Thanks for your response, I did read that post prior to asking on this forum but I still was struggling to understand. I realised that the harpoon symbol can be clicked on and one can select the input/info you prefer to be kept. I think that's right?


My issue is around having a group library full of a mix draggged pdfs, some Zotero Connector imports, screenshots etc. and for our screening we need there to be text in the abstract field for each item. (This project has been growing for some time in a team and sources are all over the place and now we need to get all these sources together and write an emergent literature review using co-productive methods).

I've made a folder to show which items do not have anything in the 'abstract' field. (This was a struggle and I had to wrangle with Google to help me make one that eventually actually (seems) to have worked. I'm manually going through these and opening the websites and first adding with the zotero connector (just incase) but then copy and pasting abstracts to the abstract field (134 to go). With grey literature if it's like a website I make a summary of the website and insert it into the 'abstract' field.

My concern was with choosing master documents and the possibility of losing the abstract I worked so hard to get. But then Google eventually gave me this answer which helped directly outline what exactly is kept and what is changed in the merging/master process that I didn't manage to understand from your article.

My Question to Google: In de duplication/merge in Zotero you cant see field 'abstract'. If I choose item without abstract as master then merge, will I lose abstract info in item not chosen as master?

Google's answer:
No. You will not lose the abstract information.
Zotero handles merging safely to prevent data loss:
Non-Empty Fields Win: If the master item has an empty abstract field, and the duplicate item contains an abstract, Zotero automatically merges the abstract into the final saved item.
Master Only Settles Conflicts: The choice of "master" is only used to resolve direct conflicts, such as when both items have different text written in the same field.
All Extra Data Preserved: All tags, collections, notes, attachments (PDFs), and unique field data from both items are combined into the final merged item.
If you want to be completely sure before proceeding, you can manually toggle conflicting fields in the right-hand panel during the merge process to choose exactly which version of a field to keep.
If you are dealing with a large number of duplicates, tell me:
Approximately how many duplicates do you need to merge?
Are you looking for a way to bulk-merge items automatically?
I can provide steps or plugin recommendations to speed up your library cleanup.

I have tried some plugins that are popular on the internet for importing metadata but it seems that Zotero 9 doesn't manage them as well as 7/8 did. So manual is the way to go.

I'm an absolute newby to Zotero and have been trying to figure out a workflow with this mess of sources all over the place in our team and it's been just a tad confusing looking for videos to help with the basics (sometimes videos are easier than Zotero documentation) and then the versions keep changing rapidly. Or you search for answers but the answers are based on older versions and layouts are just slightly different etc. But I'm learning multiple tools all at the same time and that's why it becomes a bit much.

PS: Why can't one add the 'abstract' field to see it in the middle panel? Also, I'm not 100% sure that the Zotero Connector always reliably captures the abstract on a journal article even where one has access to the pdf. Am I wrong?

Anyway. Thanks for the work on Zotero!

Hi. Noted about AI.

Thanks for your response. I appreciate it. The problem is, when I am de-duplicating I can't seem to find a way to figure out which one of the blocks with different time stamps in it is the one that has the abstract. There's no way to view this?

One answer is to de-duplicate before going in and fixing metadata. But I am working from a 'saved search' that I created with all the docs that don't have abstracts. This means that as soon a I add the abstract it goes to duplicates as there are now two versions...

I don't know what to do right now.

Block with most recent time stamp is hopefully one you last worked on and added to abstract so choose that one as master?

I still don't really understand master versions in de-duplication and what is lost and what isn't etc.

Any ideas on how to make this process smoother and less chaotic would be appreciated, I am working with a lot of grey lit and screen shots here so it's all a bit tricky.

There' s nothing great (that's why I think the abstract issue needs to get fix pretty urgently) but two things that might help in the meantime:
1. You can select individual items in the duplicate view using ctrl+click and you can then see the whole right-hand panel, including abstract
2. You can show the "Date Added" column in the middle panel which is the information shown in the toggle at the top of the merge dialog.

To be very clear, this is far from ideal, but that's what I'd currently do.

Sorry, adamsmith, only saw your response right now after I posted my comment...can't think about it right now, will think about it, might have another question, have to dash now.