'Include URL of..." - option

hi, the option 'Include URLs of journal articles in references' does not seem to work for me. Even when I turn the option of and if the article as a page number, Zotero adds the URL to the bibliography. I was really happy to see this option in 2.0b7 (at least I think that it did not exist before) because these URLs in the reference list are annoying. Now I still have to remove them from the Zotero item to get a clean reference list (and after removing them the 'accessed on' still remains in the bibliography).
  • which style are you using? The option has been there for a while (I think since the 1.0 releases) and has been working fine for me and other people.
    can you also give a sample citation?
    (also, could you see how this looks like on the test panel:
    chrome://zotero/content/tools/csledit.xul )
  • I believe I'd have a similar questions / concern. I'm finishing up my masters thesis bibliography, after having used Zotero all the way through.

    I've noticed that there a number of references in my Biblio that have URLs included - but they are classified as Books or Book Sections.

    The most-often offending URL is from librarything.com I often used this site to grab a quick citation using the translator. I want to keep the URL in the record, because it's great to click within Zotero and jump to the Library Things page/record. But it doesn't belong in my bibliography. I'm pretty sure my thesis committee won't like that. :)

    Help is appreciated - I have a 11 page bibliography, so manual editing is possible but pretty tough.
  • that probably requires a modified style, though I'm not sure. Which style are you currently using?
  • (Thanks for the reply!)

    I'm using Chicago with Note and Bibliography.

    I would hope this wouldn't need another style! I don't think Chicago style would ever require a URL for a not-online source.

    (I found a similar but not identical conversation from a few years ago where someone had URLs stored in Zotero records but didn't think they should display in Bibliography. They were looking for option to turn it off - which would be great! http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1198/ugly-url-inserted-in-chicago-citations-imported-from-jstor-etc/)

    Essentially, I don't think the URL should automatically appear in a URL labelled as "Book" or "Book Section." A "website" or another online source would, of course, need it.
  • it's more complicated than that. If I download, e.g. a book publication that's available online (in other words a pdf with an ISBN) that probably should have a URL. Likewise for online reports. If you can come up with a good way for Zotero to distinguish between online source and not online source that would probably help.
    There is no easy option here. I guess a "link" field separate from the URL field might help.
    I's very easy to modify the style in a way that the URL won't appear for books and book sections, but I do not think that should be the way the public CMOS works.
  • edited October 22, 2009
    Those examples make sense, although in my case they'd be the exception rather than the rule. I don't think I've found many publishers that will distribute a published (ISBN-labeled) pdf file online. Most of my sources are good-old-fashion books. Instead of typing them in manually, I just got into the habit of using the translators off Amazon or LibraryThing as a fast way of getting the info into Zotero.

    I do use a lot of online pdf sources, but they are typically journal articles via JSTOR, etc.

    It sounds like a toggle of some kind or a separate field as you mention ("link" vs "URL" makes sense but would have to include some explanation) is the ticket.

    Problem is, I wonder if there's any more immediate way to solve my problem rather than a feature upgrade. I'm getting the sinking feeling I'm going to have to paw through each entry and remove the URL manually for those that I don't want to display.
    -- oh wait - you say it's easy to modify the style to do this? Any chance I can get instructions? I haven't done something like that with Zotero yet.
  • Just modify your Chicago style.
    It's two words added.
    Here is the general instruction for simple edits (remember to change the "ID" field and don't be intimidated. This is very easy and you can't break anything).
    http://www.zotero.org/support/csl_simple_edits

    Specifically, what you want to do is to find the part that's:

    <macro name="access">
    <group delimiter=". ">
    <choose>
    <if type="graphic report" match="any">
    <text macro="archive"/>
    </if>
    <else-if type="book thesis chapter article-journal article-newspaper article-magazine" match="none">
    <text macro="archive"/>
    </else-if>
    </choose>
    <choose>
    <if type="legal_case" match="none">
    <text variable="URL"/>
    </if>
    </choose>
    </group>
    </macro>


    and change the line
    <if type="legal_case" match="none">

    to

    <if type="legal_case book chapter" match="none">


    As for examples - in the social sciences, for example, a lot of international organizations (UN, IMF, World Bank, OECD) distribute books as pdfs online - so depending on what people work on this is more common than you think.
  • It sounds like a toggle of some kind or a separate field as you mention ("link" vs "URL" makes sense but would have to include some explanation) is the ticket.
    This distinction already exists: URL field vs. link attachments. The former is for the canonical online location of an item, generally from the original publisher. Things like database URLs, Amazon URLs, etc., should be attached links. (Search on "canonical" for many threads on this.)

    Problems generally only arise where translators are incorrectly saving to the URL field instead of a link attachment. If you have examples of cases where this is happening, feel free to provide them, and we'll fix the translators in question.
  • Dan -

    Oh! Well that's it then. After looking at things more closely, pretty much the main offender is www.librarything.com. It puts the url to the Library Thing page in the URL field, not the Link area.

    I see now that all my Amazon.com grabs treated it differently - placing them as attached links instead. My librarything.com grabs do not have attached links.

    (I didn't realize "canonical" was the appropriate search term - thanks. Definitely means something different in theology - my field. ha!).

    Is it possible to cross-post this to the appropriate place for someone to look at the LibraryThing translator? As my thesis is due in about a week, this won't help me as much, but it'd be nice to have it fixed.
  • yes, do cross post this in a separate post to the translator section of the forum.
    For your thesis see my post above.
  • No need. I'll fix it.
  • Wait, how are you adding items from LibraryThing, exactly? We don't appear to have a LibraryThing translator... Are you using Create New Item from Current Page? If so, that's for saving web pages, so saving to the URL field is always appropriate.
  • Thanks for all your help guys.

    Dan - when I am on any "work" page on library thing, the small "book" icon appears in my address bar, and I just use that. I am not saving it as a web page.

    But I'm noticed as I'm going through and correcting a number of these that most did not correctly save the publishing location, either. And some put page numbers in the Publisher column, instead of the page number column. Basic things like title, author, and year seem to work fine.
  • Example URL? What translator is listed in the tooltip when you hover over the icon?
  • Okay

    example: http://www.librarything.com/work/9032/book/38590573
    example: http://www.librarything.com/work/book/44759440

    The tooltip reads: "Save to Zotero (COinS)

    Is the translator in the parenthesis then? I don't think I've paid attention to this enough to know what that typically says.
  • edited October 22, 2009
    yes - and COinS is a way to embed metadata in webpages that Zotero (and some other programs) can read. So this is no specific librarything translator.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COinS
    There is nothing Zotero can do about the bad data in that case.
    And strangely the COinS is only in some pages on librarything, and not necessarily those that have the most information.

    For the future, I'd recommend other data sources - Worldcat is mostly great, but deals badly with multiple authors (i.e. just doesn't scrape them). You can also use "add item by identifier" with the ISBN number, which I believe also uses Worldcat.
    Library of Congress is probably the best bet to get comprehensive and high quality imports for books.
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