Bibliography not alphabetically ordered

jofontai
Hey,

I use the journal of marketing style and i changed the language to german. also i am working with a mac book pro. Unfortunately the bibliography i added into my word document is not alphabetically ordered anymore, after I swapped some surnames to the front as Zotero mistakenly put the first name to the front. Can someone tell me how to fix this?
Also is there anyway to change the format of the bibliography permanently? For instance if I add spaces between the references they vanish if I refresh.

Thanks in advance
  • adamsmith
    how did you swap those surnames? In Zotero or in the Word document?

    As for permanent changes to the bibliography, really depends what you want to do - the best way is to either adjust the style in Zotero or the adjust the "bibliography" style template in Word depending on what you're fixing.
  • jofontai
    In Zotero via "Edit bibliography"

    I want to add spaces between the references and also I would want to change the text setting into justification. How do I adjust the bibliography style template?
  • jofontai
    oh and thank you for the fast reply :)
  • adamsmith
    If name order isn't correct for an entry, you want to change that in Zotero itself. You can right click on the "Author" (or "Autor" if you're using the German version) label and select move up/down for the order of authors.
    If the sort order isn't correct for the bibliography for an existing citation style let us know and we may be able to fix it.
    After clicking "refresh" this should take effect.

    For the bibliography style template see here:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/word_default_font
  • jofontai
    ah okay I will try that. So it should look like this in zotero, right?
    author: surname, first name

    I managed to change the format of the bibliography and also starter to put the names in zotero in the right order, but if I refresh now all my manual changes in the bibliography are gone. Why is that? Can I prevent it?

    Thank you!
  • adamsmith
    no, manual changes in the bibliography will be overwritten on Refresh. The idea is that you don't touch your bibliography - if need be you can do that all the way at the end, but if you want the bibliography to continue updating - e.g. when you add new Zotero items etc. - you're best off not editing it manually.
  • jofontai
    oh thats too bad, although I did it before an the bibliography kept my manual changes?! Also Zotero makes several other mistakes, which I wanted to correct right away. Is there no way to change the bibliography while working manually and lastingly?

    Could you tell me please whether it is supposed to look like this in Zotero?
    author: surname, first name
  • adamsmith
    yes,
    surname, first name is correct.

    If Zotero makes mistakes the place to fix them is really either in the item data or in the citation style. Editing the bibliography is an absolute last resort. What types of mistakes are we talking?
  • jofontai
    references for books are supposed to looks like this:

    Manning, Gerald L., Reece, Barry L. und Ahearne, Michael (2009), Selling Today. Up-per Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

    References for journal articles are supposed to look like this:

    Lam, Son K., Kraus, Florian und Ahearne, Michael (2010), “The Diffusion of Market Orientation Throughout the Organization: A Social Learning Theory Perspective,” Journal of Marketing, 74 (5), 61-79.

    Citations should look like this:
    (Rao, Qu, und Rueckert 1999, S.259).

    Mistakes by zotero:
    sometimes there are no brackets around the year. also sometimes there are dots instead of commas. In addition it should not display the edition, which it sometimes does.

    I don´t mind changing these errors plus I don´t know whether some of these "errors" are actually part of the style. Nevertheless that is the style I was told by my university and I don´t know any better style, which I could use. So it would be great to know how to change the bibliography.
  • jofontai
    Manual changes in citations do not change if you refresh, right?
  • adamsmith
    which word processor?
  • jofontai
    I use microsoft word.

    It might be the case that the dots instead of brackets are part of the style
  • adamsmith
    If you use Chicago style (which this looks like otherwise) yes, dots instead of brackets is what you'd expect.

    With Word edits to citations shouldn't overwrite, no, though it may ask you to pick when a refresh would change the citation otherwise.
  • jofontai
    Okay, so what do you suggest I do know?
    I can fix the name order in zotero, but the errors in the bibliography will still appear, Zotero keeps mixing up the order of first and last name. And both for the style journal of marketing and for the chicago style I receive dots instead of brackets.
  • adamsmith
    What I'd recommend doing is either to adjust the citation style
    http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/citation_styles/style_editing_step-by-step
    or to finish whatever you're working on and do any citation fixes last.
  • neutral
    edited April 2, 2015
    I have several authors who have von, van, al-, abu- as prefixes in their last names. Zotero ignores these parts of the last name, and list them according to the letters that follow these prefixes. The bibliography ends up not being alphabetical.

    Currently, I have a bibliography that looks like this:

    Baer, F.
    Bsjdjbfe, E.
    Von Btetjb, G.
    Btfserb, R.
    Al-Buert, D

    I also have some out of order last names. For instance, Fishbein comes in front of Fish.

    I am using a style I adjusted from the Chicago Manual.

    I need the last names with prefixes where they alphabetically belong. Is there a way to fix it.
  • adamsmith
    Is this with the current version of Zotero? I can't replicate any of this in the Chicago Manual style except for the Fishbein/Fish issue.
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