Two questions: show first names and how to prevent "fixing" of entries

va1984

I'm dipping my toes in Zotero after a long absence.
Two things immediately caught my eye:
one, the (desktop) app seems to take it upon itself to automatically "fix" entries in my 1k+ items library. Needless to say, in so doing it makes things worse: I had painstakingly checked every entry in Bookends, because the information on the web is often trash (I'm in the humanities...). Is there a way to prevent the app from changing anything at all in my database without my explicit consent?
two, the 'creator' field is kind of funny. Is there really no option to see first names on the main page? and what about other authors? In particular, I need to be able to spot cases where an author's first name has been lost, resulting in, say, Attridge D and Attridge Derek as two separate entries. Is there any workaround in Zotero to do that?

dstillman

the (desktop) app seems to take it upon itself to automatically "fix" entries in my 1k+ items library

Not sure what you're talking about. Zotero doesn't change your data on its own. If you're referring to an import from another program, that depends on the data format you used, so we'd need more details to tell you more.

Is there really no option to see first names on the main page?

In the items list? No. You can obviously sort by Creator and just use down-arrow to look through all the names.

va1984

Yes, I'm referring to an import based on a .bib file (from Bookends).

dstillman

We'd need to see an example entry. Open the .bib file in TextEdit and copy one of the entries that came through incorrectly, and explain what was wrong about it.

va1984

Ok, I'll redo the process as soon as I can, and I'll make sure I identify one or two examples. But in the meantime, I guess my question is whether or not Zotero tries to "autocomplete" or update the information it gets via a .bib file during import (for example using the DOI)? Or is it supposed to just flatly present what is given to it in the .bib file?
I'm just trying to to understand how it works. Thanks!

dstillman

You don't need to redo anything at this point — we just need to see an example entry from the .bib and for you to say what's wrong with the imported item.

An import just imports what's in the file. That's it.

DWL-SDCA

I suspect that Bookends is exporting curiously flawed metadata in the .bib. Sharing the requested examples might allow the Zotero experts to fix your problem (without much, if any, editing on your part).

va1984

Nothing wrong with the Bookends metadata, I looked though it in a text editor and have also used the same for imports to JabRef. I *think* this may be a false alarm - it's possible I just used an outdated copy of the .bib file and then thought that Zotero was automatically re-filling in data on the basis of the DOI that I had purposely eliminated from the record (and which would not be there in the latest .bib export). But I can't get it to happen again so I'll provisionally accept that it was my fault and I barked at nothing. I'll add here if it turns out otherwise.

As for the curious strictness of the way the "creator" field works on the main page -- well, I see that has been brought up several times in the last few years. It seems a shame, to be honest, not to have a few more options to customize what is shown in the main list page. That being said, I see that the platform is progressing at great speed, I love the new editor, I would happy give up my lunch in return for a chance to try the iOS beta, etc. So I'm not dissing Zotero in general at all -- in fact, I'm on the cusp of moving back into it after ~5 years at Bookends. But to not see anything beyond the "creator"'s last name on the main page is a little baffling. Just my 2c.

dstillman

It's your data, but for what it's worth, we strongly recommend against removing DOIs. It's the single most important piece of bibliographic info, both for readers locating sources and for tools like Zotero being able to perform additional functions later — e.g., retraction notification, open-access PDF retrieval, and, yes, (manually triggered) metadata updating.

rschine

Could you not put "adding the author first name" on your list of future updates? I have several discreet authors with identical last names, authors of multiple works, and yet appear to be identical in the main library list.

tim820

Re OP @va1984 's additional request to be able to cleanup same creators' first names entered in inconsistent ways, those can be found in other ways than via the main window creator list. There are two sets of code in the thread below, to get an alphabetical list of all creators either (1) in a whole library or (2) in a single collection. Just be sure to use the ORDER BY lastName ASC version to get an alphabetical listing by last name (instead of by creators' item counts). Inconsistent entries are then obvious in that list.
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/77813/get-a-count-of-authors-in-your-library