[Bug] "&-#-x-D; " appears in abstract after "retrive metadata via identifier and lint"

[IvanZhuyf3]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Environment

• OS: Win11
• Zotero Version: 8
• Addon Version: 3.0.1

Describe the bug

After using the "retrive metadata via identifier and lint" function, the Abstract field contains "&-#-x-D; " (with all dashline - removed), where there are any special characters in the original abstract. This is then displayed as an empty line in the Abstract field. This string is not visible until exported in .xml format.

Item RDF export

<rdf:RDF
 xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
 xmlns:z="http://www.zotero.org/namespaces/export#"
 xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
 xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
 xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
 xmlns:bib="http://purl.org/net/biblio#"
 xmlns:link="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/link/"
 xmlns:prism="http://prismstandard.org/namespaces/1.2/basic/">
    <bib:Article rdf:about="https://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=D5GC06007A">
        <z:itemType>journalArticle</z:itemType>
        <dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="urn:issn:1463-9262,%201463-9270"/>
        <dc:publisher>
            <foaf:Organization>
               <foaf:name>The Royal Society of Chemistry</foaf:name>
            </foaf:Organization>
        </dc:publisher>
        <bib:authors>
            <rdf:Seq>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Yu</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>Youbo</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Zhou</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>Xingcheng</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Yan</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>Lisha</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Yang</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>Li</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Hong</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>Jie</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Kamonsuangkasem</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>Krongthong</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Wang</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>Peiyi</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Kandegama</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>W. M. W. W.</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Hao</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>Gefei</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li>
                    <foaf:Person>
                        <foaf:surname>Zhang</foaf:surname>
                        <foaf:givenName>Libo</foaf:givenName>
                    </foaf:Person>
                </rdf:li>
            </rdf:Seq>
        </bib:authors>
        <link:link rdf:resource="#item_11660"/>
        <link:link rdf:resource="#item_11661"/>
        <dc:title>Spatial organization of an enzyme cascade in a Ni-ZIF-8 framework for efficient sugar nucleotide synthesis</dc:title>
        <dcterms:abstract>The Ni-ZIF-8 nanocomposite spatially organizes a dual-enzyme conjugate, achieving highly enhanced activity and a channeling-like effect for efficient UDP-GlcNAc synthesis.
          , 
            
              Enzyme cascade reactions hold transformative potential for sugar nucleotide biosynthesis, aligning with green chemistry principles by minimizing solvent waste and purification steps. However, their potential is often compromised by low catalytic efficiency due to inefficient intermediate utilization and instability of individual enzymes. Capitalizing on the coordinatively unsaturated Ni
              2+
              sites and the hydrophilic nature of Ni-doped zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (Ni-ZIF-8), we engineered a highly active nanocomposite by incorporating a hexahistidine-tagged dual-enzyme conjugate of
              N
              -acetylhexosamine 1-kinase (BlNahK) and
              N
              -acetylglucosamine 1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (PmGlmU) (His
              6
              -BlNahK–PmGlmU-His
              6
              ) for efficient synthesis of uridine diphosphate
              N
              -acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc)—a pivotal sugar nucleotide. The Ni-ZIF-8 scaffold acts as a sustainable nano-reactor, not only stabilizing the dual-enzyme conjugate conformation but also elevating local substrate concentrations (ATP, UTP, and GlcNAc)
              via
              synergistic electrostatic and van der Waals interactions, thereby enhancing reaction kinetics and resource efficiency. Using stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, we directly visualized the spatial confinement and rapid consumption of the intermediate substrate GlcNAc-1-P on the nanocomposite surface, demonstrating an engineered substrate channeling-like effect, a common mechanism in native metabolon complexes that boosts cascade efficiency. The resulting nanocomposite exhibits a 4.4-fold higher activity than free enzymes and superior stability across varying temperatures and pH conditions, and retains approximately 60% of its initial activity after five reuse cycles. This work establishes a generalizable and robust strategy for constructing metal–organic framework (MOF)–enzyme complexes with broad applicability in high-value sugar nucleotide biosynthesis and other complex bioconversion processes requiring metabolic flux control.</dcterms:abstract>
        <dc:date>2026</dc:date>
        <z:language>en</z:language>
        <dc:coverage>WOS:001677844700001</dc:coverage>
        <z:libraryCatalog>DOI.org (Crossref)</z:libraryCatalog>
        <dc:identifier>
            <dcterms:URI>
               <rdf:value>https://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=D5GC06007A</rdf:value>
            </dcterms:URI>
        </dc:identifier>
        <dcterms:dateSubmitted>2026-03-19 21:35:22</dcterms:dateSubmitted>
        <bib:pages>4474-4489</bib:pages>
        <z:citationKey>yuSpatialOrganizationEnzyme2026</z:citationKey>
    </bib:Article>
    <bib:Journal rdf:about="urn:issn:1463-9262,%201463-9270">
        <prism:volume>28</prism:volume>
        <dc:title>Green Chemistry</dc:title>
        <dc:identifier>DOI 10.1039/D5GC06007A</dc:identifier>
        <prism:number>10</prism:number>
        <dcterms:alternative>Green Chem.</dcterms:alternative>
        <dc:identifier>ISSN 1463-9262, 1463-9270</dc:identifier>
    </bib:Journal>
    <z:Attachment rdf:about="#item_11660">
        <z:itemType>attachment</z:itemType>
        <dc:title>Full Text PDF</dc:title>
        <dc:identifier>
            <dcterms:URI>
                <rdf:value>https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2026/gc/d5gc06007a</rdf:value>
            </dcterms:URI>
        </dc:identifier>
        <dcterms:dateSubmitted>2026-03-16 23:32:32</dcterms:dateSubmitted>
        <z:linkMode>1</z:linkMode>
        <link:type>application/pdf</link:type>
    </z:Attachment>
    <z:Attachment rdf:about="#item_11661">
        <z:itemType>attachment</z:itemType>
        <dc:title>Supplementary Information PDF</dc:title>
        <dc:identifier>
            <dcterms:URI>
                <rdf:value>https://www.rsc.org/suppdata/d5/gc/d5gc06007a/d5gc06007a1.pdf</rdf:value>
            </dcterms:URI>
        </dc:identifier>
        <dcterms:dateSubmitted>2026-03-16 23:32:35</dcterms:dateSubmitted>
        <z:linkMode>1</z:linkMode>
        <link:type>application/pdf</link:type>
    </z:Attachment>
</rdf:RDF>

Steps to reproduce

For refs with abstract containing spacial characters (such as the one attached above), retrive metadata via identifier, and these blank space (newline) shows up.

Debug output

No response

Anything else?

Exported Items.xml
this is an .xml file exported for the same ref as above. the "&-#-x-D; " appears everywhere.

[northword]

This is caused by two parts, and both are issues on Zotero's side:

1. (For your item, the Linter updates metadata by calling Zotero.Translate) The data returned by the CrossRef XML API includes indentation made of spaces in the abstract:

   

   but the Zotero's translator does not handle these extra spaces and line breaks, resulting in empty lines in the abstract.

   

2. The functionality of exporting to XML in Zotero may have bug, causing spaces or \n to be replaced with &-#-x-D;, which is why these characters appear only when exporting to XML and not when exporting to RDF.

The first issue I can try to fix by opening a PR to the Zotero Translator, or also add a patch to my plugin. But the second issue may need you to feedback it to the Zotero forum.

[northword]

For the first issue I mentioned, trackhttps://github.com/zotero/translators/pull/3597

[github-actions]

🚀 This ticket has been resolved in v3.0.2. See Release v3.0.2 for release notes.