# Reconciling Zotero and CSL Item Types

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/reconciling-zotero-and-csl-item-types/329>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [September 20, 2007, 12:02am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/reconciling-zotero-and-csl-item-types/329 "2007-09-20T00:02:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Simon\_Kornblith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Simon\_Kornblith](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Simon_Kornblith)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 12:02am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/reconciling-zotero-and-csl-item-types/329/1 "2007-09-20T00:02:18Z")

</div>

Right now, CSL has the following item types:

```
 "article-magazine"
 > "article-newspaper"
 > "article-journal"
 > "bill"
 > "figure"
 > "graphic"
 > "interview"
 > "legislation"
 > "legal_case"
 > "manuscript"
 > "map"
 > "motion_picture"
 > "musical_score"
 > "pamphlet"
 > "paper-conference"
 > "patent"
 > "personal_communication"
 > "report"
 > "review"
 > "review-book"
 > "song"
 > "speech"
 > "thesis"
 > "treaty"
 > "webpage"

```

Zotero has the following item types:

book  
bookSection  
journalArticle  
magazineArticle  
newspaperArticle  
thesis  
letter  
manuscript  
interview  
film  
artwork  
webpage  
report  
bill  
case  
hearing  
patent  
statute  
email  
map  
blogPost  
instantMessage  
forumPost  
audioRecording  
presentation  
videoRecording  
tvBroadcast  
radioBroadcast  
podcast  
computerProgram  
conferencePaper  
document  
encyclopediaArticle  
dictionaryEntry

Most of these I can map to CSL item types. Most conspicuously  
missing, however, are encyclopediaArticle and dictionaryEntry. I know  
that in most styles they are formatted the same way as book chapters,  
and “chapter” should definitely be the fallback type, but is there a  
good reason not to have them? Is it completely inconceivable that  
some styles should require that they be formatted differently? What  
about the other item types (e.g., email, which is formatted slightly  
different in Chicago, or blogPost, which is in the Chicago Manual of  
Style but doesn’t get formatted differently there)?

See also Zotero ticket #699 ([https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/699](https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/699)).

Simon

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 1:09am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/reconciling-zotero-and-csl-item-types/329/2 "2007-09-20T01:09:58Z")

</div>

I’ve been asking to work this issue out for the past year. To my mind,  
the problem is really we need a policy that guides when we add a type,  
and a procedure by which to do that. Because while if you read through  
Chicago you can probably identify somewhere between 50 and 100 types  
(depending on how you define them), I’m betting if you look through  
other style guides (say BlueBook or AWLD in law, or APA, or some  
medical style) you’ll find long additional lists. It becomes something  
like an endless black hole.

I’m less worried about this problem with CSL than I am with the data  
encoding, but we do obviously have to be able to align them.

One solution is we just add them ad hoc. Whenever it seems like  
someone might need something, add it.

I dunno; been a long day. Any thoughts?

Bruce

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/reconciling-zotero-and-csl-item-types/329/3 "2007-09-21T20:15:26Z")

</div>

OK, for now here’s how I’ve resolved the need to tokenize, and the  
request for the additional types:

cs-types = “article”  
\> “article-magazine”  
\> “article-newspaper”  
\> “article-journal”  
\> “bill”  
\> “book”  
\> “chapter”  
\> “entry”  
\> “entry-dictionary”  
\> “entry-encylopedia”  
\> “figure”  
\> “graphic”  
\> “interview”  
\> “legislation”  
\> “legal\_case”  
\> “manuscript”  
\> “map”  
\> “motion\_picture”  
\> “musical score”  
\> “pamphlet”  
\> “paper-conference”  
\> “patent”  
\> “post”  
\> “post-weblog”  
\> “personal\_communication”  
\> “report”  
\> “review”  
\> “review-book”  
\> “song”  
\> “speech”  
\> “thesis”  
\> “treaty”  
\> “webpage”

Make sure to adjust your styles and code as necessary.

We still need to answer the questions I earlier asked.

Bruce