Zotero Bibliography Guidelines

Zotero data entry guidelines (valid for all HLCEES projects)

General guidance on bibliography can be found here. This page is about entering data in the Zotero Group Library.

Before you start reading these Guidelines, please remember: there are some differences between the rules for the input of bibliographical data into Zotero and the bibliographical guidelines to be born in mind when working for a HLCEES publication. The rules listed below are intended to guide the ‘input phase’. Not all information can be stored and detailed in a management tool.

When adding titles to the EthioStudies Group bibliography please make sure you follow the rules (updated as of December 2020):

GENERAL

  1. Make sure that the entry is not there already.
  2. Make sure that you choose the correct publication type (journal article, encyclopaedia article, etc.). Please note:
    1. For papers in conference proceedings use ‘Book section’ in Zotero, do not use ‘Conference paper’, for two reasons: for this entry type you cannot enter series number and some other information in the mask that are essential data; this field must be reserved exclusively to paper presented at conferences that were not published, as long as they are distinguished from a manuscript (draft).
    2. The entry type ‘manuscript’ is to be used for unpublished work, not for manuscripts intended as handwritten texts.
    3. Online publications may be difficult to categorize as Zotero does not seem to cater well for them, please bear this in mind.
    4. In a multi-volume publication, each volume is a separate entry (and gets a separate tag), do not merge volumes in one entry. Same is valid for article series.
    5. Additional records merging more volumes into one entry can be created only for the sake of references in publications. These are separate entries of their own and must always be in addition to the single entries and, in case, must receive BM tags of d, in case, must receive BM tags of their own.
    6. A miscellaneous volume or collection (Festschrift, conference proceedings, etc.) get separate entries as ‘Book’, while each paper or chapter in the collection gets its own entry as ‘Book section’. In electronic publications, both the book and each chapter get independent DOIs.
    7. The same applies to articles consisting of sub-articles written by different authors: the group article is an entry, but also each sub-article by a different author is an entry of its own.
  3. Make sure you uniform punctuation and some diacritics:
    1. Adopt only the rounded forms for apostrophes and inverted comma (‘, ’, “, ”; never use ' or ", unless they are used in special contexts in opposition to the rounded forms, e.g. in some linguistic contexts).
    2. When importing entries into Zotero you have to check manually that the entries, in all fields you want to keep, observe this rule; if note, the right codes must be entered. Use the Keyman DiacriticsUnicode keyboard to enter the rights codes.
    3. Make sure the right for schwa is used, i.e. not ə Code 0259) but ǝ (Code 01DD).
    4. When in the original title an apostrophe is used for alef or ayn please replace with the diacritic, but not if the IPA symbol is used.
  4. Most books can be found in HLCEES/AAI/Stabi: check the physical books. Some older books can be found on Googlebooks and/or Archives, and articles on JSTOR and other repositories. In cases when the publication is available online add URL/DOI in Zotero mask.
  5. Importing data into Zotero (e.g. worldcat.org or JSTOR) is meant to facilitate your work, not to replace it. Hence, when importing entries automatically into Zotero, delete data from the ‘Short Title’ field and ‘Journ Abbrev’ field, as they interfere severely when exporting the entry.
  6. The transcription of text or words in fidal must be done according to the transcription adopted in Beta maṣāḥǝft, not the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica or other systems. Please note:
    1. IMPORTANT: Since the EthioStudies Library is shared between Beta maṣāḥǝft and the Aethiopica but these do not share the same transcription system, if you encounter a record using the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica system do not change it according to the BM system but rather create a new record, else who undertakes editorial work must re-do records over and over again. In case there are two copies of the same entry the one with the bm: tag will have the bm transliteration, the one with Aethiopica transliteration will have no bm: tag.
  7. The basis for transliteration of Cyrillic should be this table. There are further rules to be followed:
    1. Pre-reform spelling (before 1918) of proper names should be standardized according to modern spelling. Thus, not ‘Bolotov”’ (Болотовъ), but ‘Bolotov’ (Болотов).
    2. Pre-t standardization. Thus, for example ‘Описанiе двухъ эѳиопскихъ рукописей, пожертвованныхъ въ библiотеку Спб. Дух. Академiи преосвященнымъ Анатолiемъ, епископомъ балтскимъ (нынѣ острогожскимъ)’ should be transliterated as ‘Opisanie dvuch’ rukopisej, požertvovannych’ v’ biblioteku Spb. Duch. Akademii preosvjaščennym’ Anatoliem’, episkopom’ baltskim’ (nyně ostrogožskim’)’.
  8. Superscripts and subscripts should use <sup> and <sub>, as described here. These can be used also for cases in which the title contains formatting. The same for italic, use <i>XXX</i>.
  9. Do not upload PDFs in the group bibliography. If they are necessary to substantiate your bibliographic entry, then please add a note to explain what is in the PDF which provides evidence for the decisions taken in entering the data in the record and perhaps inform on the PDF availability.
  10. When you are done entering information in Zotero, test the entry via the ‘export’ function to ensure it appears the way you would want to see it in a publishable bibliography. For quoting in publications of the HLCEES, use the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies style provided in the Zotero repository. When you export your bibliography with this style make sure it corresponds to the appearance foreseen by the guidelines (e.g. here). If not, maybe something was entered wrongly.

