Recent problem adding record by DOIs

poettli · April 10, 2019

Hello,

Recently, standalone Zotero (5.0.65) is not able to find some records by DOIs and ends up with a "Lookup failed. Zotero could not find a record for the specified identifier. Please verify the identifier and try again."

Here is an example I am certain had worked:
10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077<0935:WOTWSM>2.0.CO;2

However, the identifier is correct and can be resolved via https://www.doi.org

The debug output suggests a problem with Airiti.js:
Translate: Could not find a result using Airiti

adamsmith · April 10, 2019

We did recently change how DOIs are imported, so this is likely related.

We'd take more examples, but I'm pretty sure that the problem here are the various odd characters in the DOI string that are causing problems for CrossRef.

E.g. the metadata for that DOI also isn't found when you paste it into https://search.crossref.org/

My understanding is that AMetSoc minted these DOIs very early on, but there are a very limited number and new DOIs do not allow the special characters used.

Edit: Yes, see discussion here: https://github.com/zotero/translators/pull/1135#issuecomment-458089402

poettli · April 10, 2019

Thank you for your reply.
I can confirm with all the DOIs following the same pattern. Are you planning to revert the way DOIs are imported? I don't like to use the Firefox add-on as it imports a lot of unnecessary files.

bwiernik · April 10, 2019

You can disable file import from the browser connector in Zotero preferences.

adamsmith · April 10, 2019

No, we're not going to revert this. We'll see if we can fix it for these DOIs, but the new import also adds a significant number of DOIs that can now be properly imported, so even if we're going to fail on these old ones, it's worth it in the sum of it.

poettli · April 10, 2019

I understand your point. Thank you

adamsmith · April 10, 2019

Looks like this should be generally fixable, though may involve some effort, so likely won't happen super quickly.

poettli · April 10, 2019

No problem, it is easy for me to adjust the way I register identifier with odd characters

adamsmith · April 10, 2019

For those interested in the technical details: https://github.com/crosscite/doi-metadata-search/issues/137#issuecomment-481734366

wuyatuwplatt.edu · April 26, 2019

Hello, I have similar problem with "Lookup failed. Zotero could not find a record for the specified identifier" I put the DOI in https://search.crossref.org/ and it can find the metadata. I have submitted an error report with Report ID=1686309367

The DOI I used is 10.1016/j.surfrep.2005.08.003

dstillman · April 26, 2019

@wuyatuwplatt.edu: You're using Zotero 4.0.28, which is four years old. You need to upgrade to Zotero 5.

adamsmith · April 26, 2019

(the DOI imports fine with up-to-date Zotero)

wuyatuwplatt.edu · April 30, 2019

Problem solved. Thank you very much!