Online working papers

late-night nan · July 18, 2007

Would it be possible to add a template for Working Papers (online)? There doesn't seem to be one available from the options on the drop-down menu. "Document" does not allow for place of publication, nor does "web page."

"Manuscript" seems to be the closest thing, but there are no fields to enter the academic center or university which sponsors the working paper series.

Am I missing something? Otherwise, this would be a really helpful addition.

In the meanwhile, if you have suggestions for how to create this entry with an existing template, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

hussong · February 15, 2009

Now there is a type called "Report".

Another thing: there is a field for 'report number', but it doesn't show up in APA style bibliography. And when I fill all the fields (series title, place, institution) I get a lot of redundancy. Any suggestions for a workaround?

erazlogo · February 15, 2009

Would it be possible to add a template for Working Papers (online)?

You should use the report item type. The citation will include the url of the working paper. The info on an academic center goes into the "institution" field.

there is a field for 'report number', but it doesn't show up in APA style bibliography. And when I fill all the fields (series title, place, institution) I get a lot of redundancy. Any suggestions for a workaround?

To avoid redundancy, enter the information only once in whatever field is most convenient. You can edit APA to include report number.

jgeorgia · December 6, 2010

My two cents: Why not just have a working paper option, rather than expecting everyone to figure out that report is a suitable template? The list is already long, so one more isn't going to hurt, and I'm sure 'working paper' would be selected more often than quite a few of these other classifications.

amcd2 · December 4, 2012

I second jgeorgia, it's a bit odd (and obnoxious) for such a useful programme not to have a working paper option.

adamsmith · December 4, 2012

The reason not to have too many item types is that it makes writing styles a nightmare, it clutters the GUI, and it complicates data exchange with other formats. What's so bad about just using report? It's just not possible to have an item type for every item that is important in one discipline or the other.

blucap · May 13, 2013

Why not allow users to define these type? I mean, in my field we do not work with some types, e.g. patents. I need a short list, not the many itmes that now clutter the gui already.

adamsmith · May 13, 2013

Custom item types are very hard to implement - citation styles, syncing, export/import - there are a whole number of issues that are hard to solve. Dan has indicated that they _might_ happen at some point, but certainly not any time soon.

A better way to display the available item types would certainly be good - Zotero already displays the last five options you've used first when you're creating a new item. Further customizing this - either automatically or by user input - could be an option.

fbennett · May 13, 2013

As adamsmith says, the item types affect data exchange and style maintenance, which makes introducing any new type a big decision.

On the clutter issue, the most recently used types appear at the top of the listing, which seems a pretty good compromise.

dstillman · May 13, 2013

Further customizing this - either automatically or by user input - could be an option.

Right. What item types are displayed is a separate issue from what types are supported. I wouldn't necessarily have an objection to an interface that let users choose which types (or fields, maybe) to display, but 1) someone would have to create that, 2) it would have to go somewhere in the awfully crowded preferences, and 3) some users would forget a type was hidden and be confused.

(Such functionality would also have to deal with the situation where a user had an item with a hidden type, which would probably mean displaying the type of the current item regardless of its hidden state. You'd then have a situation where you could change an item type in the drop-down and then have the previous, hidden item type disappear from the menu. This is just a minor wrinkle for item types, but it'd be more awkward for fields.)