Settings for journal title abbreaviations?

ben_a · 2026-09-10T02:19:44+00:00

I have a paper under review, the reviewer tells me the journal titles are abbreviated inconsistently - some are abbreviated, others are not. How can i fix this? Apparently there used to be a check box for automatic abbreviation in the document preferences but this option seems to be gone in Zotero 10

ben_a · 2026-09-10T02:22:35+00:00

Another problem I just noticed is that Zotero is capitalising the species name in the article names.

Example - in my library the paper is shown like this:

Comparative Proteomics Reveal Diverse Functions and Dynamic Changes of Bombyx mori Silk Proteins Spun from Different Development Stages

In the formatted bibliography it shown like this:

Comparative Proteomics Reveal Diverse Functions and Dynamic Changes of Bombyx Mori Silk Proteins Spun from Different Development Stages

poettli · 2026-09-10T02:37:47+00:00

Apparently there used to be a check box for automatic abbreviation in the document preferences but this option seems to be gone in Zotero 10

It is still here, but not all the styles have this option. What style are you talking about?

Zotero recommends to store titles in sentence case, so the casing is managed by the style used. To suppress capitalization rule, use <span class="nocase"> and </span>

ben_a · 2026-09-10T03:38:50+00:00

Thanks for the quick response! The style is for ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.

Thanks for the tip about capitalisation, I'll try the span class tag. For storing titles in sentence case, i import everything using the zotero plugin for Firefox, I assumed if i did that it would keep capitalisation consistent. Do you mean I should go through and change all my titles to sentence case? This is one of the main reasons I started using Zotero, I didn't want to have to manually manage reference metadata. Including journal title abbreviations because that's one of the biggest headaches with Endnote.

poettli · 2026-09-10T03:54:03+00:00

Do you mean I should go through and change all my titles to sentence case?

I do it for every item I import (Right click -> sentence case), because it is always better to check the metadata you import. (The quality of the metadata imported by Zotero translators relies on the quality of the metadata exposed by the websites, if I am not mistaken.)

ben_a · 2026-09-10T03:57:44+00:00

OK thanks i will start doing this. So is there anything I can do to fix the journal title abbreviation inconsistencies? I guess I have to manually change the journal title for each reference?

ben_a · 2026-09-10T04:01:31+00:00

Oh I just discovered the new batch editing features, I've sorted my library by publication, I'll correct them all in bulk. Thanks!

ben_a · 2026-09-10T04:16:39+00:00

OK I'm still having issues, I made sure all journal titles are listed in full in the reference metadata, but Zotero is still abbreviating them inconsistently. For example:

International Journal of Biological Macromolecules - this journal is not abbreviated (should be Int J Biol Macromol)

J. Mol. Biol. - this journal is abbreviated with full stops after each word

Sci Rep - this journal is abbreviated without the fullstops.

All items are entered in my library with the full journal name.

poettli · 2026-09-10T04:27:25+00:00

In the Zotero document preferences, is "Use MEDLINE journal abbreviations" checked? If not, Zotero uses the information entered in the "Journal Abbr" field. (I suspect you have nothing in the case of International Journal of Biological Macromolecules and "Sci Rep" entered for Scientific Reports.)

ben_a · 2026-09-10T05:47:30+00:00

Oh I see, I was not even aware of the Journal Abbr field. Thank you for this, I turned on the medline abbreviations and it all looks good.

nathan.hopson · 2026-09-12T04:59:32+00:00

Not sure if this should be a separate thread, so please split it off if it should be.

*tl,dr*
Feature request: a Language field toggle so that MEDLINE abbreviation is overridden for non-English publications.

My issue with "Journal Abbr" and "Use MEDLINE journal abbreviations" is that MEDLINE doesn't have any idea what to do with Japanese journals. It's also not particularly helpful with some of the other languages I use for research (French, Norwegian, etc.) but the main problem is Japanese.

For example:
Publication: Kokuritsu Minzokugaku Hakubutsukan kenkyū hōkoku
Journal Abbr: Minpaku hōkoku

but MEDLINE cites the full publication title.

Sometimes MEDLINE does well enough:
Ruud LC. Hvordan kan. Nord Museol. 2024;36(1):116-135.

But I want:
Jamin J. Anders Breivik et le « marxisme culturel ». Amnis. 2013;(12).

not:
Jamin J. Anders Breivik et le « marxisme culturel ». Amnis Rev D’études Sociétés Cult Contemp Eur. 2013;(12).

(Worse, the journal is actually "Amnis: Revue d’études des sociétés et cultures contemporaines Europe/Amérique," so a single slash erases America entirely. Thanks MEDLINE)

So the feature requested here is a default setting to not apply MEDLINE abbreviations to non-English journals, with a toggle to override this (or vice versa, in a pinch).

PS: Inaccurate auto-capitalization of non-English titles is also an issue, as can be seen in the French example.