Book Section (i.e. @inbook) — Why No Chapter Metadata Field?

avanavana
The canonical BibTeΧ template for @inbook (i.e. https://www.bibtex.com/t/template-inbook/) includes "chapter" as a metadata field.

See full template here:
```
@inbook{citekey,
author = "",
title = "",
chapter = "",
publisher = "",
year = "",
volume = "",
number = "",
series = "",
type = "",
address = "",
edition = "",
month = "",
pages = "",
note = "",
annote = ""
}
```

Even the most minimal template specified by BibTeΧ includes the chapter field:

```
@inbook{citekey,
editor = "",
title = "",
chapter = "",
publisher = "",
year = ""
}
```

When thinking of a "book section", in practice, this most commonly means "book chapter".

Yet Zotero's "book section" metadata does not include "chapter" as a field. This is problematic—it means I've been unable to make use of the chapter metadata included in every single book chapter BibTeΧ file I've imported into my library. Instead, I've had to go and backfill chapter information in the "extra" field in these items, which is extra manual work and also makes it more difficult to filter on and query (both in the Zotero UI and with the API).

Please fix this ASAP! It's been missing for years, and I can't think of a good reason why.
  • adamsmith
    (Zotero isn't a BibTeX manager and BibTeX most certainly isn't some sort of gold standard for metadata, so what BibTeX does is only marginally relevant).
    What does chapter do though? Just a chapter number? And if so, when and how is that used? I'm just not seeing this in citations, including in the science & engineering disciplines that would use BibTeX
  • rafael.html
    Chapter numbers explicitate hierarchy when referencing a book section. Page numbers don't tell you whether the reference is a chapter, a subchapter, a single paragraph or an arbitrary text fragment.

    Several relevant styles guides do support it and perhaps Zotero is missing support for multiple location fields, not just for chapters.

    Example from the ABNT (Brazil) style guide:

    MANFROI, V. Vinho branco. In: VENTURINI FILHO, W. G. (coord.). Bebidas alcoólicas: ciência e tecnologia. São Paulo: Blucher, 2010. v. 1, cap. 7, p. 143-163.

    Examples from the NLM Style Guide (US):

    Riffenburgh RH. Statistics in medicine. 2nd ed. Amsterdam (Netherlands): Elsevier Academic Press; c2006. Chapter 24, Regression and correlation methods; p. 447-86.

    Speroff, Leon; Fritz, Marc A. Clinical gynecologic endocrinology and infertility. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; c2005. Chapter 29, Endometriosis; p. 1103-33.

    Wood AF, Smith MJ. Online communication: linking technology, identity, and culture. Mahwah (NJ): Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; c2001. Figure A.1, Linear versus hypertext; p. 204.

    I believe the best solution would be to have something like the author field for locations. The user could reference one or more location types, including chapters, pages, tables and figures.
  • mhvg1994
    I second this post. Chapter titles are common throughout the chemical citation styles. For example:

    RSC style guide:
    M. Webster, in The Circular Economy: Meeting Sustainable Development Goals, ed. S. K. Ghosh and G. Eduljee, Royal Society of Chemistry, London, 2023, ch. 3, pp. 65-91.

    AIP Style Guide:
    Robert G. Fuller, in Point Defects in Solids, edited by James H. Crawford, Jr. and Lawrence M. Slifkin (Plenum, New York, 1972), Vol. 1, Chap. 2, pp. 103-150.

    Angewante Chemie:
    “S. Ronca 2017, Chapter 10-Polyethylene.” in Brydson′s Plastics Materials. Eighth Ed., edited by M. Gilbert, Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-323-35824-8.

    So it's not at all uncommon, and sometimes required.
  • aborel
    Chapter titles are already supported out of the box: it's just the item title, and book sections have a Book Title for the book itself.

    What the first posters are asking for is a field for the chapter **number** (and I agree that it would be useful). At the moment, this looks possible using an Extra field https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/item_types_and_fields#citeable_fields_not_included_in_zotero

    The relevant styles should pick it up if necessary, but you might want to check with a practical example.
  • mhvg1994
    Gah, sorry, I misspoke, I meant chapter numbers
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