updating item metadata using identifier (DOI, ISBN, etc.)

fabbraun

It often happens to me that the metadata of an item is not entirely correct but I would have the DOI or ISBN to update with the correct metadata: e.g., a publication that I've added at the time when it was still in preprint stage (when no DOI was available) which has finally been published (for which the DOI is finally available together with the full metadata).

Is there a way to update (parts of) an items metadata using the "magic wand" button (i.e., identifiers such as DOI, ISBN, etc.)?
Currently I always add a new item, move the PDF to the new item and delete the old item. However, this is especially laborious if I have some additional metadata (e.g. tags) associated to the original metadata which I then have to "move" manually.

My feature request would be a button/command that let's you update (parts of) an items metadata using an identifier such as a DOI.

Not sure this is exactly on the same topic but here I have read that "metadata updating is planned": https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/365784#Comment_365784

dstillman

Yes, metadata updating is being actively worked on.

dstillman

Currently I always add a new item, move the PDF to the new item and delete the old item. However, this is especially laborious if I have some additional metadata (e.g. tags) associated to the original metadata which I then have to "move" manually.

@fabbraun: Note, though, that you can just select both items, right-click, and merge them. That's always been the recommended approach in lieu of metadata updating, and why it was never a top priority.

fabbraun

Great, thanks for your prompt reply!
Yes, merging is actually what I usually do...just didn't explain it properly.

SergioERC

Come on... how is it getting the right metadata automatically for each paper not a priority? In Mendeley you can update metadata by just inserting the DOI, it saves soo much time!

dstillman

@SergioERC: Getting the right metadata automatically is a far higher priority in Zotero than it is in Mendeley. We spend a huge amount of time ensuring that Zotero saves high-quality metadata from a vastly wider range of sources. And Mendeley gives junk metadata all the time, including when updating metadata — because of their messy, crowd-sourced data, clicking Update Metadata in Mendeley can completely wipe out an item's metadata and replace it with some other random data. (There's an undo button, at least.)

We've implemented a much more rigorous version of metadata updating, and we're hoping to roll it out soon, after some separate changes to Zotero's types and fields.

For now, as noted above, you can paste a DOI into Add Item by Identifier and then merge the two items.

SergioERC

@dstillman Thanks for the reply. I wasn't unaware of these efforts and it is very much appreciated. Looking forward to these improvements in Zotero!

Simon.Hoeferlin

This sounds super helpful. Pumped for the update!

ricardolinares

is there yet a way to force update the metadata of files on demand in Zotero 6?

adamsmith

not yet, no.

matthew.armstrong

Anyone know if there is there a time frame for when this feature will be rolled out? I've seen posts going back to 2010 requesting this feature... The "create a new entry and merge" is such a poor replacement for this functionality.

adamsmith

Zotero has never provided ETAs for features -- there are a lot of moving parts, and even approximate time frames have proven to be too inaccurate to be useful information.
As per dstillman, this is reasonably close (as in, relevant code already exists), but that could be anything from available in beta next week to some time next year.

matthew.armstrong

Fingers crossed for a beta next week...

jyanggggg

@dstillman, unfortunately, adding a new item with a DOI and merging it with a previous item does not work when trying to update a `Preprint` item metadata by a `Journal Article`. This will result in an error since the two items are not the same type; one is a `Journal Article` while the other is a preprint. Although a Journal Article may have some updated metadata, sometimes important information such as the abstract is only available in the preprint metadata.

DWL-SDCA

A 'preprint' from a service such as ArXiv, an ePub ahead-of-print that is a journal article not yet assigned to a volume/issue aren't the same type. In my opinion these shouldn't be merged. The final published version with complete metadata and the ePub with incomplete metadata probably should be merged.

himhim2001

I think another use case for this feature is to search for erratum which were published after the original article is added to the library.

roadtodream

This is not exactly what you need but may save some time at some level.

https://github.com/RoadToDream/ZotMeta

mironcat

@roadtodream this is exactly the addon I've been dreaming about for many years!