Zotero importing book as article from World Health Organization's website

leonardof
http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/97603

This is a book, but Zotero imported it as an article.

I contacted the website maintainer, who checked the metadata and said it was ok. I thought Zotero imported the expected metadata for other documents from World Health Organization's website, but now I'm not sure. E.g., http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/62364 is also imported as an article.

I would like someone more knowledgeable than me to check whether if Zotero is really not importing correctly the metadata. And, if its impotring it correctly, how should I explain to the WHO's site maintainer what is wrong with the metadaata.
  • adamsmith
    we'll take a closer look. There's nothing obvious in the metadata that designates this as a book (and Zotero uses journal article as a fallback), so we might ask (you to ask) the site maintainer to add something, but I'd have to check what the best tag to add would be.

    Alternatively, we could guess this is a book based on the presence of an ISBN -- citation_isbn -- but that's a bit risky.

    I'll get back to you. Thanks for reporting.
  • leonardof
    Thank you!
  • aurimas
    Alternatively, we could guess this is a book based on the presence of an ISBN -- citation_isbn -- but that's a bit risky.
    That's certainly a good guess for a fallback, we should add it.
  • aurimas
    edited August 14, 2014
    I added the fallback for book. The second link looks like a Report to me and there is nothing in the metadata to indicate that it could be a report. Just including citation_technical_report_institution would tip off Zotero that it's a report. Though being more explicit is probably preferred, i.e. any of the following type definitions: dc.type = report, dcterms.type = report, eprints.type = report, eprints.type = techreport
  • leonardof
    Thanks!

    Did you already communicate this to WHO, or should I try to get the message through?
  • aurimas
    No, I have not contacted WHO.
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited October 27, 2014
    Most WHO reports have ISBNs assigned.

    http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/

    Most reports (as opposed to "fact sheets" that can run for many pages) also have a summary version that has a different ISBN, for example:
    http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/summary_report/en/

    Most WHO reports are published in several languages (at least three).

    WHO-published (actual) books are rare and are typically multi-volume sets.

    http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/

    http://www.amazon.com/ICD-10-International-Statistical-Classification/dp/9241544198
  • aurimas
    edited October 27, 2014
    I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to suggest. I'm guessing you're saying that pretending that something with an ISBN is a book is not correct. For a WHO-specific translator, I would agree, but for a general Embedded Metadata translator, I think this is a good compromise (better than capturing the item as a web page)
    Most WHO reports have ISBNs assigned.

    http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/

    Most reports (as opposed to "fact sheets" that can run for many pages) also have a summary version that has a different ISBN, for example:

    http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/summary_report/en/
    But the ISBN is no where on the web page for either of those

    Maybe WHO deserves a translator of its own, but given the quality of metadata that it serves, it's not an easy task. We can put it on the TODO list, but it won't be very high (for me anyway).

    Edit: issue created
  • adamsmith
    I took DWL to just supply some context about what we're dealing with.
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited October 28, 2014
    Exactly. I was only trying to add context to a situation that isn't necessarily straightforward. I don't think having these imported as a book type is a problem.

    Also, each of those linked-to pages provides a link to the pdf. The pdf, after metadata are fetched, includes the ISBN and the import type is a book.

    edit: I doubt that it is currently possible to write a translator for WHO reports.


    There is a problem with the author listings for the item when fetched -- some authors and editors are missing and the institutions of some of the authors are listed as author rather than the actual author names. However, that is the case with the WorldCat records for all WHO publications. This is not a new issue. The data that accompany WHO ISBN registrations has never been very good.

    Many years go, before I found Zotero, there was a discussion of WHO publication metadata problems connected with EndNote.

    edit: I have worked closely with WHO folks from the programs side as well as the publications shop. There is little attention paid to citation metadata contents except for the title of the report. In a way, things are like they were in the late 19th century when everyone already knew the authors of articles because they knew who (lower case) the experts are in the given topic. Authors and editors are listed for most WHO pubs but the names aren't listed prominently.
  • Phonologist
    Hi
    Items like governmental reports (online) often have ISBNs. When I try to enter them manually as Report there is no ISBN field, so I have to list them as "book". Presumably if they have an ISBN it should be included in the citation. Perhaps Report should have an ISBN field if this is now common practice.
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