TITLES

  1. The titles must be quoted in full (not abbreviated), in the way they appear on the frontispiece. All diacritics must be preserved (with the exceptions mentioned above).
    1. Titles in English should use maximal capitalization (i.e. capitalize every words apart from articles and conjunctions), unless the title is not originally in upper case, then follow the capitalization as it appears on the book cover. Titles in languages other than English should use minimal capitalization (i.e. capitalize only the words which must be capitalized according to the rules of the language in question, e.g. nouns in German).
    2. The first word of subtitles should always be capitalized.
    3. The following punctuation should be used in titles:
      1. The punctuation of the original title must be preserved.
      2. A colon (:) should be used between the main title and a subtitle.
      3. If more subtitles are present, they should be divided by a comma and capitalized.
      4. If a publication consists of several volumes with their own titles, these must be separated by a semi-colon (;), e.g. Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, I: A C ; II: D Ha ; III: He N
      5. Use a full stop between titles in different languages in publications with a double title, e.g. Santi e guerrieri a cavallo: Tele etiopiche, Tele di Qēs Adamu Tesfaw. Warriors Saints on Horseback: Ethiopian Paintings, Paintings by Qēs Adamu Tesfaw.
    4. For titles in Ethiopic provide the original in fidal, the scientific transcription in brackets and the translation into English, e.g. ዝክረ ነገር (Zǝkra nagar, ‘Remembrances of things’). Please note
      1. This rule does not apply if only part of the title is in fidal, e.g. ትግርኛ ንዛረብ: Let’s Speak Tigrinya, Elementary Level, A First-Year Textbook, A Multidimensional Approach to the Teaching and Learning of Tigrinya As a Foreign Language.
    5. For titles in scripts other than Ethiopic (Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic, etc.), provide the scientific transcription and translation only (i.e. not the title in the original script), e.g. Beyṯ ha-kǝneseṯ ʾAbūna ʾAbaʾ Ṣabra: Beʾer Ševaʿ (‘The Abuna Abba Ṣabra synagogue: Beʾer Ševaʿ’).
  2. A translation in English is necessary for titles in any language apart from Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Latin.
  3. Pay attention not to incorporate in the title elements that do not belong to it, e.g. information such as ‘edited and translated by’.
  4. Journal names are to be recorded in Zotero using only the main name of the journal, e.g. Aethiopica, not Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies. Please note:
    1. An exception to this rule is when you have ‘homonymous’ journals: in these fairly rare cases the full title as given on the journal frontispiece can be given, e.g. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute vs Africa: Vivere il continente vero.
    2. In some exceptional cases the name of the institution also needs to appear in the title to avoid confusion:
      1. Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei , Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche , Rendiconti
      2. Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei , Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche , Memorie
      3. Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres , Comptes rendus des séances

