Journal not importing to Publication with Zotero and Better Bibtex from ADS citation

adphoward

I have Zotero and Better Bibtex. When I try to import a citation from a NASA/ADS paper citation, the journal (or abbreviated journal) does not import into the publication slot. This is leaving 90% of my citations without journals.

Here is an example citation

@ARTICLE{2019MNRAS.489..962H,
author = {{Howard}, A.~D.~P. and {Whitworth}, A.~P. and {Marsh}, K.~A. and {Clarke}, S.~D. and {Griffin}, M.~J. and {Smith}, M.~W.~L. and {Lomax}, O.~D.},
title = "{L1495 revisited: a PPMAP view of a star-forming filament}",
journal = {\mnras},
keywords = {stars: formation, dust, extinction, ISM: structure, submillimetre: ISM, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies},
year = 2019,
month = oct,
volume = {489},
number = {1},
pages = {962-976},
doi = {10.1093/mnras/stz2234},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
eprint = {1908.02295},
primaryClass = {astro-ph.GA},
adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019MNRAS.489..962H},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}


Any thoughts?

adamsmith

The journal imports using Zotero's stock bibtex translator, so you should report that on BBT's github issue tracker, the developer much prefers handling error reports there.

dstillman

Does this have anything to do with Better BibTeX? Isn't the issue just that @adphoward is trying to manually import the BibTeX from the site, which has {\mnras} in the journal field (as shown above), rather than using the Save to Zotero button?

If you try to import the above BibTeX, the stock BibTeX translator will put {\mnras} into the Publication field, because what else could it do? That macro isn't available. It's just that, when you use the save button the Embedded Metadata translator gets the journal from the metadata, where it's provided in full. (It looks like our NASA/ADS translator is currently broken after a site change, but the embedded metadata is solid.)

@adphoward, is there a reason you're trying to import the BibTeX instead of using the save button?

dstillman

(This would only have something to do with Better BibTeX if BBT is supposed to provide macros for common journal names. I don't know if that's the case. But no BibTeX processor without that would be able to import the journal name from the above entry.)

adphoward

I am not using the zotero browser plugin, so dont have the save button. I can go to ADS, copy the citation (as above) and then I am using the import from clipboard function in the desktop app.

I have had... compatibility issues between online zotero and latex (especially the overleaf integration) and I absolutely need better bibtex due to the custom citation key formatting it provides, as well as a couple of other features.

With that in mind, as you say, it should still put \mnras into the Publication field, but it does not. The publication field is blank after import from clipboard. The same happens if I use the smart importer and the archive ID.

Ideally, I DO want \mnras to end up in the publication field in zotero, because then when I generate the full .bib entry, they will (hopefully) end up exactly like that there too. And once in my tex document, I have macros that handle the expansion from journal command to journal name. I dont need Zotero to expand the journals for me, NOR do I need it to place the journal entries into journal abbreviation.

This issue seems more fundamental, and unfortunately, affects hundreds of papers as the astro community are hell bent on replacing journal names with latex commands, and this is for a thesis, referencing hundreds of papers.

dstillman

I am not using the zotero browser plugin, so dont have the save button.

Why are you not using the Zotero Connector? If you're using Zotero, you want to be using the Zotero Connector to save to it. That's kind of the point of Zotero.

I have had... compatibility issues between online zotero and latex

What's "online zotero"? The web library doesn't have anything to do with this. If you mean the Zotero Connector, that's not "online", and it's a core part of Zotero.

With that in mind, as you say, it should still put \mnras into the Publication field, but it does not. The publication field is blank after import from clipboard.

That's a BBT issue, then. With the stock BibTeX translator it gets imported as is.

I dont need Zotero to expand the journals for me, NOR do I need it to place the journal entries into journal abbreviation.

For what it's worth, this isn't how Zotero is meant to be used. Zotero isn't a BibTeX manager. It's designed to import correct metadata for you as much as possible, and that's what it will do when used as intended. What you do with that data outside of Zotero — or when you use plugins like BBT to export— is a separate matter.

Note that Zotero regularly cleans up errors in metadata provided by sites, so you're going to get worse metadata when manually importing BibTeX instead of using the save button.

emilianoeheyns

If you do want to import that, BBT will (with some help from you) expand things like \mnras into Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on import. Writing out \mnras on export is possible using a postscript. But as @dstillman says, if you want a pure-bibtex manager, Zotero won't be it. Jabref might be more to your liking. But I write almost exclusively latex, and for me Zotero works better than JabRef.