Adding a Thesis Chapter as a library item

I have just noticed that the University of Groningen publishes some of its thesis as a list of chapters, e.g.:
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/static-and-dynamic-wetting-of-porous-teflon-surfaces

One chapter constitutes an independent research project, that I have seen cited on its own.
What would be the best way to save this thesis chapter in Zotero, so that it can be cited and accessed quickly?

I am using the type Book Section at the moment, that I relate to the full thesis entry. But that could create problems when citing the entry, as the Publisher can be a required field for a book chapter, and does not exist for a thesis.

I could save the whole thesis in one entry, and simply add the chapter information in the citation. But the full thesis may not be available to download, e.g. when one chapter is embargoed:
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/humanizing-bile-acid-metabolism-in-mice-impact-on-pathophysiology
So I would not be able to attach the relevant file to the full thesis item.
  • I'd add it as a book chapter with the university as a publisher, which is approximately right. We're definitely not going to add thesis chapters as item types.
  • I would personally recommend just citing the entire thesis as a whole and referring to "chapter 3" in text or like a page number in the citation. Readers looking to retrieve the citation will need to look for the thesis as a whole, so it makes sense to me to point them to that source.
  • Yeah, I agree that's better.
  • edited August 15, 2022
    Thank you for your replies. Citing the entire thesis, with a simple mention of the chapter is probably the most robust indeed, as it relies correctly on an existing Zotero item type. I loose the metadata specific to the chapter I want to cite (chapter title and page numbers), but the information in the citation will still be sufficient to retrieve the original information cited, which is the most important.

    A separate item type for a thesis chapter is less useful than for books, as the author always stays the same.
    It is probably also better to give citations to the main thesis instead of each chapter, to better give credit to the author in a more standard way.

    Beyond formal citations purposes, I still find it easier to store the chapter file separately from the main item at the moment. But it may be better to store the file together with the main item if there was a few more functionalities.
    Would it be possible to add some minimal metadata information to secondary attached files? For a thesis chapter for example, it would need a separate field for: type (chapter), chapter number, title and page numbers.
    But other types of secondary attached files would also benefit from having a secondary layer of metadata attached to it, with different types (videos, data, website, ...).

    There is already a "Title" field specific to the PDF file child item. Will this field be treated as item Title when searching from the Quick Search with the option "Title, Creator, Year"?
    There are also a limited number of other fields attached to a child item (Filename, Modified, Indexed). So it may be possible to add a few more fields without too much hassle?

    The secondary layer of metadata could be useful for:
    - Improved search, although the advanced search can probably already do most things.
    - Improved display of secondary attached files.
    - It could eventually be used to design refined citation tools, accessible directly from the parent item. This may not be so important for formal citations, but it could be quite handy when citing child items within Zotero notes.

    It is also currently possible to add text in the note on the side of a child item. But unstructured metadata would be far less useful.
    I haven't really understood what is the status of this "note" in the side pane, as it is not a standalone note, nor a parent item child note. Is it a child note of the child item?
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