[Tex/LaTex] dateaccessed missing when importing with Mendeley

bibliographiesmendeleyoverleaf

The dateaccessed column won't appear in my .bib file on Overleaf when I import it with Mendeley.

I am using both the web app and desktop version of Mendeley. I tried to go View – Citation style – More styles… and changing the "include URLs and Date accessed in Bibliographies" setting from "For all document types" to "only for webpages". But toggling this setting did not change anything.

When I chose "copy as BibTeX entry" on a reference in Mendeley where the date is registered; the info in the Date Accessed column is included as the entry "urldate". But I can't find the column anywhere in my .bib-file on Overleaf.

I'm importing biblatex like this

\usepackage[style=nature,isbn=false,doi=true,sorting=none]{biblatex}

The image below shows that there is info in the "Data Accessed" column in Mendeley, but the information is not transferred to the .bib file overleaf imports from Mendeley.

Best Answer

I have now been in contact with both Overleaf and Mendeley support. It seems like the Mendeley API does not provide all the fields that are expected and @urldate is one of them. It also seems like Mendeley is not prioritizing to fix this any time soon.

Fortunately, with the help of overleaf support team, I did find a solution to the problem.

One of the fields that are provided is "publications", which is transferred to the .bib file as @booktitle. Since most webpages don't have book titles, this can be exploited by copy-pasting the date accessed into the "publications" field and using BibLaTeX-settings that displays the @booktitle field for @misc entries.

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[Tex/LaTex] Customizing Bibliography alpha

The alpha bibliography style is one of the original styles created for BibTeX, i.e., it's been around for more than 20 years. As such, it does not recognize (i.e., process) fields such as url or urldate. You need to use a more modern style file.

The IEEE provides the style file IEEEtran.bst as well as several related style files; one of these files may meet your needs. Peruse the user guide, How to use the IEEEtran BibTeX Style, for more information.

Specifically, this style file provides for an entry (something in BibTeX that starts with an @) named electronic. The user guide has the following to say about this entry type:

IEEEtran.bst provides the “electronic” entry type for internet references. IEEEtran.bst also provides the aliases “online”, “internet”, “webpage” and “www” for compatibility with some existing BIBTEX database and style files. However, “electronic” (or perhaps “online” for those who also use Philipp Lehman’s biblatex) should be used for all new work. IEEE formats electronic references differently by not using italics or quotes and separating fields with periods rather than commas. Also, the date is enclosed within parentheses and is placed closer to the title. This is probably done to emphasize that electronic references may not remain valid on the rapidly changing internet. Note also the liberal use of the howpublished field to describe the form or category of the entries.

The organization and address fields may also be used.

From this, it would appear that you could rename the urldate field name to date and be all set.

[Tex/LaTex] Mendeley and Biblatex: how to interpret ‘misc’ as ‘patent’ or ‘online’

\DeclareSourcemap{
  \maps[datatype=bibtex, overwrite=true]{
    \map{
      \step[fieldsource=url, final]
      \step[typesource=misc, typetarget=online]
    }
    \map{
      \step[typesource=misc, typetarget=patent, final]
      \step[fieldsource=institution, final]
      \step[fieldset=holder, origfieldval]
    }
  }
}

Converts all @miscs with URLs to @online and all other @miscs to @patent. Additionally the institution field is copied over to holder, since @patent does not recognise the institution field.

biblatex-science does not print the holder or institution field, so the last mapping step, while conceptually nice, does not really cause any difference in output in your specific example.

\DeclareSourcemap{
  \maps[datatype=bibtex, overwrite=true]{
    \map{
      \step[typesource=misc, typetarget=patent, final]
      \step[fieldsource=url, final]
      \step[typesource=patent, typetarget=online]
    }
  }
}

Would be slightly closer to your suggestion. If you want to change the entry type, you need typesource and typetarget. That means we can do away with \pertype if we add final to the first step. The first step converts all @miscs to @patent. The second step filters all @patents with URLs and converts those to @online. With your set-up this should be equivalent to the the other suggestion.

edit Switched to user-level command \DeclareSourcemap. \DeclareStyleSourcemap should only be used in styles (.bbx or .cbx files).

Best Answer

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[Tex/LaTex] Customizing Bibliography alpha

[Tex/LaTex] Mendeley and Biblatex: how to interpret ‘misc’ as ‘patent’ or ‘online’

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