Edit elsevier-with-titles so that it uses subsequent-author-substitute

aubertclement

I have tried to edit the https://www.zotero.org/styles/elsevier-with-titles style so that it uses the "subsequent-author-substitute" rules to replace identical names with, e.g., "-----" (cf. https://docs.citationstyles.org/en/stable/specification.html#reference-grouping ).

But all my attempts failed… :-(

For instance, I thought that
bibliography entry-spacing="0" second-field-align="flush" subsequent-author-substitute="_____" subsequent-author-substitute-rule="complete-all"

would be the right way of doing it, but it does not change the way the references are displayed…

aubertclement

Ok, I am even more confused, since this is what uses e.g. https://www.zotero.org/styles/serdica-journal-of-computing:

bibliography hanging-indent="true" et-al-min="11" et-al-use-first="7" subsequent-author-substitute="———" entry-spacing="0"

but it does not behave as expected either.

adamsmith

This isn't entirely clear from the specs, but (not having tested) I'd assume the processor just won't apply substitute unless authors are the first element of a citation, which they by definition never are in numeric styles.

I'd also just point out that doing something in a style meant for public consumption that is so unusual that it's never come up in CSL (I'm guessing the code in the style you link to is actually unintentionally left from copying Chicago author-date) is not a great idea in terms of readability. It's just going to confuse readers and you're basically saving ~3 characters over using firstauthor, initial, et al.

aubertclement

> substitute unless authors are the first element of a citation, which they by definition never are in numeric styles.

That makes sense now that you said it.

> I'd also just point out that doing something […] that is so unusual that it's never come up in CSL […] is not a great idea in terms of readability.

Probably true, too.

> you're basically saving ~3 characters over using firstauthor, initial, et al.

No, I would be replacing

LastName, A. et al

with

---

so, saving more than 3 characters. But that's probably not the point: you are right that this is probably a bad idea to begin with.

aubertclement

In case it's useful to anybody else: I have ended up using a custom version of revista-materia.csl, tweaked to be a bit more compact.