Add "Editor" under Creator for Web Page

I am trying to cite a web page which has editors for the whole website and authors for the writers of individual pages. However, the only fields which come up in Zotero / Web Page are Author, Contributor and Translator. Is there any way to add fields?
  • You can't add new fields, no.

    But new fields will be added to zotero 5.0 (no ETA, though). Adding Editor role to Web Page hasn't been discussed extensively, but there's this old post from Dan (zotero developer).
  • In case an example is wanted/needed, here is a NASA press release that explicitly distinguishes the authors from the editor.

    https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/be-an-astronaut-nasa-seeks-explorers-for-future-space-missions

    (Sidenote: Zotero also incorrectly concluded that the editor was the author, and missed all the actual authors completely.)
  • I don't actually think the people listed below are authors. Those are typically, in press releases, the media contacts for journalists. In all likelihood, Ms. Northon did write the press release, though I'd normally just use NASA as the author.

    (As for import, Zotero just picks up what's in the page metadata:
    <meta name="dc.creator" content="Karen Northon" /> is the only relevant tag)
  • I was trying to use the article as an example of instances in which web pages that people would commonly cite (such as press releases, in this case) explicitly list editors. The important part is that it explicitly lists her as an editor, and other citation-worthy websites do the same.

    Supposing the other names are merely press contacts, it becomes all the more important to get it right that Karen Northon is editor. Allowing for the possibility that the other names are authors (in addition to being the press contacts), then, well, Karen Northon needs to be listed as editor to make sure everybody is credited (and contacted) appropriately. So, either way, Karen Northon should really be listed as editor when considered from a pragmatism-based point of view.

    Also, from an idealism-based point of view, just having the records be accurate should be reason enough. We do not need to speculate if Karen Northon is author or not because we are explicitly told her relationship to the work, and having an accurate record of this requires that she be listed as such.
  • Try adding {:editor: Last||First} to the “Extra” field. Repeat for multiple editors: {:editor: Last||First} {:editor: Last2||First2}
  • Thanks, but that didn't do anything for me. I also don't want to jeopardize my database by doing hacks/workarounds like this. "What could possibly go wrong?" is a phrase that comes to mind.

    For the Zotero developers, I was sort of hoping that adding "Editor" for websites would be something they could do in less than a minute and then just roll out with the next version. By commenting here, I wanted to help show that this is wanted. By providing a link to a real-life example in my comment, I hoped to also show that the demand is based on an actual need. :)
  • edited November 5, 2015
    For the Zotero developers, I was sort of hoping that adding "Editor" for websites would be something they could do
    no, unfortunately that's not the case. If you've been using Zotero for a while, you may have noticed that fields and item types haven't changed for years. Changing database structure for syncing databases turns out to be quite tricky. Hope is they'll be there soon-ish (and once that's the case, the actual adding of the field is indeed one line), but it will definitely not be in the next couple of months.

    (I'm fine with adding the editor field for web pages, btw., but as someone who knows a lot about proper citation practices--I literally own a collection of style guides--I'll still point out that adding Ms. Northon as an editor to a citation of a Nasa press release is bad practice: Citations of primary material like press releases have two purposes - making it easy to retrieve&check cited work and giving the reader a sense of what it is that's being cited. By attributing a Nasa press release to the specific Nasa staffer who was in charge of it, you're not helping with the former and, I would argue, interfering with the latter. See e.g. http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/09/how-to-cite-a-press-release-in-apa-style.html on citing press releases in APA style.)
  • I'm not a developer, so I'm sad to learn that it's not such an easy fix after all. Darn! But I'm glad to hear that the demand/need for adding fields in general has been recognized and that work is underway for a long-term, comprehensive solution.

    Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you're on board with adding the editor field for websites. Many thanks.

    As for the points you made that draw on your knowledge of style guides, I feel like all of that is a very strong argument for why "Press Release" should be its own type of reference. Convinced me!
  • Sorry to add to an old thread, but did this addition of editors to webpages make it into v. 5? I don't find anything on the changelog at https://www.zotero.org/support/changelog.
  • Nothing in Zotero itself, AFAICS. But editor is a valid CSL variable, so there’s always the option of including it in the Extra field (using the so-called cheater syntax, supported by citeproc-js, Zotero’s processor; see https://citeproc-js.readthedocs.io/en/latest/csl-json/markup.html#cheater-syntax-for-odd-fields). Not sure how many CSL styles support this, but chicago-author-date.csl for one certainly does (just checked), and any other style could be adapted.
  • Correct, no field updates in Zotero 5 at all, but a large number of styles use editors agnostic of item types, so I'd expect this to work in a large number of files using the "cheater" syntax (Here's the relevant Zotero documentation section, which allows for slightly simpler, and preferred, syntax: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/item_types_and_fields#additional_item_types_and_fields )
  • Thanks. The cheat does work, though it's disappointing this didn't get picked up in the new version.
  • edited July 13, 2021
    Field updates are coming in the next major Zotero version and variables entered like this in Extra will be migrated automatically.
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