No option to retrieve metadata on PDF

dstillman Zotero Team
This discussion was created from comments split from: Not retrieving metadata from PDF.
  • ianhurley
    I've had issues with websites like Academia.edu - when I import the citation or PDF, the metadata is sometimes incomplete. Missing dates, missing text, etc. When I right click the PDF, there is no option to Retrieve PDF metadata - that option simply does not appear in the context menu.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited November 17, 2021
    (Please start new threads for new issues — the thread you posted to was about a different issue. I've moved this to a new thread.)

    "Retrieve Metadata for PDF" is only an option for standalone PDFs. If the PDF is already a child item, you would need to fix the parent item metadata, save from a better source and drag the PDF onto that, or (if you saved a webpage with bad metadata and it's an academic PDF) drag the PDF out and try metadata retrieval instead. See the documentation for more info.

    But note that you generally will get much better quality metadata, and attached PDFs, by saving from publisher sites rather than Academia.edu.
  • ianhurley
    Apologies, and thanks for moving it here.

    Can you suggest the best quality sources of metadata for use with Zotero? Google scholar, of course. Is Research Rabbit any good?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    No, not Google Scholar. Again, you'll get the best quality metadata from publisher sites.
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