Author formatting in Zotero

neenasusan661
Hello Zotero users and experts,

Out of curiosity, when I use Zotero plugin from Chrome, the author name is always formatted/ displayed correctly as last name et al. XXXX. How does this work?

Thank you,
Neena
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited September 16, 2021
    Please rephrase your question. The answer might be simple and straightforward or it might be very complex.

    Your question could be answered many ways that depend on 1) your level of sophistication with computers and programming; 2) whether you are interested in how metadata is obtained from an online source; 3) your level of interest in database structures; 4) etc.

    The simple answer is that most publishers' websites and online literature databases present the article metadata (author names, volume, issue, pagination) in any of several specific formats. These metadata are invisible to anyone looking at their computer monitor but are available behind the scenes to programs like Zotero.
  • bwiernik
    I’m not sure exactly what you mean. Could you expand your question a bit?
  • neenasusan661
    Thank you @DWL-SDCA for the simple but detailed answer!
    Sorry @bwiernik I will clarify my question.

    I use a new software called Research Rabbit for searching articles instead of google scholar. It has a new feature (preliminary stage) for exporting articles (.ris) into Zotero. When I cite an article from this source:

    Christopher M. Adams; Roman A. Zubarev. Distinguishing and Quantifying Peptides and Proteins Containing D-Amino Acids by Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Anal. Chem. 2005. https://doi.org/10.1021/ac0503963.

    However, when I cite the same article when exported to Zotero using Chrome plugin:

    Adams, C. M.; Zubarev, R. A. Distinguishing and Quantifying Peptides and Proteins Containing D-Amino Acids by Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Anal. Chem. 2005, 77 (14), 4571–4580. https://doi.org/10.1021/ac0503963.

    Please note the difference in author name formatting, and no display of volume/ page number in the former one.
    For proper formatting in the former case, can Zotero update all the other missing meta-data using DOI? If yes, how to implement this?

    Many thanks,
    Neena
  • adamsmith
    That's likely an error in the RIS produced by Research Rabbit and you could ask them to fix it. In particular, for authors, RIS should be formated as

    AU - Adams, Christopher M.

    i.e., "family name, given name" and given Zotero's output, Research Rabbit appears to have
    AU - Christopher M. Adams
    which is incorrect RIS
    For proper formatting in the former case, can Zotero update all the other missing meta-data using DOI? If yes, how to implement this?
    That's planned but not currently possible. Currently, you'd have to import the item again via DOI and then merge the two.
  • bwiernik
    The volume and issue numbers are similarly likely a data quality issue in Research Rabbit that you should raise with them.
  • DWL-SDCA
    if you have imported many records you might try this: Clicking on the Zotero control that adjusts (toggles) the author field single-field / lastname firstname (2 fields) may force the single field name from RR into a more editable format. You may have success if you click the control more than once. I could probably express myself better but you will see what I mean if you do the click.
  • neenasusan661
    Thank you @DWL-SDCA and @bwiernik, I have forwarded your insights to RR team!
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