Journal title recognition issue: translators append location (e.g., “Hoboken, NJ”), and “Use MEDLINE

agocake
Hi all,

I’d like to report a recurring metadata issue when importing items into Zotero (macOS). When using translators to save journal articles, Zotero often captures the journal title/abbreviation incorrectly by appending the journal’s publication location to the journal name, for example:

Arthritis & Rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.)

Abbreviation becomes something like: “Arthritis Rheumatol. Hoboken NJ”

Similar issues also appear in other journals, e.g.

“Lancet Lond. Engl.”

“Int. J. Surg. Lond. Engl.”

“Adv. Mater. Deerfield Beach Fla”

“Small Weinheim. Bergstr. Ger.”

“Adv. Sci. Weinheim. Baden-Wurtt. Ger.”

Expected behavior

The journal title (and “Journal Abbr.” field) should not include the location suffix, e.g.

Journal: Arthritis & Rheumatology

Abbreviation (MEDLINE): Arthritis Rheumatol.

Actual behavior

During import, the location suffix is saved into the journal title or journal abbreviation field.

Even when editing citation style settings and checking “Use MEDLINE journal abbreviations”, Zotero still outputs the imported location suffix in the bibliography/citations. It seems Zotero is using the “Journal Abbr.” field as-is, instead of normalizing/removing trailing location strings.

This causes a lot of manual cleanup in the library because I have to edit the journal fields item by item.

Example item (one case)

DOI: 10.1002/art.41735

Imported journal shows: Arthritis & Rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.)

Journal abbreviation shows: Arthritis Rheumatol. Hoboken NJ

Bibliography still includes the location even with “Use MEDLINE journal abbreviations” enabled.

Questions / request

Is this a known translator/metadata mapping issue (e.g., importing NLM “J TAI” / “JID” / place-of-publication into the journal title/abbr field)?

Could Zotero (or translators) avoid writing location into the journal title/abbr fields?

Alternatively, could the “Use MEDLINE journal abbreviations” option normalize/remove trailing place strings like “(Hoboken, N.J.) / Lond. Engl. / Weinheim…” when generating citations?

Environment

Zotero version: (fill in)

OS: macOS (fill in version)

Browser and connector: (Safari/Chrome/Firefox + Zotero Connector version)

Translators involved: (if known)

Thanks for any guidance or fixes.
  • AbeJellinek Zotero Team
    The DOI metadata for 10.1002/art.41735 doesn't contain "Hoboken, N.J.," and Zotero isn't saving any place name for me when I save that DOI. Try Help → Restart in Troubleshooting Mode..., which restarts Zotero with all plugins disabled. If that fixes it, you'll need to identify which plugin is responsible and report the issue to its developer.
  • adamsmith
    @AbeJellinek -- those come from PubMed, the PMID for that article is 33760390 and you'll get Hoboken when using that.
  • AbeJellinek Zotero Team
    Thanks. (@agocake, please always include the exact URL you saved from when reporting problems like this!)

    Pushed a fix. Your Zotero Connector should auto-update within a few minutes, or you can update translators manually from the Advanced pane of the Zotero settings.
  • agocake
    @AbeJellinek , thanks for the quick fix!

    I’ve updated the translators, and after the update the situation is much improved on my end.

    I tested saving items via the Zotero Connector from the following PubMed pages:

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41122029/

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33760390/

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41178221/

    In all three cases, Zotero now correctly separates the journal title from the place of publication. The journal name and MEDLINE abbreviation no longer include location strings like “Hoboken, NJ” or similar.

    When inserting citations into my manuscript, the output now looks correct, for example:

    Brisson, N.M., Gatti, A.A., Damm, P., Duda, G.N., and Maly, M.R. (2021). Association of Machine Learning-Based Predictions of Medial Knee Contact Force With Cartilage Loss Over 2.5 Years in Knee Osteoarthritis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 73, 1638–1645. https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41735
    .

    Chen, W., Wu, J., Li, L., Chen, X., Maiyalagan, T., Chen, W., and Jiang, Z. (2025). Decoding the Buried Interface: A Synergistic Framework for Mastering the Core Challenges of Solid-State Batteries. Small 21, e07163. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202507163
    .

    Utzeri, M., Gatto, M.L., Mancini, E., Orlandi, D., Cortis, D., Sasso, M., and Kumar, S. (2025). Adaptive Twisting Metamaterials. Adv. Mater. n/a, e13714. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202513714
    .

    Thanks again for the fast response and fix — this saves a lot of manual cleanup.
  • AbeJellinek Zotero Team
    Great! Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad it's working better.
  • enozkan
    While this change may be for the better, in some cases, it may cause trouble. For example, the journals "Biochemistry" and "Biochemistry (Moscow)" may now appear the same in the publication column and field. They are definitely not the same journal. Luckily Journal Abbr still saves with "(Mosc)".

    The place names appear to be present in titles when journal names are not unique in Pubmed.

    (I also don't see Lancet imported the way the OP mentions in old articles I saved.)
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