Upgrade StorageCombining author/creator names
If this has already been answered, just let me know, but so far I haven't found the answer. In other biblio software I can combine author names so when I do a search I don't have to search for 3 different things to find all publications by one author (F. Lastname, F. M. Lastname, F. M Lastname). Is there any way to do that in Zotero?
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There is hope. Search the forums for ORCID, then visit http://about.orcid.org/
ORCID is run by a not-for-profit group that involves many of the big journal and book publishers, operators of bibliographic databases and others. Thompson-reuters has donated all rights to their ResearcherID project as well as software engineer time to assist with transferring all things ResearcherID to ORCID. Those who have a ResearcherID will have their record moved to the ORCID project. Others will be able to sign up for their ORCID late fall of this year. At least at first, there will be no cost to authors and if things go as planned there will never be a cost.
There is already great buy-in from powerful forces. No later than 1-1-2013 PubMed, Scopus, eiCompendex, Web of Science/Knowledge, will all provide author ORCIDs with their metadata. That is, for the authors who have one.
I know of two major publishers that plan to _require_ all manuscript authors to have ORCIDs.
My own university is considering requiring that all faculty obtain ORCIDs. It is rumored that the U.S. National Institutes of Health and several government agencies will change the requirement that PIs have a CV with a publications list to a requirement that they submit their ORCID and not a publications list. (For those who don't already know, applicants must establish files of their credentials with the agencies well before making application. Those files are expected to be kept up to date through regular revisions.)
Mendeley and EndNote have already announced that their software will include a provision for ORCIDs. Zotero is unlikely to be far behind. Clearly, there is considerable interest among the decision-makers.
The main problem may be that at first ORCIDs will only be assigned to active authors. That can soon change. My colleagues with the American Library Association (at least those who like me obcess about improving database queries) are talking about proposing a concensus process to properly assign publications to ORCIDs for authors who are no longer living.