Sort by last author

[bruceekirk]

I'm relatively new to Bookends, so this may be an amateurish question — is it possible to sort by senior/corresponding author? (Referred to as "Last" in Prefs->Lists->Authors/Editors:First...Last.)

I've done some cursory Googling and looked through the website/forum, but haven't found anything to answer this question. It would be very convenient for much of my work to quickly sort my library by the publishing research group (without making individual smart folders or smart groups for each individual senior author), hence the desire for an option to alphabetize by last author. Many thanks!

[Jon]

No, that's not possible.

Jon
Sonny Software

[bruceekirk]

Thanks for the quick reply, Jon! Much appreciated.

Do you think "Last Author" might ever be added as an independent "Fields to display" column in a future update? I have no knowledge or understanding of software development but wonder if it is possible to implement since the software already includes an option to selectively display the last author within the "Author" field. Thanks again!

Best,
Bruce

[Jon]

You mean a separate column in addition to the Authors column? It's do-able, but I don't know if there's much call for it. What do others think?

Jon
Sonny Software

[bruceekirk]

If it would be easier to implement, another option in the Authors/Editors field being "Last...First" instead of "First...Last" would also work (although it might be kind of bizarre). Makes me wonder if there are any feasible workarounds like somehow batch copying the last author name to an unused field that already exists in "Fields to display" like 'User1.'

[Jon]

I'm sure that could be done with an AppleScript.

Adding an option for Last...First is also of course do-able, but as you say, bizarre.

I'm not sure why you'd want to scroll through a list of hundreds or thousands of papers grouped by last author -- in most cases you'd know the group you are looking for, and entering the senior author's name in the live search box would get those for you instantly.

Jon
Sonny Software

[bruceekirk]

I might play with the AppleScript option. My rationale is best explained by an example — I'm currently working on a grant that incorporates many different polymer chemistry systems; many research groups focus singularly on individual systems, and I mentally organize those by the senior author (to whom the lab belongs), so it would be easiest (in my mind) to just sort my existing folders and groups by the last author's surname. In essence, it's an option to sort by the research group.

[Jon]

Thanks for the reasoning. I don't know your field of course, but in my experience one is usually dealing with maybe 5-10 groups that are sufficiently large an have lots of publications in an are of interest. If that's the case for you, too, I'd recommend creating a smart group using the senior author's name. It takes maybe 30 seconds to create one, or 5 minutes if you have 10, and so on. A small investment that would be much less work than creating and maintaining a separate field for that authors name so you could see it in the list. Just a thought.

Jon
Sonny Software