AUTHORS, EDITORS, AND TRANSLATORS

  1. The names of all authors, editors, and translators must be provided, in full and as they appear on the book.
  2. Make sure that you enter editors as editors and authors as authors, not e.g. editors as authors in the mask. Please note:
    1. The name of the person(s) appearing on the book should be treated consistently with what was the author’s and publisher’s intention: a person should be marked as an editor or a translator only if this is explicitly written on the book cover and not because the text is in our opinion an edition or a translation.
    2. Because of the HLCEES style, if the same person is editor, author and translator you need to insert their name in the Zotero mask under EACH of their roles, otherwise the record will not appear correctly once extracted.
    3. For the names of the authors/editors, Zotero has the option to choose between the ‘Surname, First name’ and simply ‘Name’ (one field) form. Make sure that you use 1-field mode for Ethiopian and Arabic names. You can switch between the options clicking on the field to the right of the name.
    4. If the name of the authors is not given and not known, use Anon.
    5. If the name of the authors is not given on the publication but is known through other sources, the name may be given in square brackets.
    6. Author’s names in Zotero should be given in full as they appear on the publication, but if the full first name is not available please provide the initials as given on the book with full points AND divided by a space (e.g. ‘Mudimbe, V. Y.’ and NOT ‘Mudimbe, V Y’ OR ‘Mudimbe, V.Y.’).
    7. Titular prefixes (Sir, Revd, Dr, Captain, etc.) are not to be included as part of the name.
    8. For English forms of Ethiopian names appearing in publications, use the form as given in the publication, e.g. Getatchew Haile.

VOLUME/ISSUE NUMBER

  1. Use Roman numbers for book volumes and Arabic numbers for journal issues.
  2. Filling out the ‘# of Volume’ field is not requested, if you fill it out use Arabic number.

SERIES

  1. Always provide the series (full title) and the series number (always in Arabic numbers) when they exist. For series+subseries combinations, the subseries has to go with the series number (e.g. Series: Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Series Number: 552, Scriptores Aethiopici, 101)
  2. Journal series should be written exactly as they are written on the journal cover.

LATER EDITIONS AND REPRINTS

  1. In case of 2nd/3rd etc. editions, use the ‘Edition’ field and the abbreviation ‘edn’ regardless of the book language, i.e. if the book says ‘Zweite Auflage’ you write ‘2nd edn’.
  2. In case of multiple reprints, always provide and primarily quote the first version.
  3. In case of reprints, the abbreviation ‘repr.’ should be given in the “edition” field.
  4. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium: with CSCO the older series volumes are not printed with Peeters in Louvain, and have different series numbers. The original series numbers, publication place, publisher and year must be provided alongside the information of the later reprints (Louvain, in the 1960s, with the usual CSCO/SAe numbers):

    Conti Rossini, Carlo 1904. Vitae Sanctorum Antiquiorum, I: Gadla Yārēd seu Acta Sancti Yārēd, II: Gadla Panṭalēwon seu Acta Sancti Pantaleonis. Textus; Versio, ed., tr. Carlo Conti Rossini, I–II, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Scriptores Aethiopici, Series Altera, 17 (repr. CSCO, 26, 27, SAe, 9, 10) (Romae–Parisiis–Lipsiae (repr. Louvain): Excudebat Karolus de Luigi–Carolus Poussielgue Bibliopola–Otto Harrassowitz (repr. Secrétariat du CorpusSCO, 1961), 1904).

PLACE OF PUBLICATION

  1. Always provide the place of the publisher in the form they appear on the cover, i.e. for old books e.g. ‘Lugduni Batavorum’ and not ‘Leiden’. Please note,
    1. When no place of publication is given, use ‘n.p.’ instead (it means ‘no place’).
    2. The place of publication should be a city, not a state or a region.
    3. Abbreviations in city and states names are written without full point and without space in British English, e.g. Washington DC (not Washington D.C. or Washington D. C.) or USA (not U.S.A or U. S. A).
    4. To avoid any confusion with homonymous cities in Europe, American places of publications are to be given alongside the state abbreviation as follows: Lawrenceville, NJ.
    5. Note that the right transcription of the ‘fidal’ name of Addis Ababa and Asmara, among others, is ‘ʾAddis ʾAbabā’, ‘ʾAśmarā’, with initial alef also noted.
    6. If the publisher cites more cities of publication, these can be included in the bibliographic record separated by an –n dash, e.g. ‘Urbana–Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press’.

