JSTOR: 8 character ISSN without the hyphen

DWL-SDCA
When I import from JSTOR the ISSN comes in without a hyphen separating the first 4 characters from the final 4 characters. That seems to be how it is stored there. It is tedious adding the hyphens by hand.

Is there a way to modify the import translator to do this without breaking something? There are programmers fluent in java-script who work on our website and I can pay them to do this. Before I make the request (and spend the money) I want to know if changing the ISSN string is 1) possible; 2) practical; 3) hazardous; etc. Would it be better to build a Zotero plug-in to do this instead of changing translators? I'm sure that there are other sites that send the ISSN without the separator so a plug-in might be more efficient. That said, messing around with the database using an outside utility makes me more than a little uncomfortable.

Is there something I'm missing that makes it simple to change the ISSN format without changing the translator?

Thanks
  • adamsmith
    Only thing I can say is that it's not currently possible or simple.
    I can't see why it would be hazardous.
    possible and practical I can't address.
    Maybe you could say a word about why the hyphen is important?
  • ajlyon
    The ISSN and ISBN fields are currently treated as free text. There are some common ways of inserting hyphens into ISSNs and ISBNs, and usually software that handles them just ignores non-numeric characters.

    I'd echo adamsmith's question-- what precisely do you need here? The XXXX-XXXX format for ISSN is very common; in fact, I have never seen a publication include its ISSN without the hyphen. Your software really should support it as such.

    If you are exporting from Zotero and the hyphens are causing trouble, it should be extremely easy to either modify the export translator (RIS, RDF, etc) or post-process the files to remove the hyphens.
  • adamsmith
    DWL wants the hyphen added automatically, not taken out - which seems in line with what you say, i.e. that it's very common.
  • ajlyon
    Oops. If JSTOR is regularly not including the hyphen, I suppose I could modify the translator to add it. Still, though, the hyphens in ISSNs and ISBNs should never be treated as anything but presentational polish.
  • ajlyon
    You can now download my untested modified version of the JSTOR translator that should address this. Please go to http://github.com/ajlyon/zotero-bits/raw/master/JSTOR.js and save the file to the translators directory of your Zotero data directory (http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data).

    Try saving items now and see if it works for you.
  • DWL-SDCA
    Yes. It works. Thank you. Thank you also adamsmith for making my request more clear.

    I realize that the hyphen is cosmetic but is essentially the standard way of displaying the ISSN. All of the sites that I use provide the ISSN with the hyphen so the lack of consistency from JSTOR was a problem for me. When I got newer records from the publisher's site and older records from JSTOR and the ISSNs didn't match ... it just seemed wrong.

    Thank you again.

    David
  • ajlyon
    Well, keep using the patched version for now. If it doesn't cause any trouble for you in your usage of JSTOR, we can look into doing ISSN cleanup for all items saved from JSTOR. Post here to let me know that all is still well if you notice no problems in the next month or so, and we can get this low priority tweak into the default JSTOR translator.
  • DWL-SDCA
    I will keep using it and let you know if I encounter any problems. So far, I have used it with several journals and i am quite pleased. I'll give you an update in a few weeks. Thank you again.
  • DWL-SDCA
    Since the 17th of February, the JSTOR translator is no longer adding the hyphen to the downloaded article metadata. The updated translator by ajlyon worked great until recently. I went back to the file that he posted to github (see above) and downloaded and installed it again. However, the translator still isn't adding the hyphens. If this isn't too complicated, please adjust the translator to add the hyphen again.

    Thank you
  • ajlyon
    You'll have to redownload again from Github. An updated JSTOR translator was pushed to clients to address a different issue, and this was lost in the churn. The version on Github now once again has the code.
  • DWL-SDCA
    Thank you.
  • Ernst Erb
    I have a new Zotero on Firefox. When I use the pictogram "Add item(s) by identifier" I enter the hyphens. It is so much easier to read them!
    But the result is two long numbers. The hyphen don't show!
    How can I change this please?
  • Ernst Erb
    Zotero is easy and great, thanks ... but

    I use a child folder (sub-folder) for organizing the books and hoped it will also be seen on its parent folder. No, it is empty. I have to copy it to there and if I want to move it I get a PLUS (copy).

    The advantage would be that I find all for a topic together in the folder instead of having to browse all related sub-folders.

    Is it my own wrong doing?
  • adamsmith
    Ernst - please start new threads (Start new Discussion button at the top left) for different topics. Neither of your two posts is related to ISSN import from JSTOR as far as I can tell.
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