Saved Search by Creator Type

parhamj

I have a large collection of citations and many of the creators have multiple roles. For instance, Harald Ludwig is a book editor, an author, and a translator. I want to be able to setup a Saved Search where I can identify where Ludwig (or other creator) is an Author as opposed to another role --> where creator.firstName = Harald AND creator.lastName = Ludwig AND creator.creatorType = Author.

I want this so that I can perform bulk cataloging/description of these entries using Zutilo. Is there currently a way to achieve this in the desktop app?

dstillman

Sorry, that's not currently possible. You can only search across all creator types.

parhamj

@dstillman Thanks for the reply. Any chance this more granular search could be incorporated into a future update?

johnkingeu

I'd like to add to this by suggesting that 'Author' and 'Book Author' be added to the list of fields available to search (in addition to 'Creator').

If I am searching for book chapters by a particular author, Zotero returns unexpected results because it returns book chapters in books edited by that author but where the chapter is authored by someone else.

dstillman

We've added separate search conditions for "Author", "Book Author", and "Editor" in the latest Zotero 6 beta.

johnkingeu

That's excellent, quick work, thank you!

One thing to have on a long term wish list might be nesting of variables in the advanced search, to demonstrate visually how Creator contains Author, Book Author, and Editor. E.g.:

Creator
–Author
-Book Author
-Editor

This might be useful for other variables too.