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Multilingual Reference Management

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Update History

The Multilingual Setup page underwent a major update in April 2022.

Setting up Juris-M's Multilingual Capabilities

Make Japanese a Language Option in Juris-M

In the upper-left menu, go to Edit  >> Preferences >> Languages >>  In the add a language box, type "Japanese." This will let Juris-M designate a metadata field as being in Japanese and not English.

Click edit, then preferences.

Juris-M edit menu

 

Choose languages.

languages icon in Juris-M preferences

 

In this box, type japanese.

add a language search bar

 

Select Japanese from the drop down.

type and select "Japanese

 

You'll now see in addition to English, there will be an option for Japanese, written as jp.

Japanese and English metedata enabled

Adding Transliterations / Variant Scripts, aka rōmaji (skip if you work with a language written in latin script)

Next, in addition to Japanese, let's enable Juris-M to also add a romanized variant, rōmaji, to metadata fields that are in Japanese. from the Languages preferences section of Juris-M click on the jp you just added.

 

Click the ➕ plus icon and from variant, select ALA-LC Romanization, 1997 edition.

enabling romanized Japanese (rōmaji) in Juris-M

 

Now there will be a row for rōmaji labeled ja-alalc97*.

English, Japanese, and rōmaji enabled

*ALA-LC Romanization, 1997 edition refers to the romanization tables created by the American Library Association (ALA) and the Library of Congress (LoC) in the United States. The Japanese Romanization Table was updated in 2012. The label is out of date but DO continue to use one until Juris-M can reflect the change.

Give your Languages User-Friendly Nicknames (optional)

This is not required, but you can give the languages you want to work with more intuitive Nicknames. Instead of en, jp, and jp-alalc97, you could have them be English, Japanese, and Rōmaji, or even 英語, 日本語, and ローマ字.

 

Move your mouse over any name to rename it.

mouse over a language to rename it

 

nicknames renamed

Adding Multilingual Information to your Information Resources

Now that you've set up Japanese and rōmaji in Juris-M's language preferences, you'll be able to add additional metadata fields to Japanese materials to include transliterations into rōmaji and translations into English. To demonstrate this, the article フリー文献整理ソフトZoteroについて by Miyamoto Yōichi will be used, imported from the CiNii Research database.

 

Select a record in Juris-M you want to add metadata to.

Juris-M record in a list

 

The record will mostly be in Japanese, with no rōmaji or English translations.

Japanese metadata for a journal article

 

Metadata fields that can have multilingual data will have blue outlines when you 🖱 mouse over them.

blue highlight squares indicate multilingual data

 

🖱 Right-click a field to set the language options, each field needs to be set to Japanese.

Set the language of the metadata to Japanese

 

After setting the metadata field as Japanese a ● dot will appear indicating what field the language is set to.

Japanese is set and script variants can be added

 

Create a field for transliterating the Japanese kana / kanji in to romaji by clicking Rōmaji (or ja-alalc97 if you didn't change the nickname)

add rōmaji transcription of the article title

 

Create a field for translating by choosing English as a variant of the title, i.e. translating the title into English is a variant of its original Japanese title.

translated English title added to Japanese record

 

This process can be repeated for all fields that hold linguistic data.

completed multilingual record of Japanese article

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Important information about the Language metadata field.

Always fill out the language metadata field with the two letter code established by the ISO*. For languages with fewer speakers you can use the three letter code standard. The Library of Congress keeps a list of all codes. These language codes are NOT Anglo-centric. For example, the code for Chinese languages is zh, referring to the Mandarin word for Chinese: Zhongwen, not ch as in the English word Chinese.

If the language field is blank, Juris-M will automatically update it to the two letter language code you declare your information source to be in. I.E., when you right click title (or another field that can hold multilingual data) and set the field language to Japanese, ja will appear in the language field. If the field already has data in it, Juris-M will not automatically update it.

Always check this field after importing metadata online, it will often be blank, or occasionally have incorrect data in it.

Generating Multilingual Citations and Bibliographies

Thus far, we've setup Juris-M to recognize the languages you work with, using Japanese and the primary example. However, to generate citations, we need to do adjust more setting in the Language Preferences menu (access via Edit >> Preferences >> Languages). We've been in this section already, and until now have not discussed the primary, [secondary], Juris-M, or Documents sections of this menu.

By default, the language preferences are set to only create citations and bibliographies in the vernacular language of your sources.

宮本洋一, “フリー文献整理ソフトZoteroについて,” ことばの科学研究, no. 10 (2009): 79–82.
(Chicago 17th edition will be used to demonstrate generated citations)
Juris-M language preferences menu

The language interface can be quite confusing and unintuitive. However, "clicking around" can be the best way to learn how it works. Try different combos of buttons in the primary and secondary sections and then generate a bibliography from you information sources to see how all of the interface options work together.

What each section of the Language interface actually does.

options for formatting multilingual citations

🟥 Red Box 🟩 Green Box 🟦 Blue Box
This grid tells Juris-M how to order vernacular, transliterated, or translated parts of a citation, or to not use them at all. Contextual menus will pop up asking if you'd like to:
  • italicize something
  • put it in brackets [ ]
  • etc.
In this box:
  • orig = vernacular
  • script = transliteration
  • lang = translation
In the blue box you will tell Juris-M what "script" and "lang" should be. "orig" is determined by the two letter code in the language field of your Juris-M record.
Not available in the current version of Juris-M. This box tells Juris-M what languages equate to transliteration (script) and/or translation (lang). Note that:
  • the vertical columns of check boxes criss-cross with rows for languages.
  • Therefore the obvious choice for script (aka transliteration) is Romaji...
  • and the obvious choice for lang (aka translation) is English.
For other languages, you will choose other corresponding transliteration schemes by setting them up via the "add a language" bar.

Vernacular Japanese with Transliterations, no Translations (Citations / Bibliographies)

Experimenting with the Languages preferences interface is the best way to learn how it works. If you are looking to quickly generate citations, you can apply the settings below in Juris-M to generation citations with Japanese and rōmaji.

Citations with Japanese and rōmaji (transliteration).

Miyamoto, Yōichi 宮本洋一. “Furī Bunken Seiri Sofuto Zotero ni tsuite” フリー文献整理ソフトZoteroについて. Kotoba no Kagaku Kenkyū ことばの科学研究, no. 10 (2009): 79–82.

generate citations in Japanese with rōmaji

Vernacular Japanese with Transliterations AND Translations (Citations / Bibliographies)

Apply the settings below to create a citations with vernacular Japanese, rōmaji (transliteration), and the title of the article translated into English.

Citations with Japanese, rōmaji (transliteration), and the article title translated into English.

Miyamoto, Yōichi 宮本洋一. “Furī Bunken Seiri Sofuto Zotero ni tsuite” フリー文献整理ソフトZoteroについて [About Zotero, Free Reference Management Software]. Kotoba no Kagaku Kenkyū ことばの科学研究, no. 10 (2009): 79–82.

generate Japnaese citation with title translated