Number of citations, starring

lalhee
Hello,
First of all, thank you for Zotero!!

I use Zotero to search the state-of-the-art and often gather a lot of articles before actually starting reading them. To help me prioritize articles to read, it would be nice if I could have access to the number of citations of each article, possibly in an additional field. The number of citations is pretty helpful in Google Scholar to help spot influencial papers and it would be nice if Zotero integrated this feature as well.
Also, for the same purpose of classifying/prioritizing papers, a little "starring" feature would be nice. It would really help explore one's library.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.
  • adamsmith
    for the second request, there are color coded tags in the next version that will come out in a week. You can use one of them in lieu of a star.

    There is a google citations plugin for Zotero, though it uses the call-number field, which isn't necessarily recommended.
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/zotero-scholar-citations/
  • megan.reif
    Does this work in the Standalone version?
  • Gracile
    Zotero Scholar citations does not work with Z Standalone (at the moment - I don't know if there are any plans to make it compatible).
  • beloglazov
    edited April 7, 2013
    Zotero Scholar Citations supports Zotero Standalone since version 1.8. Full details and installation instructions are given here: https://github.com/beloglazov/zotero-scholar-citations

    Regarding the Call Number field: if there is a way to add custom columns in the recent versions of Zotero, I'm ready to update the add-on to make use of that instead of the Call Number field. If it's available, please let me know where I can find documentation on that.
  • adamsmith
    The Extra field is now available as a column - that's likely a better option. Custom fields aren't available in Zotero and won't be anytime soon.
  • beloglazov
    Thanks for the information! I'll update the add-on to use the Extra field.
  • beloglazov
    I've switched the field from Call Number to Extra in version 1.8 of the add-on. It's currently under review on addons.mozilla.org, but already available from:

    https://github.com/beloglazov/zotero-scholar-citations/raw/master/builds/zotero-scholar-citations-1.8-fx.xpi
  • dstillman
    beloglazov: Are you using a prefix of some sort (e.g., "Num Citations:") so that the data remains meaningful and can be migrated later? You should. This is done currently for things that don't yet have dedicated fields like PubMed IDs, which are saved to Extra as "PMID: [...]".
  • beloglazov
    Thanks for the suggestion, Dan! I've added a "Cited by" prefix to the number of citations.
  • dstillman
    Great, thanks.
  • MarTex
    First of all: thanks for a great plugin!

    Yet, I think I'll criticise the change of now writing the call number in the "extra" field. I understand this has been requested to enable vieweing it in a column (which is certainly interesting), but I find the overwriting of the previous information in the "extra" field a terrible (and kind of dangerous) idea. I think a tool should not introduce such a risk of loosing information, and this does! It took me a while to notice and luckily I didn't "batch-update" my references.
    Wouldn't it be possible to...:
    a) Add the call number string without overwriting the previous information? (at the beginning or at the end of the field)
    b)Provide some kind of settings menu or file to define the desired behaviour?
    c) If not, provide separate plugin files, one keeping the "old" behaviour?

    By now, I think I'm switching back to v1.7 :-(

    Best regards, and in any case, thanks for your work!

    Martin
  • MarTex
    Ok... I just discovered that 1.7 is incompatible with the current Zotero release. So either I downgrade my Zotero, or play the "overwriting-risk" game... *sigh*... sadly I think I'll remove the plugin

    I also just saw that I'm not the only one "unhappy" (not in a bad way ;-) with this issue, and that in fact you are aware of it and thinking of changing it and introducing a configuration option. That would be great!
  • beloglazov
    Hi Martin,

    Thanks for your feedback and suggestions. Yes, I'm planning to add a configuration option to allow people to select the field they want to use for storing citations. Unfortunately, I haven't had time yet to work on the plugin. I'll try to do it in the nearest future.

    Best regards,
    Anton
  • dstillman
    beloglazov: Your decision, obviously, but I'd recommend just fixing it to not overwrite existing content in Extra but leaving that as the only option. As noted above, this is somewhat of a convention (e.g., "PMID:"), and it will mean that if Zotero gains extra fields data can be automatically migrated to the proper places. As long as you're not overwriting Extra I'm not sure what the downside is — by letting people choose different locations you're essentially just letting them create permanent invalid data in other fields.
  • beloglazov
    edited December 16, 2013
    I've just updated the plugin, it's currently under review but can be downloaded from https://github.com/beloglazov/zotero-scholar-citations/raw/master/builds/zotero-scholar-citations-1.8.5-fx.xpi

    I've changed the logic of updating the Extra field:
    - if it's empty, the number of citations is set
    - if it's non-empty but only contains the number of citations, the number of citations is updated
    - if it's non-empty and contains data other than the number of citations, the number of citations is prepended to the existing data

    This way the existing data do not get overwritten, and the option for selecting the field is not required.
  • MarTex
    That's great! Thanks for your effort, I think many people, including myself, will very much appreciate it.
    Best regards!
    Martin
  • phsoh
    HI, I have a question about adding an item in the Zotero group library collection page so that the google scholar citation count (obtained through Firefox plugin under "extra" in Zotero Firefox) can be synced.

    I browsed through the forums but didn't find anything relevant other than installing the plugin for Zotero standalone and Zotero firefox. Can someone help please?

    Thank you in advance.
  • WalterJonas
    Anything new on this?
    I was just asking myself the exact same initial question and wasnt able to find something.
  • adamsmith
    My initial answer basically still holds, except that now the google scholar citations add-on works on Standalone and colored tags have been in stable Zotero for years.
  • WalterJonas
    Thanks, running smooth! Nice to have this info on once glance, but a pity when you used to use the extra field for some other info...
  • adamsmith
    I think it shouldn't overwrite other info, but I'm not certain.
  • bwiernik
    It adds the citation count to the top of Extra, moving any existing content to the next line.
  • banchan
    Has anybody else been able to get this to work on the zotero beta 5.0?
  • adamsmith
    "This" being google scholar citations? (Do take the time to specify, please, especially when posting in a thread with >10 posts)
  • banchan
    oh yes sorry haha i downloaded the link to google scholar citations and tried to install it in the latest zotero standalone beta 5 via the add plugin menu but the installation failed. Wondering if it needs to be updated by the author
  • bwiernik
    The plugin hasn't been updated to permit installation on Zotero 5.0. It's entirely likely that the plugin would still work, but just hasn't had its installation file changed to say that Zotero 5.0 is compatible. You could try to download the source code and change it yourself.

    Change the "maxVersion" line for "zotero@chnm.gmu.edu" here:
    https://github.com/beloglazov/zotero-scholar-citations/blob/master/install.rdf

    to "5.0.x", then put all of the files in a .zip folder, and change the extension to .xpi.


  • Gurdas_Sandhu
    Tagging the developer just in case, @beloglazov
  • banchan
    just tried it thanks for the detailed instructions, it installs fine, but couldn't get the plugin to retrieve the number of citations, so I guess some work under the hood is required.
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