Please add the AMA citation style if possible (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals).
I realize I am a little late in the game, but for me the most ideal solution would be an extension that would let me choose the fields to be included, and the order in which they appear. Some questions I have so far, is there a depository for contributors that have generated their own styles, and is there a "manual" or suggestion site on how to generate your own styles. I could see that the many Zotero users would provide incredible contributions. Once again, most of these questions/suggestions are likely a repeat of someone. Wonderful, wonderful product so far. Since I am mostly dependent on Endnote, I am very interested to see whether this could replace that program.
Admittedly, creating new styles and getting them activated in Zotero remains a bit tricky. But I expect this problem will slowly be solved in ways that go way beyond Endnote.
My vision (I am the author of the style language) is to have distributed, project-independent, style repositories; where users can just easily subscribe to the styles they're interested in, and they are seamlessly updated as they get improved (much like how the translators now work).
May I boldly ask for two?
Harvard and IEEE, pretty please. They are major styles for a really large community.
And unfortunately without these two I cannot really use Zotero ... :-(
On the positive side - I very clearly would like to use it ... :-)
Many thanks in advance.
Wlodek
Let me say first that zotero is a clearly superior tool to standalone citation managers, like RefMan... I prefer Zotero, and I use it a lot - the main advantage is the browser integration.
From the above comments, it is clear that it is impossible to satisfy everybody's wishes, some people need this format, some people need a different format. None of these groups of people with the need for the same format will big enough to justify picking a particular export format as a priority...MAybe that is why zotero only offers a handful formats to export out...? I am a biologist and I regularly use about 6-7 different formats for publishing in different journals. And if the export format is different with just a tiny bit from the required, you need to edit manually the whole bibliography...The solution: a utility which allows the user to define easily the format he or she is interested in. EndNote and Reference Manager has this utility. Once the users can define these rules, they could upload a definition file, and the list of supported format would very quickly grow... Real open source collaboration solution... The quality of these definitions would be easily controlled: everybody sees whether the style is correct or not...
Once this killer feature is added, I see no reason for anyone to fire up Reference Manager or Endnote any more... And another commercial solution goes out of business;-))
Viktor, AFAIK, this is exactly what is planned. The XBib Project by Bruce D'Arcus together with the Zotero folks are developing a citation style language (CSL) to describe citation style definitions in a generic way. Users will eventually be able to use a GUI to add new styles to an online repository and Zotero will automatically retrieve new/updated styles. And other tools (such as OpenOffice or refbase) will hopefully make use of the same style files to come up with a truly useful ecosystem.
Right, what Matthias said. I think the way forward is to incrementally build up the CSL previewer that Dan wrote. First it could just have some basic parameters options that would maybe get the user 95% to a finished style. Then those could be extended over time to close the gap.
In any case, my goal is an open, distributed set of citation style repositories, such that ultimately none of us ever have to think about citation styles again ;-)
Zotero really should be able to use hundreds or thousands of different formats used by basic science journals - there is very little uniformity among publishers.
Endnote has a ton of formats codified. Is there a program that will convert Endnote styles into CSL? This would solve most of the problem in one fell swoop.
I'd guess that when the CSL spec has been finalized and when there's an easy infrastructure to add/edit CSL files, the number of available styles will increase quickly.
AFAIK, Endnote styles are in binary format, so I don't think there's a way to convert these into something else.
torsten: this is a planned feature, to be implemented after we move to a more flexible hierarchical item type model (that can then be extended by users).
The first step is not an editing interface. The very first step is that we need to move styles online. Zotero should not be storing CSL files in the database, unless a user happens to select one and it gets cached.
So, steps:
1. update Zotero to grab and update CSL styles from the web (using the link URI) 2. add a UI to browse style repositories (an extension of 2) 3. extend the CSL previewer to add basic parameter options to create at least a decent skeleton of the style (sort of like how BibTeX's makebst works) 4. the full editor (which is going to be much more difficult, and hence more work; might not even be worth the trouble given more pressing needs)
The basic premise really needs to be that you make it much easier for people to create and edit styles so that i the long run they never have to think about it. Ultimately, if I want to submit an article to a journal, I should be able to go to their website and click some link to activate a style in Zotero. I shouldn't ever have to bother with the arcane details of their style requirements.
We've just got to get over that hump of making it much easier to do this.
