Problems with DOI import

kirstyjmacleod · January 22, 2021

Hey! I recently switched to Zotero and I really like the interface, and how it integrates with Word. I primarily use Safari so don't have the Connector app extension. The easiest way for me to get citations into zotero, then, is through the DOI import, which is great! But lately it's almost entirely stopped working for me: now about 95% of the time when I input a DOI I get this error message: "Lookup failed. Zotero could not find a record for the specified identifier. Please verify the identifier and try again."

Here are the last few DOIs I've tried, none of which worked:
10.1016/S0016-6480(02)00075-8
10.1080/10253890.2017.1387534
10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01740.x

I'm running the desktop version 5.0.95 - I've checked regularly for updates, so that's not the issue.

Thanks!

adamsmith · January 22, 2021

All work for me (albeit oddly slowly).
Could you try again and provide a debug output ID that covers that attempt:
https://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output

kirstyjmacleod · January 23, 2021

Thanks! Of course now that I try to do this, everything is working just fine!! I'll follow up on this if the same problem happens - for the last week it's been almost all the time but today back to normal.

kirstyjmacleod · January 27, 2021

Ok, it's started happening again, here's the debug report (note that I think this includes a DOI import that DID work as well as one that didn't): D674773794

dstillman · January 27, 2021

(3)(+0000000): HTTP GET https://doi.org/10.1016/0140-6736(93)90148-A

(3)(+0012625): Translate: Could not find a result using DOI Content Negotiation -- trying next translator

(3)(+0000000): HTTP GET https://doi.org/10.1016/0140-6736(93)90148-A failed with status code 504

You're getting a 504 error, which means "Gateway Timeout". Unless you're connecting via a proxy server, this is just a problem with the upstream metadata resolver service. Nothing we can do about it, unfortunately.

That DOI just worked for me, for what it's worth.

kirstyjmacleod · January 27, 2021

Ok, good to know. I do occasionally use a proxy server so I'll make a note to fiddle with that if this recurs. Thanks!

Wakandorig · January 27, 2021

Bonjour.

J'ai le même problème, une centaine des DOI ne sont pas reconnus par Zotero.

Par exemple :
10.2307/1556715
10.2307/1556716
10.2307/1556717
10.2307/1556718

Message : "Zotero n'a pas trouvé d'enregistrement pour l'identifiant spécifié. Veuillez vérifier l'identifiant et réessayer."

J'ai envoyé un rapport d'erreur mais je ne suis pas sûr du fonctionnement : ID 841473378

Merci

dstillman · January 27, 2021

@Wakandorig: Those don't appear to be valid DOIs. They don't resolve even for standard DOI redirection: https://doi.org/10.2307/1556715

Wakandorig · January 27, 2021

@dstillman: Ces DOI sont valides est sont résolus avec JSTOR.
Essayez ceci, par exemple :
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1556715
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1556716

dstillman · January 27, 2021

No, they're not valid. JSTOR has been creating fake, unregistered DOIs for many years. Thread from 2009:

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/6812/jstor-and-false-doi-numbers

The proper test is doi.org.

adamsmith · January 27, 2021

(I'm in touch with JSTOR and they've fixed some of these and promised to fix the remaining ones this year, possibley even Q1)

adamsmith · January 27, 2021

@Wakandorig I'm also curious where you got those DOIs from? While they are deep in the metadata of the JSTOR pages (and they shouldn't be), I don't see them visibly listed anywhere.

Wakandorig · January 27, 2021

@adamsmith Je les avais copiés d'un forum (il y a longtemps). Il s'agit d'une liste des DOI des anciens articles publiés au "The Review of Economic Studies".

antonin.danalet · February 5, 2021

Same here with 10.1016/j.trc.2021.102974 (debug output ID: D1161177524), directly after an update to version 5.0.95.3.

dstillman · February 5, 2021

Available online 3 February 2021

@antonin.danalet: This has nothing to do with Zotero updates. This is not a problem in Zotero. This is due to metadata not being available from doi.org for a paper that has only been available online for two days.

You can save to Zotero from the ScienceDirect page by clicking the Save to Zotero button.

antonin.danalet · February 5, 2021

@dstillman Thank you for the quick and useful answer!