Feature request - Flag duplicates on import

ithinkiam

Hi,

Long, long time user of Zotero and it's the best! Great job to all involved.

One feature that would be really useful would be for the zotero browser plugin to flag duplicates upon import. Many a time I find a really interesting paper, add the citation to zotero and then later find out that it was already there.

All it needs to do is say that an entry with the same/similar title already exists and give the user the option to continue or stop. Ideally it would be even better to have the option to update/replace the entry as for many preprints or "advance access" papers the citation details change as it gets formally published in a particular edition of a journal.

Thanks

adamsmith

"Preflight duplicate detection" or so has long been planned and there's an open ticket -- you're very much not the only person requesting it, but it turns out to be tricky given both the way the browser connector works with Zotero and the many ways Zotero allows import.

Ability to update existing items is also planned and I'd guess that'll happen earlier.

gpatten

An additional problem might also be that Zotero often flags items with identical titles as duplicates. Zotero’s citation behaviour expects reviews, for example, to have the same titles as the works they deal with (adding ‘review of’ if there is a reviewed author), but this causes the review to be flagged as a duplicate of the work (so that my duplicates folder is full of pairs of this kind). Having this show up on import would be irritating.

ithinkiam

Thanks @adamsmith - I'll look forward to the update ;)

I guess the option could be toggled by the user to avoid irritating users where duplicate entries is normal behaviour., like @gpatten.

rcoreilly

Major thumbs up to this request -- this is the single biggest issue with our usage now -- proliferation of dupes because people don't check before adding.