Online PDF (eg, annual reports) citing & referencing?

FrankieK · February 18, 2021

HI,

I am new to Zotero and I apologise if this has been covered but I have been unable to find the answer.

When I save an online PDF (such as a company's annual report retrieved from their website) to my Zotero library, the metadata in the right hand column is incorrect and in a different format to other documents. Also the only thing I can edit is the title. When I try to cite an reference such a PDF, in the citation it says 'no date' and the referencing data is not correct.

Is there anything I can do to edit the data and make sure my citing and referencing of such a document is correct?

Thanks.

dstillman · February 18, 2021

That's an attachment item. You want to create a parent item.

If Zotero isn't able to retrieve high-quality metadata for a PDF, you can save the item using the Save to Zotero button and drag the PDF onto the new item (if a PDF wasn't already attached automatically), or you can right-click on the PDF, choose Create Parent Item, and enter an identifier such as a DOI or ISBN. If all else fails, you can create an empty parent item and enter metadata manually.

https://www.zotero.org/support/adding_items_to_zotero#adding_pdfs_and_other_files

bwiernik · February 18, 2021

You’ll want to make this a Report item