If someone changes the bibliography in the text, how do I change the database?

Optimum_op
Hello,

I have a problem. My thesis master is not satisfied with the bibliography made with Zotero. He doesn't understand the principle of a software that manages bibliography and made multiple modifications directly in the text of my bibliography (for example on the capitalization of the names of the journals, the abbreviations, the commas, etc...). I don't dare to update my bibliography through Zotero for fear that the changes will be deleted :/
Is there a way for me to "import" his changes directly into my database?

Thank you for your help!
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited August 13, 2021
    Ask your thesis master if s/he has a citation style that is based on some established standard. If so Zotero likely can provide that exact style for the references in your thesis. Is there a printed guideline that provides guidance for how your citations and bibliography should be formatted? If so share it here. This sort of thing is one of the primary reasons that Zotero and other bibliography management apps were developed. We can tell you how to format your thesis so that it meets your advisor's requirements.

    Do not edit your database to exactly match what your thesis advisor wants. Zotero will do that for you automatically! It is important that you edit your database records so that things like author names (never all upper case); the same author of multiple items should have their name entered exactly the same way (If Mary Alice Smith has published with the name "Mary A. Smith" or "M. A. Smith" you should edit all of her records so that her full name is used everywhere); and article titles (always in sentence case - https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/preventing_title_casing_for_non-english_titles ), etc. This way, Zotero can automatically place the punctuation and letter casing that your professor desires. Zotero has tools that make editing your records easier than tediously re-entering everything.

    If your professor is not aware of Zotero and you demonstrate Zotero's power you may have done him/her a favor.


  • djross3
    (To add to the above, the only thing you should be manually editing would be any typos that your professor identified in the metadata. In other words, if you have a typo in an author's name, or in a title, etc., that will need to be manually corrected in your Zotero database. But everything else in terms of formatting, capitalization, etc., should be possible to automate by choosing the right style. Note that if your professor absolutely insists on doing this a harder way, rather than telling you which style to use, then you could just do that at the end of making your thesis on the final draft, and manually apply those corrections. Save the original Zotero version for when you want to publish this as an article and can use standard formatting.)
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