Support other persistent identifiers

[diegodlh]

PMID and PMCID should be added as PIDs both to the citation/cited item editor, and to the citations pane. QIDs should be able to be fetched using these PMIDs.

Somewhat related to #32

[diegodlh]

@Dominic-DallOsto asked in issue #9:

Would it be possible to add arxiv id (P818) as an identifier? As I can import items by arxiv id into Zotero, it would be great to have that link with retrieving citations.

What do you mean having "that link with retrieving citations"?

As I see it, having the plugin understand other unique identifiers (such as arxiv id) would help with:

1. Fetching item's QID. Right now, only identifiers supported for this are DOI and ISBN. But now that it uses the item's title as well (#32), it may be less useful than before.
2. Automatically linking citations to Zotero items (#60). This may help with drawing the citation graph, on which I'll be working now.

Does wikidata catalogue arxiv articles currently?

I don't know if there have been discussions about whether preprints are generally less suitable for Wikidata than published articles, but I'm sure there must be preprints in Wikidata anyway.

Would there by any issues when an arxiv preprint is later published, to then assign it a DOI?

As I see it, a preprint article and the corresponding published article are two different entities. For example, preprint articles in psyarxiv have a DOI, which of course is not the same as the DOI that the published article will have. I would say a single article can't have two DOIs, but maybe I'm wrong.

However, I have seen Wikidata entitites (this one, for example) for published journal articles that have both DOI and arxiv id of the corresponding preprint. Maybe you can ask the Wikicite community to see if there is consensus about how to handle this?

[Dominic-DallOsto]

What do you mean having "that link with retrieving citations"?

As I see it, having the plugin understand other unique identifiers (such as arxiv id) would help with:

1. Fetching item's QID. Right now, only identifiers supported for this are DOI and ISBN. But now that it uses the item's title as well (#32), it may be less useful than before.

2. Automatically linking citations to Zotero items (#60). This may help with drawing the citation graph, on which I'll be working now.

Sorry, I didn't phrase that super well. I just meant that if an arxiv id is used to import an entry into Zotero, it would be convenient if that could also pull in citation information. Though, like you say, if the item's title is a reliable way of getting/generating an item's QID, this isn't so important. I guess similar can be said for 2 - if title proves a reliable way of finding and linking to other entries, other identifiers aren't so critical.

I don't know if there have been discussions about whether preprints are generally less suitable for Wikidata than published articles, but I'm sure there must be preprints in Wikidata anyway.

I think this is actually the core of my request. I have a large number of Zotero entries from arxiv that don't yet have DOIs. If they already have QIDs and can be referenced by title, then also supporting arxiv ids wouldn't add much. If not, and if adding arxiv publications to Wikidata is frowned upon, then a large portion of my library (and a large proportion each entry's citations) won't be able to be linked to Wikidata. In that case, adding support for other citation sources could solve the problem for me.

However, I have seen Wikidata entitites (this one, for example) for published journal articles that have both DOI and arxiv id of the corresponding preprint. Maybe you can ask the Wikicite community to see if there is consensus about how to handle this?

I'm not familiar with the Wikicite community, could you point me to an appropriate place to ask?

[diegodlh]

if the item's title is a reliable way of getting/generating an item's QID, this isn't so important

But it may still be useful. Maybe unique identifiers in the citations pane and in the citations editor may be handled similarly to how "creators" are in Zotero's item info pane. That is, have at least one "unique identifier" field, let the user add as many as desired, and have a drop down menu next to each for the user to select the identifier "type" (i.e., DOI, ISBN, PMID, arXiv ID, etc).

if adding arxiv publications to Wikidata is frowned upon

I don't think adding arxiv preprints to Wikidata is frowned upon.

adding support for other citation sources could solve the problem for me.

Downloading/uploading citations (i.e., links between publications) from other sources such as Crossref (#43), or OpenCitations (#62) is planned, but not yet supported. Anyway, take into account that the fact that a citing or cited item is not relevant enough to have a Wikidata entity (QID) does not mean you can't add a citation locally using the plugin. That both citing and cited items have a QID is only a requisite for syncing citations with Wikidata.

I'm not familiar with the Wikicite community, could you point me to an appropriate place to ask?

Sure! You can post your question in the Source Metadata project's talk page. You can also join the WikiCite Telegram chat and ask there.

[diegodlh]

Consider supporting WorldCat Registry ID as well.

[diegodlh]

See this proposal at Wikidata:Zotero's discussion page, regarding a generic way to have Zotero support multiple Wikidata unique identifier properties.

[Dominic-DallOsto]

OpenAlex IDs could also be nice, if this database offers significant advantages over CrossRef et c.