Journal abbreviations
Currently the "Nature" style is not correct due to no distinction between journal and journal abbreviation.
It would be nice to offer an option of an abbreviation list of journals like in JabRef.
mleini
shared this idea
AdminMendeley
(Admin, Mendeley)
responded
This is something we would like to implement in a future version of Mendeley. However, for the time being we have a suitable work around with http://support.mendeley.com/customer/portal/questions/179297-how-to-enable-journal-abbreviations-?new=179297
198 comments
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Gaston Longtarin
commented
@sigmund
APA (American Psychological Association?) citation style requires the full journal title. So, I do not understand your request. Besides I could not find anything about SCI abbreviations. Please provide URLs about the use of APA- or SCI-abbreviation in scientific literature and I will try to include them in a new version of 'loadabbrevs.js' file. -
sigmund
commented
Three are four main abbreviation types: APA, SCI, ISO4, and PubMed. It will be great that one can put those four types.
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Koichiro
commented
Lochana & Gaston: Thank you very much for your post. It works well.
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osm
commented
Gaston: Here is an example of a PMID for an article from a journal with accented characters in its full name: 21516330. I don't know if it is of any note, but for epub ahead of print articles from this journal, the journal name obtained from PMID search does not contain accents (e.g. currently this is ahead of print: 21597929).
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Gaston Longtarin
commented
@osm
Could you provide the PMID for the entry that has accents in the full journal name, please? I would like to check something...Anyway, the current workaround, although it seems to work, is not well designed because it associates abbreviations with full journal name. If the full journal name is not properly spelled (diacritical marks, case sentive letters, brackets) the plugin does not work. A better solution would be to associate the full journal name, IsoAbbr, MedAbbr or any old abbreviations with the journal ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) which is a unique ID. Then, the citation style (*.CSL) file should simply specify how the journal name should be processed by the plugin.
However until Mendeley programmers will implement a method to properly handle journal abbreviations, the current workaround is probably the 'least worst' solution.
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osm
commented
Gaston: Thanks very much. This seems to work very well (I have tried both versions of the runcites.js)
I posted a comment with another question a few hours ago that does not seem to have shown up on this forum. I've sent a support request to ask why this happened but the gist of it was, is it possible for this method to ignore diacritical marks (accents etc) in the full journal name? I have come across an instance where the PMID search pulls down a full journal name that contains accents but laodabbrevs.js does not contained accented version of the journal name.
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Gaston Longtarin
commented
@osm and other Mendeley users
I have now updated the 'loadabbrevs.js' file with MedAbbr abbreviations. The current version contains 24'682 IsoAbbr and 23'369 MedAbbr abbreviations from NCBI/Entrez-PubMed database. Here is the link for download: http://cid-46047e8752dc6af3.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/NCBI%5E_Entrez%5E_Abbreviations%5E_2.zip
To select between IsoAbbr or MedAbbr formats see instructions in the enclosed ReadMe.txt file.
Let me know if this new version of 'loadabbrevs.js' file is not working properly.
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osm
commented
Lochana & Gaston: Thanks very much for the workaround.
Gaston: The 'loadabbrevs.js' file that you have provided contains IsoAbbr abbreviations. Is there a version with MedAbbr abbreviations? -
Gaston Longtarin
commented
@Anonymous
Yes, the current workaround (http://cid-46047e8752dc6af3.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/NCBI%5E_Entrez%5E_Abbreviations.zip) to abbreviate journal names is case sensitive and far from being perfect. It is important that the full journal name matches NCBI/Entrez-PubMed standards. So, an update of the entry by clicking on the search icon next to PMID field will ensure that the full journal name is correctly spelled and can be abbreviated.A better solution would be achieved through the association of the journal name abbreviation with the ISSN (journal ID) or part of the DOI instead of the full journal name. This is technically feasible, however, it would require to include ISSN variable in the citation style (*.CSL) which is currently not supported according to CSL 1.0 specifications.
Hope that MD developers will implement a method to properly handle journal abbreviations before the end of the year ;o).
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Anonymous
commented
The fix is some help, but it only works if the full journal name in the Mendeley record matches the case in the .js file exactly - for instance "Journal of clinical epidemiology" will abbreviate, but "Journal of Clinical Epidemiology" will not. That still means a lot of hand editing.
I did find that if I plugged in the PubMed ID (PMID) into the Mendeley record, then clicked the search icon beside the PMID, Mendeley would tweak the record. I could then refresh the bibliography in the manuscript, the journal name would abbreviate properly.
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Anthony
commented
3 months for this important feature? Together with no-support for small-caps, this is a major weakness in Mendeley making it less useful as a citation program.
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Sam
commented
This is a highly important feature that every scientist would like to have in Mendeley. Please include a feature that allows you to choose if you want to use abbreviations in your reference list or not.
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Anonymous
commented
Thanks, guys...those hacks for bio/medicine abbrevs work really well.....made things a lot easier!
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Gaston Longtarin
commented
Hi,
For Mendeley users working in biological science or medicine, you can download a modified version of the 'loadabbrevs.js' file that contains 24'695 official journal name abbreviations (IsoAbbr) from NCBI/Entrez-PubMed database. Here is the link for download: http://cid-46047e8752dc6af3.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/NCBI%5E_Entrez%5E_Abbreviations.zip
Just copy and replace the two original files (runcites.js and loadabbrevs.js) in <Mendeley_desktop_running_directory>/citeproc-js repertory (see instructions posted by Lochana for more details).
You should also check that the citation style (*.CSL file) that you are using specifies form="short" for "container-title" (e.g.: <text variable="container-title" form="short"/> otherwise journal names will not be abbreviated.
Finally, according to Mendeley team, this little hack which allows users to enter custom journal abbreviations is just a temporary solution. They will implement a method to handle journal abbreviations properly in a future release.
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Lochana C. Menikarachchi commented
Hi,
It is true that citation styles are outdated. However this can be easily fixed by editing corresponding CSL files.
The link to abbreviations hack is here..
http://scientisoft.com/default.aspxEnjoy !!
Lochana
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Anonymous
commented
c'mon Mendeley...this is embarassing! Endnote had this feature in the 1980s and your forum has requests for this almost 2 years old. You can't still be 'working on it'!!! Mendeley is near useless if at the end of writing your paper, you have to manually edit the bibliography with the required abbreviations to submit to a journal! ....and then do it all again if you have to submit to a different journal. It also seems you are misleading people by saying your bibliography is compatible with hundreds of journals...because in reality it is only compatible with a handful that don't require the abbreviated journal style. All Mendeley users should double check their bibliographies meet required journal style even if you have used the appropriate Mendely plug-in for that journal ...because 9 time out of 10, the abbreviation factor means you have some heavy re-editing to do or face rapid rejection :( . make us happy Mendeley?
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Anonymous
commented
What is the small hack?
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Abbreviations can be done with a small hack!!
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Anonymous
commented
Without this feature, Mendeley is only a tool to browse. We still need EndNote!
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Martin Gustafsson
commented
Yes! And please find the abbreviation through a reliable database search. Zotero handles this poorly, and you can have the same journal abbreviated in different ways for different entries. Especially conference proceedings tend to be a mess there.