PUBLISHER

  1. Always provide the publisher in the form they appear on the cover (e.g. ‘Ex officina Danielis & Abrahami à Gaesbeeck’ and not simply ‘Daniel & Abraham’ as modern catalogues may list). Please note,
    1. If the name of the publisher is in another script, e.g. fidal or Arabic, provide the name using the scientific transcription and not the name in the original script or an English translation (e.g. ‘BäTasfā Gabra Śǝllāse māttamiyā bet’ and not በተስፋ ገብረ ሥላሴ ማተሚያ ቤት or ‘Tasfā Gabra Śǝllāse Press’).
    2. If the name of the publisher is not given on the publication, use ‘n.pub.’ instead (it means ‘no publisher’).
    3. If there are more than one publisher involved and operating in the same city, then the publishers’ name should be divided by an –n dash, e.g. ‘Addis Ababa: CFEE–Institute of Ethiopian Studies’.
  2. If more publishers and more places of publication are involved, these are separated by , (comma). E.g. ‘London: James Currey, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press’.

PUBLICATION DATE

  1. If the publication date is not given, please use n.d. (no date).
  2. When the printing year on the book is expressed in a non-Common Era calendar, then both years should be recorded: for instance, for a book published in Ethiopia in 1982 EC = 1989/1990 CE write in the field date ‘1989/1990’ and in Extra ‘1982 EC’. Please note that Zotero extraction of this type of records is not perfect, but the bibliography tool will fix this for you.
  3. The abbreviations to be used are EC for Ethiopian Calendar and H for Hegira.
  4. For bibliographic records in which the editorial and publishing years are different, the editorial year is used as the point of reference, as easier to define. E.g. Löfgren, O. 1962. ‘Äthiopische Wandamulette’, Orientalia Suecana, 11 (1962, pub. 1963), 95–120. Both sets of information need to be input in Zotero, with the editorial year (1962) given under ‘Date’ and the publishing year given under ‘Extra’ as ‘pub. 1963’.
  5. If you have a publication date spanning across two years like 2011–2012, please enter it both in the date field as is and in extra with the following syntax: ‘issued: 2011/2012’ This will ensure that both results printed with the HLZ styles from standalone and API will be correct.
  6. For publications that are about to appear, use forthcoming instead of the year.

TAGS

  1. If your entry is to be used in BetaMasaheft or Dillmann Online, then you need to add a tag with the following format and using only Latin alphabet letters: bm:AuthorYYYYkeyword
    1. For text editions accompanied by translation in a separate volume use ‘Text’ or ‘Versio’ at the end of the tag (e.g. bm:Arras1974TransituText, bm:Arras1974TransituVersio).
    2. Please make sure this contains no special characters, no umlaut, underdots and other combining diacritics, hyphens, dashes, or underscores; only digits and Latin ASCII characters. To check that this is unique, after saving the record in Zotero, click on the tag and check that only one item has this tag. If not, change the keyword of the tag just assigned.
  2. Please do not change existing tags, as they probably already have been used in Beta maṣāḥǝft or Dillmann.
  3. Small inconsistencies and typos in tags can be ignored. Adjusting their cosmetics to fit your taste is only going to harm. Cases where adjustments and corrections are absolutely necessary must be discussed.
  4. In case double bm: tags have been assigned, please proceed immediately to check which one is actually in use. Update the occurrences of the minority attestation and remove the unneeded tag.
  5. In case of double entries each with a bm: tag, the guidelines have not been followed for the one created the latest. The author of the mistake will need to clean immediately the Zotero database from the wrongly created record AND update all occurrences of the tag assigned to it with the correct tag of the correct entry.
  6. Please always be very careful. If you think it is a double but you are not sure, ask. For example sometimes two records seem the same but they are not as for instance the publisher is different. In that case, they are not double records and should not be removed.
  7. To check the occurrences of a tag, you can use the ‘search by Zotero tag’ in the BM and Dillmann applications.
  8. For related publications (translations, reprints, etc.): you can establish relations with Zotero.

Revisions of this page

  • Pietro Maria Liuzzo on 2021-09-16: incldued revision from pdf sent by Francesca Panini and Eugenia Sokolinski in December 2020
  • Pietro Maria Liuzzo on 2018-04-30: first version of guidelines from Wiki
  • Dorothea Reule on 2019-11-05: Corrected link to Cyrillic transliteration