http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/5945/type-journalnewspapermagazine/
https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/661

Being the one who started the related discussion referred to above, I strongly support mdfurney in her “request”. I do still think “journal/magazine/newspaper issue” is a helpful and necessary item type (and could be introduced before hierarchical items are implemented).

Like mdfurney, I would like to quote an issue of a journal or a magazine (e.g. for the above mentioned special issues, or to state which issues of a journal were included in an analysis) or sometimes just to have it in my database (e.g. add note “nothing relevant for me in this issue” – after all, Zotero is not a bibliographical program but a “research tool”). For the latter it is probably sufficient to use the item type “book”, still it’s not very neat. But for the former the fields are not right, which would show up in a bibliography. With an item type “journal/magazine/newspaper issue” it would be possible to define the right output in CSL.

Currently there's nothing you can do beyond what I suggest above.

We have very specific plans to include entire periodicals as item types:
https://github.com/avram/zotero-bits/issues/23

And a general awareness of the need to cite special issues:
https://github.com/avram/zotero-bits/issues/36
though nothing very concrete on how to procede on that.

The first of the two is hopefully going to happen this year, though no promises. The 2nd one I don't know. Could be at the same time, could also take longer.

nope, nothing new. 5.0 will go into beta very soon, and when it's released we can actually start implementing new item types.

"I would like to be able to enter an entire journal as an entry" --> I would welcome this as well. Specially useful for thematic issues, when the volume has a title. So probably it will come in the next months. That's good. Thanks.

Yes, this comes up (rarely) for me too. It's useful to be able to cite special issues, and it doesn't feel quite right to pretend it's a book or an article.

However, as a workaround, and since this comes up so rarely, pretending it's an article actually seems to be close to the right formatting, just omitting page numbers and including the names as editors rather than authors. The only obvious problem is for styles that want some special term like "special issue" in the citation.

Since it comes up so rarely for me, it's not a major priority for me personally, but I wanted to add in my voice that this seems "wrong" based on any current options, as a technicality, and may require manual revision if we need to cite these in a work, depending on the style.

Would just like to add an additional voice in favor of this category. I am working on a project that looks at image material from a journal that only ran a handful of issues, so the "journal article" category is not particularly helpful or relevant, as title/author/etc are categories that do not really apply to the images, not to mention that the number of images that need to be cited make entering each as a separate "article" impractical.

This is a now a request with an 8 (8!) year history—there is clearly a reasonable and consistent demand for this feature. I would really hope that Zotero could accommodate this need in the immediate future.

I support @mdfurney 's original feature request. Yes, a whole Journal is similar to a Book, and that's what I use now too. However ...

When hierarchical items come (and pigs fly), I would like the hierarchy:
--> Journal (name, publisher etc.)
--> Volume (i.e. usually a year's worth; that which is bound as a book in a library).
--> Issue (the physical journal that one receives in the post or buys at the 20C newsagent. This is associated with the date [which, BTW can sometimes have multiple months or a season, like "spring"]
--> Journal Article

This would match the hierarchy usually found on a journal's web-site or in a library index. The same would apply to magazines.
Newspapers are a bit different as Volume does not apply and an Issue is generally identified (in archives etc.) just by the date.

In the present Zotero, Journal is like a book series, Volume and Issue are both like Books and Journal article is like a Book Section. Note that some Journals vary their name from year to year.

@bwiernik

From what I understand, this is still an unresolved issue... and I need it too.

You mentioned that "periodical" would probably be in Zotero 5.1
Do you have any idea WHEN that new version of Zotero is due to be released?
Any plans in the near future?

In the meantime, I am trying to use the "book" item.

The problem is that, when I enter "2020-06" in the date field, for example, and cite in MLA, it does not indicate the month.

Is there a workaround for this?

Just chipping in to say this would be a welcome addition as and when it comes. Tried the workaround suggested in an earlier thread of creating a book-type entry and child items through Zutilo, but many elements were still missing. Ended up changing the item type of the "book sections" to journal articles and then plugging in the missing details. Is there an easier way of doing this?

I am very perflexed at not being able to add a periodical and its contents to Zotero, apparently an old issue, going back to the 2000-aughts. This function appears to have been planned for the 5.0 version. I am running 6.0.8 (May 17, 2022) & this functionality is nowhere in sight. It would be most helpful to the periodical/serial title, its publication information and then the articles within as sub-records or sub-fields. These fields for each article would require tagging &c.

In addition to managing citations, I am attempting to catalog my library, both physical books, journals & pamphlets as well as e-copies. You can to a point where you cannot find whether you have something or where it is.

Many thanks for your consideration.

I also just wanted to bump this thread and echo the comments of others who have long been advocating for the necessity of this function.

As print media history and periodical studies continue to become larger and exert their influence across the humanities and social sciences more generally, there is only going to be more of a need for an ability to cite entire issues. The current workarounds are insufficient and too time consuming—especially when it comes to those of us for whom periodicals are not just secondary but primary to our research and need to cite a vast amount of periodicals in full.

Thank you for your continued work on this.

A periodical type is part of CSL 1.0.2, so you can designate an item as a periodical by putting this in Extra:

Type: periodical

That will be cited as a periodical for styles that support it. A dedicated periodical type will likely be added to Zotero at some point in the future.

J'ai également besoin de ce type "Journal" avec "articles"
Merci à vous

Just put my name on the list to get updates on this ...
and for adding something to the discussion:
Book is not a useful type for periodicals (magazines) as they have Issue numbers. And there is no field for this in the book type.

Best regards,
Aljoscha