Import of titles with math symbols from APS doesn't work

Hi,

Consider the following item
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.107006

When I import it with Zotero Connector addon in Firefox the math gets broken. So I see in the Zotero UI this

$({\mathrm{Ba}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{K}}_{x}){\mathrm{Fe}}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$

Then I export it to bibtex and I see this

\$(\{\textbackslash mathrm\{\vphantom{\}\}}{{Ba}}\vphantom\{\}\vphantom\{\}\_\{1\textbackslash ensuremath\{-\}x\}\{\textbackslash mathrm\{\vphantom{\}\}}{{K}}\vphantom\{\}\vphantom\{\}\_\{x\})\{\textbackslash mathrm\{\vphantom{\}\}}{{Fe}}\vphantom\{\}\vphantom\{\}\_\{2\}\{\textbackslash mathrm\{\vphantom{\}\}}{{As}}\vphantom\{\}\vphantom\{\}\_\{2\}\$

So basically the math environment is escaped, and I see those special commands instead of the equation.

However if I download the bib file and then import it to zotero it works correctly. So I can see this in the UI

(Ba₁₋ₓKₓ)Fe₂As₂

and then also correct exported bibtex format

({{Ba}}{$_{1-}$}{{\textsubscript{x}K\textsubscript{x}}}){{Fe}}{$_{2}$}{{As}}{$_{2}$}

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Zotero version: 5.0.96.2
Firefox version: 90.0
Zotero connector version: 5.0.86


Regards,
  • Zotero doesn't support math, so as far as Zotero is concerned, this is just text. You can sort of work around this using BBT, either by wrapping that title in <script>...</script> or by having that applied automatically.

    If you import $({\mathrm{Ba}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{K}}_{x}){\mathrm{Fe}}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$ by hand with BBT installed it will actually translate that to (Ba₁₋ₓKₓ)Fe₂As₂ which would be exported back to bibtex (but as text, not math) and would also work with Word bibliographies. This has some obvious limits, not everything mathy has a decent text representation.
  • Thanks for the answer, but this doesn't solve my problem.
    What I need is to be able to import bibliography with firefox addon and then export it to bibtex. Currently it is broken, so Zotero is unfortunately not suitable for me, because of this math bug.
  • @AbeJellinek -- APS currently pulls RIS -- might make more sense to use BibTeX given the prevalence of formulas in the field (and the fact that it looks like they just put pseudo-MathJax into RIS titles)
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