Zotero basics

elroy77
Hi

I used Zotero for mac (on google chrome) earlier in 2017 and it worked fine.

I stopped using it late 2017 and did my last 10,000 word assignment manually as it was not working properly. This is the kind of thing I get when I am looking at citing references....

Abstract
Winkler (‘Winkler et al. - 2015 - Everyday Choice Making Outcomes of Young People w.pdf’ n.d.)

Purcal (‘Purcal et al. - 2014 - Analysing Choice in Australian Individual Funding .pdf’ n.d.) and winkler are clear that...


This is what I get when I 'add bibliography'.


Bibliography
‘Purcal et al. - 2014 - Analysing Choice in Australian Individual Funding .pdf’ n.d., viewed 6 September 2017, http://www.incharge.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Research-3.pdf.

‘Winkler et al. - 2015 - Everyday Choice Making Outcomes of Young People w.pdf’ n.d., viewed 11 September 2017, https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/42003259/Brain_Impairment_Choice_Article.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1505099031&Signature=+1LSDwc2NQkbj2WkVL54r5qjA/4=&response-content-disposition=inline; filename=Everyday_Choice_Making_Outcomes_of_Young.pdf.


I am doing a PhD so I really need to sort this out and I'm not sure what has gone wrong.

Any ideas welcome!

Thanks

elroy

  • mark
    This looks like you don't have the bibliographic metadata, just the PDFs. Could it be that you have dragged bare PDFs into the Zotero window instead of getting stuff into your library the standard (and recommended) way?

    If you have PDFs in the root of your library you can right-click them and choose 'Retrieve metadata'. This will work for the majority of items, but it may be better (and ultimately faster) to save sources in the recommended way.
  • elroy77
    Hi Mark

    I just downloaded a PDF from the library the correct way and retrieved metadata but my references and bibliography are still coming up e.g.

    Text
    Some researchers believe that access is a key issue for coneumers. (“Whittle et al. - 2018 - Barriers and Enablers to Accessing Mental Health S.pdf,” n.d.)


    Bibliography

    Whittle et al. - 2018 - Barriers and Enablers to Accessing Mental Health S.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/19315864.2017.1408724?needAccess=true


    I updated Zotero and added a new plugin but it is still not working. Does anyone have any ideas?

    Thanks

    Elroy
  • bwiernik
    Based on what you are showing, you haven’t entered/edited the item metadata correctly in Zotero. But do note that downloading PDFs and retrieving metadata is NOT the best way to add items to your library.

    Instead, use the Save to Zotero button in your browser:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/getting_stuff_into_your_library
  • LiborA
    How bwiernik wrote, you have to edit metadata to be correct. No tool is able generace correct output from wrong input.
  • adamsmith
    The above isn't an example of bad metadata, though. It's still a PDF being cited instead of a Zotero item (see the ".pdf" in the title).

    First, do follow the link bwiernik posted and learn about the best ways to import into Zotero -- that'll make things a lot easier. But then -- how are you creating these citations? What _exactly_ are you doing?
  • LiborA
    If you only create parent item from pdf and do not edit/update the metadata then the output is the same as in example. Zotero does not change the "target" of item from pdf to parent item automatically?
  • bwiernik
    @adamsmith It could also be that they used Create Parent Item and then didn’t edit the item, no?
  • elroy77
    Hi
    This doesn't explain why every reference is being cited this way. It does not appear to be a problem with my download method and I am downloading them using the browser button, then saving metadata and renaming using metadata.
    Could it be a problem with the extensions or add-ons?
    Does anyone know how I could get someone to help me with this in Melbourne? I am thinking of moving to endnote as I cannot get the support.
    Thanks for your ideas.
    Elroy
  • bwiernik
    We really do need more information from you to be able to figure out the issue. Let's go through this step by step.

    Can you take a screenshot of the item in Zotero so that we can see how you have the data entered? Save the image file to Dropbox, Imgur, or a similar service and post a link here.

    Do you see the item being cited without the correct information if you open a brand new empty Word document?

    We are happy to keep working with you here if you have patience to answer questions back and forth. If you want to talk with someone in person, it looks like the University of Melbourne Library supports Zotero and can probably walk you through the basics of working with Zotero:
    http://library.unimelb.edu.au/reference-management/tools/zotero
  • adamsmith
    edited February 7, 2018
    It doesn't look like RMIT provides Zotero support; the University of Melbourne does, though, so you could try them for in-person support. Not sure how that works in Australia between different universities.

    What you're seeing is almost certainly not a technical problem but a problem of how you use Zotero, either how you import items or how you cite items or both.

    So let's start with the article you have above. Instead of going to to the PDF, go to the abstract page here:
    http://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/doi/10.1080/19315864.2017.1408724?needAccess=true

    On that page, click the "Save to Zotero button" in your browser. Zotero will download the item's metadata and, hopefully, also attach the PDF for the article.

    The easiest way to create a bibliography entry would then be to right click on that item in Zotero (its icon will be a white page with lines) select "Create Bibliography for Selected Item", select the citation style you want and "Clipboard" and then paste it into word.

    I'd make sure you get this far for a start.

    edit: yes, screenshot would also be good if you continue to have problems.
  • elroy77
    Hi Adam
    I went to the abstract page above and saved to Zotero using the Browser button. When I went to Zotero, the PDF was not saved.
    I right clicked and selected create bibliography and this came up though .

    Whittle, E.L., Fisher, K.R., Reppermund, S., Lenroot, R., Trollor, J., 2018. Barriers and Enablers to Accessing Mental Health Services for People With Intellectual Disability: A Scoping Review. Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities 11, 69–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/19315864.2017.1408724


  • adamsmith
    That looks pretty good to me. (We can probably get the PDF to save but your library is doing something weird with their proxy, so I'd postpone that).

    So now you know how items Zotero cites correctly look like. They can have various attachments (PDFs, notes, webpages snapshotes, links).

    Now when you go to Word and click "Add/Edit Citaiton" in the Word add-on, you should typically get the a red search box coming up. If you search that for "Whittle" this reference will come up and you can insert it following https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage
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