Upgrade StorageAdd "Editor" under Creator for Web Page
I am trying to cite a web page which has editors for the whole website and authors for the writers of individual pages. However, the only fields which come up in Zotero / Web Page are Author, Contributor and Translator. Is there any way to add fields?
But new fields will be added to zotero 5.0 (no ETA, though). Adding Editor role to Web Page hasn't been discussed extensively, but there's this old post from Dan (zotero developer).
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/be-an-astronaut-nasa-seeks-explorers-for-future-space-missions
(Sidenote: Zotero also incorrectly concluded that the editor was the author, and missed all the actual authors completely.)
(As for import, Zotero just picks up what's in the page metadata:
<meta name="dc.creator" content="Karen Northon" /> is the only relevant tag)
Supposing the other names are merely press contacts, it becomes all the more important to get it right that Karen Northon is editor. Allowing for the possibility that the other names are authors (in addition to being the press contacts), then, well, Karen Northon needs to be listed as editor to make sure everybody is credited (and contacted) appropriately. So, either way, Karen Northon should really be listed as editor when considered from a pragmatism-based point of view.
Also, from an idealism-based point of view, just having the records be accurate should be reason enough. We do not need to speculate if Karen Northon is author or not because we are explicitly told her relationship to the work, and having an accurate record of this requires that she be listed as such.
{:editor: Last||First}to the “Extra” field. Repeat for multiple editors:{:editor: Last||First} {:editor: Last2||First2}For the Zotero developers, I was sort of hoping that adding "Editor" for websites would be something they could do in less than a minute and then just roll out with the next version. By commenting here, I wanted to help show that this is wanted. By providing a link to a real-life example in my comment, I hoped to also show that the demand is based on an actual need. :)
(I'm fine with adding the editor field for web pages, btw., but as someone who knows a lot about proper citation practices--I literally own a collection of style guides--I'll still point out that adding Ms. Northon as an editor to a citation of a Nasa press release is bad practice: Citations of primary material like press releases have two purposes - making it easy to retrieve&check cited work and giving the reader a sense of what it is that's being cited. By attributing a Nasa press release to the specific Nasa staffer who was in charge of it, you're not helping with the former and, I would argue, interfering with the latter. See e.g. http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/09/how-to-cite-a-press-release-in-apa-style.html on citing press releases in APA style.)
Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you're on board with adding the editor field for websites. Many thanks.
As for the points you made that draw on your knowledge of style guides, I feel like all of that is a very strong argument for why "Press Release" should be its own type of reference. Convinced me!