Export Item... and Create Bibliography From Item... do not generate equivalent BibTeX

Example (both have been reformatted with emacs bibtex-mode M-x bibtex-reformat)

First Export -> Bibtex
@article{tollestrup_congressional_2012,
title = {The Congressional appropriations process: An introduction},
volume = 23,
url =
{https://www.wisconsin.edu/government-relations/download/The-Congressional-Appropriations-Process-An-Introduction.pdf},
shorttitle = {The Congressional appropriations process},
pages = {R42388},
journaltitle = {Congressional Research Service, February},
author = {Tollestrup, Jessica},
urldate = {2017-10-02},
date = 2012,
file = {The Congressional Appropriations Process\: An
Introduction:/Users/gla/Zotero/storage/WTA94DRM/The
Congressional Appropriations Process An
Introduction.pdf:application/pdf}
}



Second Create -> Bibtex
@article{Tollestrup_2012,
title = {The Congressional appropriations process: An introduction},
volume = 23,
url =
{https://www.wisconsin.edu/government-relations/download/The-Congressional-Appropriations-Process-An-Introduction.pdf},
journal = {Congressional Research Service, February},
author = {Tollestrup, Jessica},
year = 2012,
pages = {R42388}
}

Several fields are missing for the latter. It is often more convenient to "Create" a bibliography and then paste the bibtex into a file for specific references, rather than "Export" a file and merge the new exports into the existing .bib. It seems like both commands should produce the same output.
  • It seems like both commands should produce the same output.
    It isn't possible because the create bibliography you are using relies on CSL that isn't able to access all features of the generic javascript translator that gets called for export.

    However: you should be able to select the export style for "quick copy" and copy/paste using that instead. It won't handle citekey collisions, but will get you everything else you're interested in.
  • If you are using Zotero for BibTeX, I really recommend you check out the BetterBibTeX plugin, which has enhanced export and citekey functions.
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