Harvard, harvard, harvard please, please, please with sugar on!
In most UK Universities, Harvard is the prodominant referencing style. Leeds Metropolitan (www.leedsmet.ac.uk) has an excellent written guide for how to reference to this style.
bdarcus wrote: 4. the full editor (which is going to be much more difficult, and hence more work; might not even be worth the trouble given more pressing needs) i don't think its Zotero's role to have a GUI for the creation of CSL files. a new project could be started for a 'CSL Editor', as CSL could be used in another kind of application. but for sure i won't complain having it directly in zotero :)
actually im working on a custom style but the deployment of it is really tuff as i need to prepare batch/package for the different windows/macosx/linux OS's. having a 'import CSL style' would be really appreciated.
i don't think its Zotero's role to have a GUI for the creation of CSL files. a new project could be started for a 'CSL Editor', as CSL could be used in another kind of application. but for sure i won't complain having it directly in zotero :)
I think Dan has mentioned they want to gradually built this into the scaffold tool, which probably makes sense. A lot of the same UI you use to create translators can be used for styles.
actually im working on a custom style but the deployment of it is really tuff as i need to prepare batch/package for the different windows/macosx/linux OS's. having a 'import CSL style' would be really appreciated.
Definitely. I'm thinking a method that take a URI as a parameter. In the mid-term that URI should be HTTP resolvable, but in the short-run I guess one could use file:/// URIs.
BTW, it would also be good if Zotero validated the style files before loading. I keep thinking a simple web service might be appropriate for this?
I'm late to this, but I'm also from the sciences end, and so I'd like to suggest the same as everyone else
Nature Science Microbiology (and the other journals from American Society from Microbiology: Infection and Immunity, etc) PLoS Cell
etc.
I also agree that an ability to customize would be wonderful.
Most important to me, though, would be to mimic a wonderful feature that Endnote has. Until Zotero can do this, I'm stuck using endnote for the actual paper process:
If you're writing in a format which uses numbers to sort by the order in which the references are cited, Endnote can let you drag, drop, insert, and delete text with imbedded citations, and still keep track of it all. This means you can cite *Jones et al* as (1), write a bunch, then realize that *Smith et al* should really come before Jones. You go back, introduce and discuss Smith, and then cite him - he becomes Smith (1) and Jones automatically becomes Jones (2). Does that makes sense?
That sort of smart, intuitive, simple citation management is the sort of thing Zotero, with its beautiful interface, should strive for.
using the Chicago Manual Style (one of the few pre-loaded styles that has uses numbers for the in text citations) does exactly what your asking for - i.e. always keeps the references numbered in order, no matter if you go back to the start and insert a fresh paragraph with citations.... So i think that feature is already there in Zotero...
is anyone willing to post a step by step faq for making a custom style (perhaps with an example CLS file and the output in word)... I have the basics of XML wiring but am unsure exactly how to add the file into the sqlite db...
Adding Turabian and Bluebook styles would be a tremendous benefit to students in divinity and law, respectively. I know it's tricky, but if the capitalization glitch with article titles in APA could be fixed that would also be helpful.
It would be good to see Society for Biblical Literature format. It's a Chicago/Turabian derivative I think but would be very useful to have. Thanks for Zotero - I'm slowly moving everything to it. John
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Please add the AMA citation style if possible (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals).
And thanks so much for such an awesome product!
<http://dev.zotero.org/creating_citation_styles>;
My vision (I am the author of the style language) is to have distributed, project-independent, style repositories; where users can just easily subscribe to the styles they're interested in, and they are seamlessly updated as they get improved (much like how the translators now work).
Harvard and IEEE, pretty please. They are major styles for a really large community.
And unfortunately without these two I cannot really use Zotero ... :-(
On the positive side - I very clearly would like to use it ... :-)
Many thanks in advance.
Wlodek
From the above comments, it is clear that it is impossible to satisfy everybody's wishes, some people need this format, some people need a different format. None of these groups of people with the need for the same format will big enough to justify picking a particular export format as a priority...MAybe that is why zotero only offers a handful formats to export out...? I am a biologist and I regularly use about 6-7 different formats for publishing in different journals. And if the export format is different with just a tiny bit from the required, you need to edit manually the whole bibliography...The solution: a utility which allows the user to define easily the format he or she is interested in. EndNote and Reference Manager has this utility. Once the users can define these rules, they could upload a definition file, and the list of supported format would very quickly grow... Real open source collaboration solution... The quality of these definitions would be easily controlled: everybody sees whether the style is correct or not...
