Can I save references inside a reference?

Hello,

I'd like to link references, or store them under one main article from which I found the related references in the first place. Is there a way to do something similar to this?
I know I can store different pdfs under one reference but I'd rather save the whole parent item (not sure if that's the correct usage) under another one.

Thanks!
  • You can’t store hierarchical references, but you can use the Related tab in the item pane to link two items together. The Zutilo plugin also has additional shortcuts to Relate items.
  • edited December 1, 2020
    I do this sort of thing quite a lot. (This is from a fellow user, not Zotero staff)

    1. Set up entries for each Book.
    2. Create entries for each Section of that Book by copying the Book entry and changing the Type to Book Section (to make sure you retain an exact match for the Book Title)
    3. Optionally, create a saved search (using the Advanced search feature) that matches ANY of Title or Publication (=Book Title) to your title. Sort on page number (add the column if you do not already have it). This gives you a handy overview of the Book, like a table of contents.
    3. Attach the PDF's to the Book Sections. I use zotfile and an external folder (in my iCloud drive). Zotfile gives the file a sensible name in the form Author_date_title.
    4. To create relationships such as a main article and things it references, you can use the "related" tab in each Book Section as @bwiernik says, and search for the other items. I have not tried Zutilo yet, but it is on my to-do list. I also use "related" when a Book Section is a reproduction of a Journal Article, say, or a translation of it, or at Book level a different Edition of the same book.
    It might be nice to be able to define different types of relationships, like 'refers to' or 'is a translation of', but that wold have to be a new Feature Request and this is a good start!
    5. When I create a citation, I use 'multiple sources' to pick up all the related items.

    All the best!
  • In this case, I found a paper that turned out to be a chapter of a book. I added the Book, then I changed the paper type to Book Section and added the book title in that record. From the Book item, I added the Book Section as related.

    It seems to me in the past, I was able to drag and drop a Book Section on top of a Book item to make the Book Section a subitem that inherits the Book descriptive fields, but for this item, drag and drop doesn't work?

    What am I doing wrong?
  • What you describe has never worked in Zotero
  • So I have to complete the fields for the Book Section to create a fully detailed bibliography item?
  • Not sure I understand -- most of them are filled out from the book, no? You need authors, title, and page range, possibly DOI, and that'd have been the same with your drag & drop method, wouldn't it?
  • edited February 5, 2021
    I meant in the Book Section item, I need to manually complete the fields embedded in the Book item for a full bibliography of the Book Section item.
  • But why? Why don't you just duplicate the book & change it to book section (or use the Zutilo add-on to do so in one step) as described above? I feel like I'm missing something.
  • As it turned out, I found the Book Section as a standalone item before I found that it was a chapter from a book, so I added the Book item afterward.

    This is not unusual in my research, btw.
  • sure, that makes sense, but I'm really still not understanding what you're trying to do that Zotero doesn't?

    I don't understand, e.g., how the drag&drop workflow you're describing above would change anything for a scenario where you just have a book section. I'm also not understanding what "finding" a book section entails -- do you import that with metadata e.g. via DOI? Is it just a PDF? A reference? Google scholar?
  • This happened twice today.

    Case 1: I found an essay on a Web site. I added it to Zotero via URL. Then I looked up the authors to see if it had been published as a paper and found it was a book chapter. I changed the type to Book Section and then added the Book item by ISBN.

    Case 2: I found an information page on a Web site, which I added via URL. Then I saw a footnote with a pointer to a citation. The citation was for the source, a book, which included PMID. I added the Book to Zotero via PMID.

    This is not unusual in my field of study, where papers sometimes get collected into books, but are offered standalone by the authors on sites like Researchgate, where they might be missing PMIDs or DOIs.
  • Right, that makes sense. But what should Zotero do to help here?
  • To properly cite a Book Section, some of the Book information should be included in the bibliography for that item.

    If I could drag and drop the Book Section onto the Book or otherwise show the relationship of the Book Section to the Book, perhaps Zotero could populate the relevant fields from the Book in the Book Section?
  • OK, so what I'd do right now is to just manually create the book section item from the book and merge it with your mostly empty book section.

    I guess drag&drop could simplify that a bit, but it'd introduce a how new logic into the Zotero interface and it'd also be problematic because people _will_ do this accidentally and be very confused by the consequences, so I don't think that'd be a good way to handle this.
  • How do I merge them?

    If I may suggest, you might utilize the hierarchy Book / Book Section so that the merge alone populates the needed fields for the Book Section bibliography.
  • select both book section items (they need to be the same item type), right-click, merge.
  • Do you think you could make the merge recognize Book Section sub to Book and populate the Book Section fields with the Book information?
  • edited February 5, 2021
    If I may chip in ... I have some similar experiences to @crabpaws....

    Zotero is driven by citations (and citation styles), so you need one Zotero item for every edition of an article or essay. I often have several too: e.g. an original article is printed in a journal, reprinted in another, translated in another, published in an anthology or an exhibition catalogue and so on. If it's in a book, enter it as a book section; you can usually get the book reference from a library site or WorldCat, then copy it, change it to a book section, add the title and page numbers. Articles can usually be found in Worldcat, Jstor, etc., but if not they can be entered manually.

    When I cite an article I then use Zotero's facility for multiple references. Once you have done the above, it is relatively easy to set up a citation along the lines of "see [first reference], reprinted from [second reference], translated in [third reference], translation reprinted in [fourth reference]".

    Since the entries tend to all end up having the same title it can be tricky to distinguish between them, so I sometimes put "{reprint}" or similar in the title to help me sort them out (you can always take this out later).

    It might be nice if Zotero one day had a feature to link editions (similar to the debate on hierarchical relationships) but quite a lot can be done with the present version. The ability to create and save searches (under the Advance Search button) is a handy way of getting all editions together. Use custom tags if the titles are not sufficient to make a match.
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