Style Error: The Open University (Harvard)

edited April 13, 2017
The OU Library Harvard Guide for "URLs and DOIs for ejournals"
https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2620&section=6.2 (OU logon needed) says:
"If you access the article via a library subscription database, you should include the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) in your reference, if a DOI is available."
This is likely to be the case more often than not. The in-text citation in the current Style is fine, but the Full Reference does not include the DOI number in the required format:

Miller, E. and Pole, A. (2010) ‘Diagnosis blog: checking up on health blogs in the blogosphere’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 100, no. 8, pp. 1514–1519 [Online]. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.175125 (Accessed 15 December 2011)
[journal title in italics, can't do that on this forum]

In the absence of a DOI a URL should be provided:
Callahan, D. (2011) ‘Rationing: theory, politics, and passions’, Hastings Center Report, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 23–27 [Online]. Available at http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cmedm&AN=21495512&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed 8 December 2011).

Can this be tweaked?
Does it need to be a separate eJournal option?
  • What does Zotero currently do for an item with a DOI?
  • Thanks that was quick! At risk of seeming ungrateful, it needs to end with the accessed date in the format (Accessed 15 December 2011)

    The style guide shows this example:
    "If you access the article via a library subscription database, you should include the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) in your reference, if a DOI is available."

    Miller, E. and Pole, A. (2010) ‘Diagnosis blog: checking up on health blogs in the blogosphere’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 100, no. 8, pp. 1514–1519 [Online]. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.175125 (Accessed 15 December 2011)

    Incidentally, this updated style is correct in that the OU Library Guide style does not seem to include 'Available at' and the 'Systematic Review' style is consistent with this, i.e. DOI does not seem to need this phrase.
  • edited April 13, 2017
    Hi,

    It appears correct for me. Here some sample citations (ignore the lack of italics):

    Ahlquist, J. S. and Breunig, C. (2009) Country clustering in comparative political economy, MPIfG Discussion Paper, Cologne, Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Societies [Online]. Available at www.mpifg.de/pu/mpifg_dp/dp09-5.pdf (Accessed 15 December 2012).

    Borges, J. L. (1999) Selected non-fictions (trans. E. Allen, S. J. Levine & E. Weinberger), Weinberger, E. (ed), New York, Viking.

    Campbell, J. L. and Pedersen, O. K. (2007) ‘The varieties of capitalism and hybrid success’, Comparative Political Studies, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 307–332 [Online]. DOI: 10.1177/0010414006286542 (Accessed 26 July 2010).

    Citation Style Editor (n.d.) CSL search by example [Online]. Available at http://editor.citationstyles.org/searchByExample/ (Accessed 15 December 2012).

    Or if I'm missing something, point it out as "status quo" vs "wanted". Try a fresh document or in your existing document switch to another style and back tot he OU style.

    P.S.: Could you change the thread title regarding the typo so other people will find this thread?
  • Hi,

    I hope it's ok that I post my question here, instead of creating a new thread.
    There seems to be a problem with the OU Harvard style for ejournals and other online material. When there is a DOI included in the data for a record and I create a reference (copy bibliography) from that record, everything looks ok except there is no accessed section at the end of the reference.
    So the reference will look like this, as an example:

    López-Morales, M., Gómez-Pérez, N. and Ruedas, T. (2011) ‘Magnetic Fields in Earth-like Exoplanets and Implications for Habitability around M-dwarfs’, Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 533–537 [Online]. DOI: 10.1007/s11084-012-9263-8.

    But if I reference a record that does NOT have a DOI, the accessed section at the end shows up. Like this:

    Lazio, J., Hallinan, G., Airapetian, V., Brain, D. A., Dong, C. F., Driscoll, P. E., Griessmeier, J.-M., Farrell, W. M., Kasper, J. C., Murphy, T., Rogers, L. A., Wolszczan, A., Zarka, P., Knapp, M., Lynch, C. R. and Turner, J. D. (2018) ‘Magnetic Fields of Extrasolar Planets: Planetary Interiors and Habitability’, arXiv:1803.06487 [astro-ph] [Online]. Available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1803.06487 (Accessed 21 February 2019).

    I checked the csl file, and it looks like the "(Accessed )" section should be included, but it's not working.

    Any help or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
  • This is using Zotero, yes? And are you sure the item with the DOI has an accessed date in Zotero? Without accessed date, obviously the last bit wouldn't appear and items without URL in Zotero wouldn't typically have an access date.
  • Sorry for the late reply...
    Yes, this is using Zotero. And yes, the items with DOI also has an accessed date.
    Here's an example. This record has DOI, and a URL, and an accessed date in Zotero. But when I do "Copy bibliography", I get this:

    Alibert, Y. (2014) ‘On the radius of habitable planets’, Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 561, p. A41 [Online]. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201322293.

    As you can see the URL is not included (which is fine, the DOI is there), and also no accessed date.
  • I see -- you can fix this by checking the "Include URL" checkbox in the Cite--> Styles tab of the Zotero preferences.
    I don't quite see why that should be necessary, but looks like it is.

    @adomasven -- I don't think the accessed date should be suppressed if URL evaluates to false. We account for that in the styles and the behavior is unexpected.
  • Yes, you are right, checking that box does fix it. How odd...
    Thanks for the fast reply!
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