,
    Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
    LA - eng
    GR - 2018ZX09711001-005-025/Technology Major Projects for "Major New Drugs Innovation and
    Development"/
    GR - 81573454/National Natural Science Foundation of China/
    GR - 81703536/National Natural Science Foundation of China/
    GR - 81703565/National Natural Science Foundation of China/
    GR - 81803584/National Natural Science Foundation of China/
    GR - 2016-I2M-3-007/CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences/
    GR - 2018M640093/China Postdoctoral Science Foundation/
    PT - Journal Article
    DEP - 20191023
    TA - Cell Prolif
    JT - Cell proliferation
    JID - 9105195
    RN - 0 (ATF3 protein, human)
    RN - 0 (ATF4 protein, human)
    RN - 0 (Activating Transcription Factor 3)
    RN - 0 (DDIT3 protein, human)
    RN - 0 (Neoplasm Proteins)
    RN - 0 (Withanolides)
    RN - 145891-90-3 (Activating Transcription Factor 4)
    RN - 147336-12-7 (Transcription Factor CHOP)
    RN - L6DO3QW4K5 (withaferin A)
    SB - IM
    MH - Activating Transcription Factor 3/*metabolism
    MH - Activating Transcription Factor 4/*metabolism
    MH - Animals
    MH - Cell Line, Tumor
    MH - G2 Phase Cell Cycle Checkpoints/*drug effects
    MH - Glioblastoma/*drug therapy/metabolism/pathology
    MH - Humans
    MH - M Phase Cell Cycle Checkpoints/*drug effects
    MH - Mice
    MH - Mice, Nude
    MH - Neoplasm Proteins/genetics/*metabolism
    MH - Signal Transduction/*drug effects
    MH - Transcription Factor CHOP/*metabolism
    MH - Withanolides/*pharmacology
    MH - Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
    PMC - PMC6985693
    OTO - NOTNLM
    OT - apoptosis
    OT - cell cycle
    OT - endoplasmic reticulum
    OT - glioblastoma
    OT - unfolded protein response
    COIS- The authors declare no conflicts of interest that pertain to this work.
    EDAT- 2019/10/24 06:00
    MHDA- 2020/02/26 06:00
    CRDT- 2019/10/24 06:00
    PHST- 2019/07/07 00:00 [received]
    PHST- 2019/08/28 00:00 [revised]
    PHST- 2019/09/20 00:00 [accepted]
    PHST- 2019/10/24 06:00 [pubmed]
    PHST- 2020/02/26 06:00 [medline]
    PHST- 2019/10/24 06:00 [entrez]
    AID - CPR12706 [pii]
    AID - 10.1111/cpr.12706 [doi]
    PST - ppublish
    SO - Cell Prolif. 2020 Jan;53(1):e12706. doi: 10.1111/cpr.12706. Epub 2019 Oct 23.
  • The same thing happens whether I use import or import from clipboard.
  • edited June 18, 2020
    The import process for that PubMed record provides a complete abstract for me when I use the Zotero icon in my browser bar and also when I use the magic wand to bring the metadata into Zotero.

    Please provide information about your Zotero version, browser and your operating system so that the experts here may offer help. Sorry that I could not be of more help.

    [I tested your issue because I perform a daily extensive PubMed search that is an essential part of my work. I import selected records from the search results into my Zotero. Any new problem with PubMed imports would require me to take action.]
  • In addition to Zotero version, could you say how exactly you're importing, especially if that's not via the Save to Zotero button in the browser extension?
  • I just encountered the same problem with a Pubmed text file, which I imported using the import function from the file menu, as well as the import from clipboard function. Some abstracts are complete and some are truncated. I added some screenshots to my github gist.
    https://gist.github.com/michi-zuri/5750a395438492c6c32e30d667fa4174
    Zotero version: 5.0.89
    OS: macOS 10.13.6

  • This happens when lines in the abstract start with capital letters similar to Pubmed fields. We can try to see if we can fix this, but if at all possible I'd suggest using either Pubmed's XMLs, pubmed ID's, or Zotero's web importer to import these
  • edited August 8, 2020
    I see, im­­porting the PMIDs with the magic wand worked fine just now, thanks.
  • Ticket create here: https://github.com/zotero/translators/issues/2224
    If you could please leave the gist in place so we have some sample data for testing a fix.
  • Many thanks for opening the issue. Importing a batch of 1000 PMIDs through Zotero is rather slow in comparison to importing a file with all the content, so a solution would be great to have.

    To be able to use my file anyway for now I found the following workaround inserting a soft hyphen before capital letters on new lines:

    Open the file in atom code editor and find+replace with the following regex
    find: (^ )([A-Z][A-Z])
    replace with: $1\u00AD$2

    (except that atom does not support unicode characters, so you'd need to find a soft hyphen somewhere and copy/paste it to replace \u00AD in the above example.

    After this, the newlines start with a soft hyphen instead of a set of capital letters and the abstracts (and titles and whatever other fields are affected) will not truncate anymore.
  • The ticket https://github.com/zotero/translators/issues/2224 is fixed now, so importing Pubmed citation files should not truncate fields anymore during import.

    The problem occured specifically when a line in the import file did not start with a field tag, but still started with a capital letter or a number AND if that line also contained a hyphen. The whitespace that those wrapped lines contained was ignored. The fix now only considers subsequent lines as new fields if it doesn't start with whitespace.

    @adamsmith : can you advice how users can benefit from the fix in the near future? Is any action required to update the translator file or will this be handled automatically? Does it depend on the Zotero version at all?
  • Zotero translators automatically update for all users within 24hs; no action needed (Versions of Zotero before 5.0 don't receive any updates of any kind, but hopefully most people aren't using those)
Sign In or Register to comment.