author of edited dbook in book section

malheureux72
I have an edited book chapter I want to cite. I have the book in the library, and added a book section with the chapter title author etc. but there is no place for the book author. Are these automatically linked. This is my first time using Zotero and it is NOT that great. thank you,
  • adamsmith
    This is my first time using Zotero and it is NOT that great. thank you,
    That's NOT that great of a way to introduce yourself here...

    See https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/edited_volumes_and_book_chapters
    for how to input chapters from edited volumes.
  • malheureux72
    Thank you! Very helpful. I also didn't mean to be a kvetch. I actually meant it was not going very well for me...and when I see all the problems in the forum...I think it is going to take some time for me to realize the real benefits of this application. I appreciate your help!
  • dakers
    I have followed the instructions to add a chapter in a book (and author) and looked in vain for the field to enter the author of the book. I followed the instructions in the link above-- but there is no book author field that appears.

    I need this field. Can you help?
  • bwiernik
    Book Author is one of the options in the Creator type drop down menu (alongside Author, Editor, Translator, etc.)
  • dakers
    Thank you for your response, but I can't find the option you suggest. Perhaps I need to be more explicit:

    Trying to find an answer to how to add Book Editor for a source that is a chapter in an edited volume, I found the reply tthis reply:

    "A book chapter from an edited volume is entered as a “Book Section”. Click the green new item button and select “Book Section”. You will now see both a “Title” field for the chapter title and a separate “Book Title” field. To add an editor click the + sign on the author line in the right column. This will create an additional Author line. If you click the triangle to the left of the new author field you will be able to change it to an editor. "

    This seemed to suggest that Zotero fixed this omission and that one can now select "Book Section" when adding a source, and a field to enter the Book Editor will appear. That is not the case.

    I don't understand the response from bwiernik-- could you please be more explicit? I tried clicking on Creator on existing source entries, and there is no "Book Author" field, but perhaps I am not following you. (I could not see Author, Editor, Translator either.)
  • adamsmith
    There is absolutely a field for a editor and book author and that has always been the case.
    I tried clicking on Creator on existing source entries
    This sounds like you're trying this in the middle panel? Zotero has 3 distinct panels and you should be doing this in the one on the right.
    Here are instructions with some more screenshots:
    https://zotero-manual.github.io/adding-items/#manually-adding-items

  • dakers
    Thank you, adamsmith. This solved the problem.
  • DublinBermia
    This doesn't work for me. When I do it, I can add the 2 editors and the author of the book. There is a section for the Book Title, but there is no section for Title where I can input the Chapter Title. Can anyone help?
  • bwiernik
    Enter chapters of edited books as "Book Section" items and enter the chapter title of the "Title" of the item. Generally, non-edited books (those where the whole book is written by one author team) are just cited as complete books, with references to specific chapters or pages entered as part of the in-text/footnote citations, rather than chapters being cited separately.
  • drameadows
    Thank you Adam Smith. Didn't the editor field used to pop up automatically when you selected book? Or, wait, didn't there used to be an 'Edited book' option for entry type? Or was that only in Mendeley? Not intuitive at all but thank you for solving the issue.
  • bwiernik
    I don’t think that is the case in either Zotero or Mendeley, so I think you might be misremembering.
  • drameadows
    Yes, it does seem likely that after using reference management software for 15 years (Endnote, Reference Manager, Mendeley, and now Zotero), my extremely sudden difficulties at figuring out how to add the name of an editor to an edited book are due to me just not remembering all the other times it has happened.
  • adamsmith
    Not sure if that was sarcastic, but all bwiernik was saying that "Edited Book" never existed in Zotero or Mendeley, which is just factually true. The editor field also never popped up for books in Zotero, although I do think it does appear by default for books in Mendeley.

    I think there is an edited book option in some other reference managers.

    Not sure what a good way to make this both intuitive and simple. I dislike both the edited book option and just having "editor" appear for books doesn't work with pretty elegant way that Zotero has all creators in a single dropdown
  • drameadows
    yes, this creator system is actually very neat, like you say. but not really intuitive.
Sign In or Register to comment.