Accordance and Zotero

[RevM]

Hi,

 

I've discovered the ability to produce a .ris file of my Accordance library. I've also successfully imported this into Zotero. A great feature. However, it would be even cooler if there were a Zotero plugin that could directly interrogate the Accordance database on my PC and keep the lists in sync. This would be very useful indeed.

 

Any thought?

 

Mark

[Tim Hall]

This would be beneficial as long as it worked on Mac as well ... +100

[jlm]

I've had minor problems importing Accordance RIS into Zotero. When a title has only ST (short title) and T3 (title 3) fields (e.g., Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity), Zotero uses ST as the title and T3 as the series title, but in reality T3 is the full title and ST an abbreviation (EAC). I'm not sure whether that should be considered a problem with Accordance or with Zotero, but looking through an RIS export of my library, I see that many items have only ST and T3.

 

As regards syncing, I'm not aware of other plugins for syncing with Zotero, so I'm not sure whether or not it's possible. What I know about Zotero plugins is that they're written in JavaScript, so the plugin would have to connect to a known URL (like a port on localhost) to query data. It wouldn't directly run AppleScript or Visual Basic code. So either Accordance would have to add some kind of generic interface, or you would need to run a third OS-specific program that would make the connection between the two. It sounds fairly complicated to achieve.

[Rick Bennett]

I've had minor problems importing Accordance RIS into Zotero. When a title has only ST (short title) and T3 (title 3) fields (e.g., Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity), Zotero uses ST as the title and T3 as the series title, but in reality T3 is the full title and ST an abbreviation (EAC). I'm not sure whether that should be considered a problem with Accordance or with Zotero, but looking through an RIS export of my library, I see that many items have only ST and T3.

 

As regards syncing, I'm not aware of other plugins for syncing with Zotero, so I'm not sure whether or not it's possible. What I know about Zotero plugins is that they're written in JavaScript, so the plugin would have to connect to a known URL (like a port on localhost) to query data. It wouldn't directly run AppleScript or Visual Basic code. So either Accordance would have to add some kind of generic interface, or you would need to run a third OS-specific program that would make the connection between the two. It sounds fairly complicated to achieve.

 

It's been a while since I looked at how fields are mapped from our RIS export to Zotero, but I do recall that one of the 'limitations' with Zotero is more advanced field editing / mapping (unlike e.g. Bookends). This may also have to do with the type of resource, e.g. Dictionary/Encyclopedia. We can look to see if anything can be done to help.

 

As far as syncing, I don't know how we would do this (above me ) but, as you acquire new resources you should be able to export just those from Accordance, then import them into Zotero without too much difficulty.

[jlm]

I tested with two other bibliography programs I sometimes use: BibDesk (a BibTeX GUI) makes no use of the ST field (although it imports it), so the fact that it contains the short module name (not generally useful in a bibliography) does no harm. Also pandoc-citeproc (which supports the Citation Style Language) makes no use of the ST field, completely ignoring it. So perhaps Zotero is wrong in considering it to actually contain a title, although the Wikipedia page and https://github.com/aurimasv/translators/wiki/RIS-Tag-Mapsay it's the "short title".

 

 I find the RIS data a good start for a bibliography entry, but I wouldn't use it without checking and (as necessary) correcting the data. Another example of data to correct is that some multi-volume works have an NV (number of volumes) field (e.g., EAC), while others don't (e.g., the old ISBE).

[Fabian]

To support the Short Titles was my request. The ST is not for the Bibliography, it is just I have to type the ST to select the item. Place the cursor And just press the shortcut-key in Word for the Zotero plugin to work. Enter the ST, add the page number and press Enter. Much faster than Typing the long name were several Books starts with „New Testament...“ and you have to search in the list and select it.

 

Greetings

 

Fabian

Edited June 4, 2019 by Fabian