Author names displaying incorrectly in citations: first name or initial instead of last name

Hello,
I am using Zotero version 7.0.22 (64-bit) on Windows 10 with Chrome.
When I import articles from PubMed and Google Scholar, I often notice that the author names appear incorrectly in citations and bibliographies, showing the first name or initials where the last name should be.
I am using the APA 7th edition citation style and integrating citations into Word 2007 via the Zotero plugin.
I have tried manually editing author names and switching citation styles, but the issue persists.
Has anyone experienced this problem or knows how to fix it?
Thank you in advance for your help!
  • I hadn’t used Zotero for a while and hadn’t updated it in a long time. Now, with version 7.0.22 (64-bit), I’m facing more problems than solutions.
    Zotero used to be great and easy to use, but now it has become very complicated with many issues and no clear solutions.
    These difficulties make it less competitive compared to other reference management tools.
  • edited July 26, 2025
    No, this is a misunderstanding. There's absolutely nothing new here. As explained on the linked page, Zotero is following the guidelines of the citation style you're using. It has always done so.

    If you're having trouble with something, you can provide screenshots of the data you have entered in the item pane for the items in question and the citations you're getting, but this sort of disambiguation is correct for APA.

  • https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u28271/m4k50c5jemarey6pvrmn.jpg


    Please note that when importing references from PubMed or Google Scholar, the first name is sometimes imported in place of the last name. This is problematic, as it is not feasible to correct each entry manually on an individual basis. I would appreciate guidance on how to resolve this issue more efficiently.
  • OK, but that's not related to your citations or bibliography. That's purely a data import issue.

    If you're getting bad data from somewhere, provide an example URL you're saving from and we can say more.

  • https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u28271/az46dlpmu91fp68p9enw.jpg


    It is neither practical nor convenient to manually change the order of first and last names. This process needs to be handled automatically.
  • Thank you for your reply.
    Here is an example URL from which I am importing references where the first name is imported instead of the last name:
    [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40696243/]

    Could you please help me understand how to fix this issue at the import stage?
    Thank you very much for your assistance.
  • Assuming these are recent imports -- Pubmed is currently down (see https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/125707/zotero-does-not-find-articles-with-pmid#latest ) and you're getting poor quality imports as a fallback (you should have seen an error message during import alerting you to some issues). You'll just have to wait, I can't test right now but in all expectation this will be fixed ones Pubmed's backend is working again, likely by Monday the latest.
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