Once this killer feature is added, I see no reason for anyone to fire up Reference Manager or Endnote any more... And another commercial solution goes out of business;-))
Viktor
In any case, my goal is an open, distributed set of citation style repositories, such that ultimately none of us ever have to think about citation styles again ;-)
Endnote has a ton of formats codified. Is there a program that will convert Endnote styles into CSL? This would solve most of the problem in one fell swoop.
AFAIK, Endnote styles are in binary format, so I don't think there's a way to convert these into something else.
So, steps:
1. update Zotero to grab and update CSL styles from the web (using the link URI)
2. add a UI to browse style repositories (an extension of 2)
3. extend the CSL previewer to add basic parameter options to create at least a decent skeleton of the style (sort of like how BibTeX's makebst works)
4. the full editor (which is going to be much more difficult, and hence more work; might not even be worth the trouble given more pressing needs)
The basic premise really needs to be that you make it much easier for people to create and edit styles so that i the long run they never have to think about it. Ultimately, if I want to submit an article to a journal, I should be able to go to their website and click some link to activate a style in Zotero. I shouldn't ever have to bother with the arcane details of their style requirements.
We've just got to get over that hump of making it much easier to do this.
In most UK Universities, Harvard is the prodominant referencing style. Leeds Metropolitan (www.leedsmet.ac.uk) has an excellent written guide for how to reference to this style.
And for later definitely the possibility of editing the format.
4. the full editor (which is going to be much more difficult, and hence more work; might not even be worth the trouble given more pressing needs)
i don't think its Zotero's role to have a GUI for the creation of CSL files. a new project could be started for a 'CSL Editor', as CSL could be used in another kind of application. but for sure i won't complain having it directly in zotero :)
actually im working on a custom style but the deployment of it is really tuff as i need to prepare batch/package for the different windows/macosx/linux OS's.
having a 'import CSL style' would be really appreciated.
BTW, it would also be good if Zotero validated the style files before loading. I keep thinking a simple web service might be appropriate for this?
http://www.saa.org/Publications/StyleGuide/styleGuide.pdf
It's similar but not identical to the AAA style requested by some others, above. Save my life this fall by adding this!
i would really like a simple style for my documents like this:
in text:
[1] or [2,3] or even [1,2,3,4]
with full bibliography:
1. Authors; year; journaltitle; volume; pages; PMID;
2. Authors; year; journaltitle; volume; pages; PMID;
3. Authors; year; journaltitle; volume; pages; PMID;
or short biblography:
1 PIMD
2 PMID
3 PMID
thanks
Andy
Nature
Science
Microbiology (and the other journals from American Society from Microbiology: Infection and Immunity, etc)
PLoS
Cell
etc.
I also agree that an ability to customize would be wonderful.
Most important to me, though, would be to mimic a wonderful feature that Endnote has. Until Zotero can do this, I'm stuck using endnote for the actual paper process:
If you're writing in a format which uses numbers to sort by the order in which the references are cited, Endnote can let you drag, drop, insert, and delete text with imbedded citations, and still keep track of it all. This means you can cite *Jones et al* as (1), write a bunch, then realize that *Smith et al* should really come before Jones. You go back, introduce and discuss Smith, and then cite him - he becomes Smith (1) and Jones automatically becomes Jones (2). Does that makes sense?
That sort of smart, intuitive, simple citation management is the sort of thing Zotero, with its beautiful interface, should strive for.
using the Chicago Manual Style (one of the few pre-loaded styles that has uses numbers for the in text citations) does exactly what your asking for - i.e. always keeps the references numbered in order, no matter if you go back to the start and insert a fresh paragraph with citations.... So i think that feature is already there in Zotero...
is anyone willing to post a step by step faq for making a custom style (perhaps with an example CLS file and the output in word)... I have the basics of XML wiring but am unsure exactly how to add the file into the sqlite db...
thanks
andy
Thanks!
Jon
1. easily customizable formats
2. the usual suspects: Science, Nature, PNAS
3. ecology journals: Ecology (and family), Ecology letters, Journal of Ecology, Oecologia, Oikos, etc