Authors and dates are not collected in my library

vdelafuente4
I imagine there is an easy solution for changing settings to make Zotero include dates of the publication and the author, but I cant figure it out. A select few articles in my library show up automatically with the author(s) and dates, but the majority I have to add in myself. Ideas?? Thanks!!
  • adamsmith
    how are you importing those items into Zotero
  • vdelafuente4
    When I see the zotero icon in my browser i import the document like that, or if it isn't there, I right click on the document and click zotero, then "create web page from current page". Thanks or helping out!
  • adamsmith
    For the latter category of papers - i.e. anything where you used "Create web page item..." you'll need to import most of the information, including, normally, both author and date, yourself.

    Items you imported with the URL bar icon should almost always have a date and author. If you have examples (URL) where that's not the case we can take a look.
  • vdelafuente4
    Gotcha. A good amount of the papers I want to add to my library don't have the option of importing from the URL, especially PDF's, so I guess I will have to do the leg work. ALSO, Do you know in the case of PDF's in cases where the metadata cant be retrieved how to add info manually. The right column where you add info is MIA... I want to be able to of course connect my bibliography in my document with all of Zotero documents, but I can't do this with many of the PDF's that cant be manually updated.
  • adamsmith
    when retrieve metadata fails, use right-click --> Create Parent Item and then enter the information manually
  • vdelafuente4
    This is so helpful, thank you Adam!!
  • adamsmith
    I'd be curious about some of the items where you don't get a URL bar icon, especially if they're academic articles. Do you have a couple of URLs?
  • vdelafuente4
    Here is one:
    http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/fracking_old_story_new_threat_0.pdf

    here is another:
    https://nicholas.duke.edu/cgc/HydraulicFracturingWhitepaper2011.pdf

    These are also examples where I couldn't retrieve the metadata.
  • adamsmith
    edited March 19, 2014
    Thanks for those examples - looks like you're doing everything right.
    Reports and grey literature often require manual entry.

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