Upgrade StorageInconsistent in-text references
First of all, thanks to everyone involved with zotero - it saved me during the final stretch of my PhD, and now I'm using it from the beginning of my postdoc. Such a great program!
But I'm having some problems with the Word integration tool. Well, I think I am. It's been working pretty well, mostly, but occasionally, in the APA style (with 'fields' rather than 'bookmarks'), it'll insert an in-text reference that has the author's first initial (which as far as I've seen, is incorrect). I discovered that it only does this when there's *only* an initial in the zotero db (as in, when there's not a full name). So for some of these cases, I've just updated the db to include the author's full first name, and it takes all the in-text references back to just-surname refs.
But this morning, I adjusted one of these in the zotero db, tried refreshing, and it didn't work, then tried replacing the field in the document, and it included the author's first name as well as surname. So I went from (Cahill, A, 2009) to (Ann Cahill, 2009), when obviously what I'm aiming for, and what the vast majority of the references give me is (Cahill, 2009). I also updated another entry in the db from initial to full first name, and the field in the document simply won't change - it's still (V. Bell, 1991) despite me putting 'Vikki' as the first name in the db.
Any thoughts about this inconsistency?
But I'm having some problems with the Word integration tool. Well, I think I am. It's been working pretty well, mostly, but occasionally, in the APA style (with 'fields' rather than 'bookmarks'), it'll insert an in-text reference that has the author's first initial (which as far as I've seen, is incorrect). I discovered that it only does this when there's *only* an initial in the zotero db (as in, when there's not a full name). So for some of these cases, I've just updated the db to include the author's full first name, and it takes all the in-text references back to just-surname refs.
But this morning, I adjusted one of these in the zotero db, tried refreshing, and it didn't work, then tried replacing the field in the document, and it included the author's first name as well as surname. So I went from (Cahill, A, 2009) to (Ann Cahill, 2009), when obviously what I'm aiming for, and what the vast majority of the references give me is (Cahill, 2009). I also updated another entry in the db from initial to full first name, and the field in the document simply won't change - it's still (V. Bell, 1991) despite me putting 'Vikki' as the first name in the db.
Any thoughts about this inconsistency?
http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation
However, in APA you should never get "Ann Cahill" or "Cahill, A," as an in text reference - if disambiguation is added, it's the initial of the first name before the last name (i.e. V. Bell is expected behavior, even if you have "Vikki" in the db).
My sense is that you should make sure to clean up your names in the database - i.e. make sure that all Cahills are "Cahill, Ann", all Bells are "Bell, Vikki"- otherwise you'll continue running into disambiguation issues, including in 2.1.
Moreover, all names need to be in the form "Lastname, Firstname" in the db - If Zotero sees "Ann Cahill" in a single field it treats it like a corporate author like "World Bank".
Hope that helps.
But Ann Cahill is still Ann Cahill - and I've *always* used both fields in the db. Following up on the disambiguation thing, actually, meant that I found this in-text ref: (Reist, Duffy, Fujimoto, & Larry Cahill, 2001). I get that Larry and Ann, according to the disambiguation software, need to be distinguished from each other despite Larry not being a first/only author, but I'm at a bit of a loss to explain how the full given name pops up in an APA style. Is it possible that the negotiation of disambiguation in the APA style is a little off in the context of multiple authors, so that Larry's full name gets added in, and this is producing the full-given-name issue for Ann as well as it tries to distinguish it?
I have been tidying up the given names in the db anyway, but this problem seems quite stubborn! If nothing can be done, that's fine; my pursuit of this is more my sense of needing to contribute back to the awesome development team, in the lil ways I can.
Have you ever used the "Show Editor" function in the plugin to modify a citation?
Could you try switching to Chicago (Author-Date) (you should see full names) and then American Political Science Association (initials) styles and report what you get?
But overall I'm pretty much out of ideas. I can't reproduce this - APA consistently disambiguates with an intial for me - and I have no idea how or why this would happen.
I changed to Chicago, and wound up with surnames in the text, except for Ann Cahill, who came up as that full name (which makes sense for disambiguation purposes) and full names in the reference list.
APSA seems to give me Ann Cahill as a full name again, but V. Bell. It looks like Ann Cahill is the only problem! I deleted her record from the db, then had it added again from the Wiley online site, then refreshed, but it didn't seem to help. Weird.
If something changes it dramatically, I'll post here again... otherwise, thanks for trying!
I'd expect A. Cahill.
If you deleted the original record and created a new one and Zotero doesn't throw a fit ("This item does not longer exist in the database...") that means very likely the connection between that citation and Zotero is broken in some way (e.g. using the show editor function), which explains the odd behavior.
If I'm right about this, just delete the old reference completely and re-insert it.