Generic reference

jnelson1078
There is a fraction of reference styles listed in zotero as opposed to the amount of style listed in the APA publication manual. Is there a generic style, or can I create a new style? I want to enter a Psychological Test, and there is nothing vaguely resembling this style. The closest thing is Report, but then I cannot enter the DOI associated with this test.

Why is it that ALL the APA styles are NOT covered in Zotero???
  • adamsmith
    because if Zotero covered all types in all manuals, it'd have hundreds of different item types and be completely unusable.

    I'd use report and add {:DOI: 10.1234/2345} to get the DOI in. It's a hack and we hopefully won't need it much longer, but the current fields are 7 years old and DOIs weren't really around for much beyond journal articles back then.
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited May 18, 2016
    The string inside the curly brackets should be placed in the extra field. I hope that you won't be insulted if I point out that the given DOI is only an example. The colon placement before _and_ after the "DOI" is necessary and not a typo. You will need to use an APA style that recognizes the extra hack for the report type. I don't know if all APA styles do.
  • jnelson1078
    Hmmmm, first, there are only 77 rules in APA, 6th ed. Second, what hack are you speaking of? I see "Extras" listed in the options, but neither of you provided an example of what to put in the extras field. Colon placement? I don't understand, I am not a programmer; what colon placement are you referring too. Examples or link to examples please.
  • DWL-SDCA
    See the following for more information:

    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/47132/book-sections-have-dois-too/

    You don't need to be a programmer. This is quite complicated-sounding but to the end user straightforward. All you need to do is follow the instructions.

    Each Zotero record has in the right-most column a field that is labeled Extra.
    For item types such as "report" that do not have a built-in DOI field, you can force a doi into the report record by placint it in the 'extra' field. You will need to enter the DOI by hand.

    When you add the DOI to the 'extra' field you must use the exact format shown above (only changing the actual DOI string).

    With the DOI added to each record's 'extra' field, the Zotero APA style will include the DOI in the bibliography.

    This is not something that is well documented. You shouldn't feel uncomfortable if you don't get this right away. You don't need to understand how this works. I don't understand how it works. I follow the recipe to the letter and out comes a properly formated citation. I trust the developers and experts to get it right.

    This is a temporary 'hack' until the Zotero program is updated to include DOIs in item types beyond journal articles. There are very good reasons that other things have been moved to the head of the line above this well-recognized need for improvement. There are other places in the forum that explain the delays.
  • jnelson1078
    Nope, that didn't work either. This is what I put in the extra field: {:doi: 10.1037/t08802-000}
  • adamsmith
    it's case sensitve -- DOI not doi, i.e.
    {:DOI: 10.1037/t08802-000}
    (as for 77 -- APA isn't the only citation style. I think the Chicago manual's referencing chapter has something like 240 sections. Citing Medicine is also over 100)
  • jnelson1078
    edited May 18, 2016
    Nope, that didn't work either. BTW, I am using version 4.0.29.5 if that makes any difference
  • adamsmith
    oh, that's a mistake in the citation style, which specifically doesn't use DOIs for theses and reports. No idea why, likely an oversight. We'll fix it. The same "hack" will work with any other item type (manuscript?), if you need something quick.
  • bwiernik
    For APA, there really are only about 6 or so unique item types (e.g., journal article, book, chapter, report, presentation, media production). Nearly all of the 77 example references are just variations on the formats of these basic types (e.g., a test manual should be formatted in the same way as a report or book, potentially with a [Test manual] descriptor). There are a few exceptions (e.g., Computer Programs, YouTube videos, Symposia) that have formatting differences, but these few are really inexplicable oversights or violations of the basic rules that Zotero accommodates as best as it can. Among citation styles, Chicago and (mostly) APA are well-designed in that they are consistent enough that hundreds of different types of items can be handled with just a few different base reference types (as Zotero, Mendeley, Endnote, and other reference software do).
  • Grode
    Media production... fine... where do I find games? Should be possible to consider as a media production certainly for videogames although they can go as computerprograms. But all categories that looks like media is about other things where games (boardgames) really fit badly. The result is that they are books which is so off.

    I think my question is: Is it possible to make personal subcategories?
  • adamsmith
    not now, likely in the medium-term future.
  • kowalskys
    edited July 15, 2016
    I'm having a bit of trouble and I'm not sure this discussion is the right place for it. I see item formats for journal article, newspaper article, etc, but no format for the ENTIRE journal or newspaper, or even for an entire archive collection as an overview. I feel limited and constrained as I can't figure out how to input the entire work, and then link the specific articles or documents drawn from that overall work or collection. Am I not understanding how Zotero works or organizes data properly? Should each work like this be its own collection? Help.
  • bwiernik
    Zotero has a flat/non-hierchical data model. Support for "periodical" item types is planned for the medium-term, but items will still be independent from each other. For organizing, you can accomplish much of what you want using Saved Searches.
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