Upgrade StorageAdding DOI to Thesis Entry Type (AND *please* Add Dissertation Item Type with DOI)?
The only discussion I found on this was from 2010, which referenced that future versions would improve this issue; however, they have not.
Those of us who research and study in the social sciences (History, in my case) often reference Dissertations or master's Theses published by universities and now found online in various repositories.
YES, I know there is a "Thesis" Item Type that one could use for these, but there are remaining problems.
The issues:
-- Many MA Thesis and Dissertations now get a DOI number. The Thesis Item Type does not allow for a DOI which is really problematic.
-- Related to above, yes, I know I can put the DOI in the Extra field but that doesn't allow me the same database integrations b/c it's just stuck in an extra field with other stuff. I have other tools I use that pull from Zotero and Extra is just not a viable field for something so important.
-- If you go with "Thesis" for this type of work, the "Type" subfield (intended for Dissertation, Master's Thesis, Undergrad Thesis or whatever is the appropriate type of academic pub) is then freeform by the user, which can allow for unintended variations. Ideally, you would have the exact types of academic publications in the Item Type and only have to use "Thesis" as a catch all when necessary. Even in that, the "Type" of "Thesis" Item Type should dropdown that are standardized and then allow for an other. {And, again, I would separate Dissertation from thesis because, academically (I'm sure many would agree), they are very different things.}}
-- So, if you instead enter the work in Zotero by the DOI since it is the better permanent reference to the published Master's Thesis or Dissertation, it changes the Item Type to a Journal Article. Now it is an entirely wrong Item Type and many of the fields in the entry are not right for what you would want for an academic publication (that ARE correct in Thesis - University, Place, Date, etc). Additionally, the Dissertation-made-Journal-Article entry now has numerous fields that are inappropriate for the Thesis/Dissertation and remain empty.
-- This ends up making an exported citation from Zotero unusable without workarounds.
So, I just wanted to put this out there for experienced users?
And ask that Zotero put this on an update list for future versions? Zotero is a tool for *academic use*, and here, an area that is the least well-managed is actual published works from academia?
Seems like Z could do better?
Thanks for thoughts~
Those of us who research and study in the social sciences (History, in my case) often reference Dissertations or master's Theses published by universities and now found online in various repositories.
YES, I know there is a "Thesis" Item Type that one could use for these, but there are remaining problems.
The issues:
-- Many MA Thesis and Dissertations now get a DOI number. The Thesis Item Type does not allow for a DOI which is really problematic.
-- Related to above, yes, I know I can put the DOI in the Extra field but that doesn't allow me the same database integrations b/c it's just stuck in an extra field with other stuff. I have other tools I use that pull from Zotero and Extra is just not a viable field for something so important.
-- If you go with "Thesis" for this type of work, the "Type" subfield (intended for Dissertation, Master's Thesis, Undergrad Thesis or whatever is the appropriate type of academic pub) is then freeform by the user, which can allow for unintended variations. Ideally, you would have the exact types of academic publications in the Item Type and only have to use "Thesis" as a catch all when necessary. Even in that, the "Type" of "Thesis" Item Type should dropdown that are standardized and then allow for an other. {And, again, I would separate Dissertation from thesis because, academically (I'm sure many would agree), they are very different things.}}
-- So, if you instead enter the work in Zotero by the DOI since it is the better permanent reference to the published Master's Thesis or Dissertation, it changes the Item Type to a Journal Article. Now it is an entirely wrong Item Type and many of the fields in the entry are not right for what you would want for an academic publication (that ARE correct in Thesis - University, Place, Date, etc). Additionally, the Dissertation-made-Journal-Article entry now has numerous fields that are inappropriate for the Thesis/Dissertation and remain empty.
-- This ends up making an exported citation from Zotero unusable without workarounds.
So, I just wanted to put this out there for experienced users?
And ask that Zotero put this on an update list for future versions? Zotero is a tool for *academic use*, and here, an area that is the least well-managed is actual published works from academia?
Seems like Z could do better?
Thanks for thoughts~
I'm pretty sure there won't be thesis subtypes as separate item types (and in US English, at least, a doctoral dissertation is definitely a thesis, often referred to as PhD Thesis) and I doubt Zotero will try to figure out a controlled vocabulary for theses for the type field either: it's just not worth it.
Import by DOI doesn't actually change item type to journal article; that's most likely a problem with how the item is registered by the institution. See e.g. 10.17077/etd.xnw0xnau for a thesis importing as such. If you give us some examples, we can say more.