Coming soon: New item fields

We're beginning the process of rolling out some (let's say) long-awaited changes to Zotero's item fields.

In the latest Zotero 7.1 beta, we've added Date to the Podcast item type, and we'll be making additional changes in upcoming builds. Many changes are planned, so there's no need to request specific fields at this time.

Existing fields added to other item types (like Date on Podcast) should work seamlessly, but completely new fields may require additional changes for various import/export formats or for proper citation.

Note that items saved with the beta that use new fields won't show up on other devices that are still running old versions, and populating a new field on an existing item will cause it to stop syncing with those versions. New fields also won't show up in the web library or in the mobile apps at this time. But if all goes smoothly, we should be able to roll out these changes everywhere fairly quickly.

There's not yet a mechanism to transfer data in Extra to newly added fields, but we're planning to add that in a later version. Please resist the urge to manually transfer data from Extra!

I'll post updates here as we add new fields. If you notice anything not working right for any of the new fields, please let us know.
  • Yaaay !
  • Woohoo!!!
  • Many changes are planned, so there's no need to request specific fields at this time.
    what a teaser!

    <cough>doi?</cough>

    looking forward
  • Excellent news! Thank you
  • Out of curiosity will these include any custom fields? Or the ability to repurpose existing fields for other types?
  • @Negyb: No, that's not what this is about.
  • Yessss. I'm already so happy with v7, everything else getting added is just icing on the cake
  • As you wrote: "Many changes are planned, so there's no need to request specific fields at this time." - can you list these planned changes?
    "Place" and "publisher" field are missing for "journal Article" type (I don't uderstand why - "place" is in book, conference, presentation, chapter - but not in article...)
  • edited 5 days ago
    Which fields are present in a type is mostly dictated by the need to use them in citations. For example, publisher and publication place are not used for journal articles in any style that I know.

    Now of course this need can change over time. For years, DOIs have been assigned mostly to articles and they are becoming commonplace these days - this is way I'm excited by this announcement :-)
  • edited 5 days ago
    @dstillman
    Feature requests on the list are not planned for the nearest release. Maybe they are considered, but in which version? Nobody knows.
    E.g the one mentioned above is from 2011. So it's 14 years old.,

    @aborel
    I don't want to be rude, but software creators doing programming hard work don't assume (I hope) that if they don't know something, it's not exist. At least they shouldn't;-) Believe me, there are so many so ridiculous citation requirements in the world.. Publication place is one of them and in fact, may be MUST HAVE for not fully digitalized, analogue, old publications. There are still pleathora of them.
  • edited 5 days ago
    @TomassoTomassini: No fields have been added to Zotero for over 15 years for technical reasons. The whole point of this thread is that we're beginning the process of adding that backlog of new fields. The discussions for those are on the issue tracker above. The vast majority of fields people ask for (like Publisher/Place on Journal Article) have already been agreed on many years ago, which is why we're asking people not to start littering this thread with questions about them until we've had a chance to roll out more fields.
  • @TomassoTomassini I am fully aware of the multiplicity of styles and their many widely different expectations - and I know I don't know them all even after years of librarianship. But I am also aware that the all-encompassing interfaces that we librarians know and love can be somewhat overwhelming for users, and that programmers need to prioritize stuff.

    Sorry if my message came out wrong, and I don't perceive unnecessary harshness in yours :-)
  • @dstillman
    great. fingers crossed!
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