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75        <h1 id="what-mit-gets-wrong-about-using-zotero-with-latex-and-bibtex">What MIT gets wrong about Using Zotero with LaTeX and BibTeX</h1>
76
77<p>You’re probably here because you visited the mit.edu page on <a href="http://libguides.mit.edu/c.php?g=176000&amp;p=1159208">Zotero at MIT: Zotero with LaTeX and
78BibTeX</a>, and you want to learn about the <a href="https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex/wiki">Better
79BibTeX</a> utility that page linked to. If you want to find out what
80Better BibTeX can do for you, you can visit the
81<a href="https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex/wiki">documentation</a>, but if you just want to download Better BibTeX
82for Zotero, you can find the latest release <a href="https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex/releases/latest">here</a>.</p>
83
84<p>The MIT page contains some omissions however that could unnecessarily scare you away from using Zotero for your Bib(La)TeX
85needs. The MIT librarians seem to be actively hostile to this being pointed out, which is why I’ve put up this page. On
86this page, I assume you’re open to using Better BibTeX to address these problems – if not, you probably would not be
87here, right? Onwards then. The headers below match the relevant section of the <a href="http://libguides.mit.edu/c.php?g=176000&amp;p=1159208">MIT
88page</a> to explain what I think could be reformulated.</p>
89
90<h2 id="how-do-i-export-from-zotero-to-bibtex">How do I export from Zotero to BibTeX?</h2>
91
92<p>The points below will assume you will use the ‘Better BibTeX’ format rather than the ‘BibTeX’ format as the MIT page
93instructs.</p>
94
95<h2 id="how-can-i-fix-references-that-had-problems-formatting-special-characters">How can I fix references that had problems formatting special characters?</h2>
96
97<p>Not even the standard BibTeX exporter from Zotero makes these entirely basic mistakes anymore, so I have no idea why
98this is still up there. Still, there <em>are</em> some LaTeX constructs that Zotero does not export well (although not the ones
99that the MIT page points out – mostly very esoteric math symbols). Better BibTeX however does, and if you ever find an
100exception, I very much welcome <a href="https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex/issues">bug reports</a> so I can get
101that corrected. I haven’t had bug reports like these in ages though. Better BibTeX has quite comprehensive coverage when
102it comes to translating references to correct BibTeX.</p>
103
104<h2 id="how-can-i-make-an-organization-name-display-correctly">How can I make an organization name display correctly?</h2>
105
106<p>It doesn’t look like the MIT librarians have ever used Zotero. You can toggle author fields in Zotero between two-part
107and single-part names by clicking the icon to the right of the author name. Single-part author names are written out
108properly quoted automatically. This is not something you need or want to by hand. You don’t even need Better BibTeX for
109this, or BibTeX at all for all that matter – single-part names (which are approriate for institutions or authors which
110are only ever referred to by a single name, such as Aristotle) is just supported functionality of Zotero even if you use
111the Word/OpenOffice plugins. To add insult to injury, the unnecesary “fix” proposed by the MIT librarians, to be
112performed manually <em>every time</em> you export your references, is actually not a fix at all but a source of problems in its own
113right – see the next point.</p>
114
115<h2 id="how-can-i-override-bibtex-capitalization-conventions">How can I override BibTeX capitalization conventions?</h2>
116
117<p>Again, the MIT librarians are making unwarranted assumptions here about what Zotero writes out <em>and</em> are suggesting a
118“solution” that is actually as bad as the problem it sets out to solve. The proper way to prevent</p>
119
120<blockquote>
121  <p>title={IEE Proceedings}</p>
122</blockquote>
123
124<p>to be turned into</p>
125
126<blockquote>
127  <p>Iee proceedings</p>
128</blockquote>
129
130<p>when your document is compiled is <strong>not</strong> to encode it as the MIT librarians suggest using</p>
131
132<blockquote>
133  <p>title=”{IEE Proceedings}”</p>
134</blockquote>
135
136<p>but rather</p>
137
138<blockquote>
139  <p>title={{IEE} Proceedings}</p>
140</blockquote>
141
142<p>The “solution” suggested by the MIT librarians does indeed prevent BibTeX from meddling with your capitalization, except
143some citation styles <em>demand</em> that they are able to do this – some styles demand that that title would become</p>
144
145<blockquote>
146  <p>IEE proceedings</p>
147</blockquote>
148
149<p>and the MIT “solution” prevents this. You only want to protect those exact <em>parts</em> that you want to exclude from this
150process, and guess what: <em>Zotero already does this</em> for words containing uppercase letters, so once again, the MIT
151librarians are offering a broken solution to a non-problem.</p>
152
153<p>In the case of Better BibTeX, it will even do this for non-ASCII capital letters like <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">Ñ</code>, and it handles a number of
154edge cases that the standard Zotero BibTeX doesn’t handle (for example when there italics or superscript bits in your
155title – this is devilishly complex, and I don’t fault Zotero for opting for a simpler translator when most references
156don’t need these features). If there are some parts where you want to keep something lowercased regardless of the
157BibTeX style you chose, you can wrap that part in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">&lt;span class="nocase"&gt;....&lt;/span&gt;</code> and whatever’s between them will be
158excluded from case-changing. This is formally supported in Zotero and will work for BibTeX but also if you’re using your
159references in Word/LibreOffice/etc.</p>
160
161<p>Again, you do not need or want to make this change (manually or otherwise) every time you export to BibTeX when Zotero is perfectly
162capable of doing this for you. The rules governing such bracing are complex, and Better BibTeX will handle the complexity
163on your behalf if you will just let it.</p>
164
165<p>Or maybe you get extra points at MIT for doing references in unnecessarily clunky ways using very old and outdated
166versions of Zotero/Better BibTeX. But in that case I’d suggest just upgrading Zotero/Better BibTeX and lying to the
167librarians that you followed their recommendations, and use the extra time so gained to making your killer thesis
168argument even better.</p>
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