Updating references based on their DOI

thomasgutjahr
edited December 21, 2022
Newly published journal articles are often available electronically before the final volume, issue, and page numbers are available. Most of these journal articles have DOIs and I was wondering if there are plans to automatically update such records or allow to manually update them based on the DOI (e.g. via pull-down of the DOI field label)?
At the moment, the only 'solution' I have is to either manually add the volume/issue/page (and updated publication year) information OR create a new entry and then merge the old and new entries (e.g. if I made notes to the original entry).
  • adamsmith
    Yes, that's planned (and likey to happen sooner rather than later), but currently what you're describing are indeed your best options.
  • johnmy
    For Windows user, there is a Quicker action to update item meta info based on DOI.
    https://getquicker.net/Sharedaction?code=78da8f40-e73a-46e8-da6b-08da76a0d1ac
  • eggsbrown
    This would be a great feature -- one thing that seems to happen in the process, is that the date of a publication gets updated. Seems like there's an underlying "online first" date, and then a subsequent "publication" date. Are there any thoughts about how to keep the online first date?
  • shawn.hh.lin
    @adamsmith This is currently the main reason keeping me with Endnote. Since Zotero 7 just came out, is there any update regarding this function? Will it be added in a future update of Zotero 7? (updating based on DOI or PMCID)
  • frankyates
    There definitely should be a button to update current citation with the info available on doi. Mendeley has done it since the beginning, time to beat them !
  • thomasgutjahr
    2 years later and version 7 - I still would highly welcome the feature. Could actually expand it by selecting references and allow to 'update references' via right-click context menu (in analogy to 'Find full text'.
  • kate.nyhan
    Hi - like Thomas and the other people in this thread, I would value an "update record" feature. I just spoke with a library user who wants to switch away from EndNote but doesn't want to lose this feature.
  • jdlea
    Have you tried Zotero Linter? https://github.com/northword/zotero-format-metadata
  • jamarin
    Linter Work perfect. Retrieve fields option
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1357852/9n0b10zwjvgiiekcpmhc.png
  • andrewjyee
    Yes, this would be a key feature to include, to update the references, as reference information gets updated from being available online to actual volume number and page number.
  • adamsmith
    The linked plugin really works nicely.
  • amybergeronbiblio
    I also think this is an essential feature. I used to think EndNote's advantage in this area was less of a big deal, but since people are using AI lit search tools more and more often, and the metadata exported is not always of high quality (for example, Undermind RIS exports typically don't seem to have volume or issue numbers), a "find reference update" feature native to the Zotero software is absolutely necessary. I am a librarian at a large academic university, and it's just not feasible to tell users to download a third-party plugin in order to do this.
  • aborel
    edited 11 days ago
    This academic librarian respectfully disagrees.
    If your users understand the value of that feature, they will listen (or read the instructions, or watch the video - don't hesitate to be creative!).
    If they don't, well... they were not going to use it even if it was a core functionality.
  • amybergeronbiblio
    I'm not sure I follow, @aborel, could you elaborate?

    For context, my institution offers a license for EndNote to all members of the community. In a context where Zotero is the only supported software, and the only way to get complete metadata in their references from AI tools is to download a 3rd party plugin - it would for sure be more feasible. I am still not convinced that the majority would actually do it.

    But in a situation where the user can either (a) export to EndNote and use a native feature to work around the incomplete metadata, or (b) export to Zotero, spend time understanding how to download and install a 3rd-party plugin, then run that to work around the incomplete metadata... it seems fair to me to say that users will just opt for EndNote. Which I think is a shame; I think Zotero outperforms EndNote in many ways, particularly for collaborative workflows, but I think the short-term pain point would certainly push many / most users to choose the software that can do what they need right out of the box.

    If I have misunderstood you I am very open to new perspectives.
  • adamsmith
    The plugin ecosystem is a major selling point for Zotero and "if there's something Zotero isn't able to do that you would like it to do, there's a good chance there's a plugin" should be part of even introductory 45mins training and one that I think users tend to be receptive to (that includes, of course, among other things, highly customizable AI integrations of all kinds for users so inclined).

    But everyone agrees that updating metadata is a core feature and Zotero is working on it, they just don't tend to release things unless they're entirely happy with how they're working.
  • aborel
    edited 11 days ago
    I prefer Zotero as well (by a very long shot)!

    I had not realized that you were operating in an officially Endnote context - that's not exactly what I had in mind, my apologies. I can see why you could consider this extra step to gain the desired functionality to be problematic while trying to educate people about a better tool.

    With this change of perspective, my point becomes the following: do people actually take advantage of the functionality in Endnote? In my experience, many users will just not notice it unless someone teaches them. And even then, some will just not use it. This means that you need to provide some training/support anyway - and you have the opportunity to explain all the advantages of Zotero, including the fact that it supports plugins. They are really not difficult to install and some of them provide very, very, very cool functionalities. In my opinion it's 100% feasible. Not everybody will listen, but that's just how people are :-)
Sign In or Register to comment.