MHRA author-date

smileycat_02
Hello

I'm writing a linguistics essay, probably the only style of essay requiring MHRA in the author-date style. Is it possible to install this on zotero? I've tried playing around with the current MHRA styles but I've had no luck so far.

I've been looking at the Chicago style and this looks pretty similar should I just use this instead or is there an MHRA author date style available?
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  • adamsmith
    right now chicago author-date is your best bet - I'll have a look at MHRA author-date and will see if it can be done with a reasonable amount of work - you can still switch afterwards, so go ahead with chicago and maybe switch later.
  • smileycat_02
    Ok I will do. Thank you!
  • adamsmith
    give this a try - go here:
    http://gist.github.com/260982
    download using the "Raw" link on the top right, install by dragging the file to an open Firefox window.
    I haven't done this very carefully, so you'll want to triple check with the style guide at
    http://www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Books/StyleGuide/StyleGuideV2_3.pdf

    any mistakes you find please report here and I'll try to fix them.
    It looks like they want single authors with full first name, multiple authors with initials, that's not something Zotero can do atm.
  • albina
    I just wanted to check if the link above is the most recent version of MHRA author-date format.
  • adamsmith
    yes, any feedback would be useful.
  • AmyEForrest
    Can Zotero now provide the details adamsmith mentioned above yet? (single authors with full first name, multiple authors with initials, etc.)

    I would like to start using MHRA author-date, but am having to use Chicago style at the moment (but don't like it!).

    Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    I don't think we can distinguish between single and multiple authors for initials, no.
    I'm not aware of anything else that's missing, though.
  • fbennett
    I don't see a clear requirement in MHRA that a sole author should use the full name, but multiple authors initials. There is an example at page 55 that shows two authors with full names.

    There is an example at page 64 with initials, but it appears to be making a point about joining punctuation and the use of ampersands in the bibliography. The names of the scholars used in the example (C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards) are normally written in initialised form, so it doesn't appear to reflect a rule.

    Am I missing something?
  • adamsmith
    I think you're right - I had last looked at that 2 1/2 years ago. It's rather unfortunate that the one example they have for two authors in author-date style uses initials, but you're right about them making another point with that (and the authors being typically initialized), so I guess the best bet is to go with what they do at other parts of the manual and use full names.

    That said - see my warning about the style above - I did this a long time ago and pretty quickly, so don't assume that the style is necessarily correct.
  • AmyEForrest
    Hi adamsmith,

    Thank you for setting the MHRA author-date style up. I'll have a look at it to see if it's right - I cannot wait to use it! But first, I don't understand how you install the file? You said:

    "give this a try - go here:
    http://gist.github.com/260982
    download using the "Raw" link on the top right, install by dragging the file to an open Firefox window."

    So I clicked on the 'raw' link which just opened up a new tab with the same words and numbers. But I don't see a file to drag?

    Thanks,
    Amy
  • adamsmith
    download from the raw link - i.e. right-click on "Raw" select "Save link as..." then save the csl file, drag that to Zotero.
  • AmyEForrest
    Hi there,

    1. I've checked the MHRA author-date guidelines and it appears that they don't have full stops at the end of the references in the bibliography, until the last one. However the Zotero style has got full stops after every one, could this be changed in the style (apart from the last one of course)? That way I won't have to go and delete each full stop before my final print out.

    2. Is there any way to get the original publishing date (and perhaps even the original date for translation into English) automatically put in (rather than having to do it manually and then losing it each time you update the bibliography)? ...However, it doesn't appear to be addressed at all in the MHRA author-date section of the guide. Is this something that could/should be done?

    e.g. this is how this book appears right now in the biblio, but I'd like it to reflect the original publishing date in order to avoid confusion about when it started to have influence in society (and perhaps also the translation in the English-speaking world):

    Habermas, Jürgen. 1994. Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (Cambridge: Polity Press).

    Thanks!
  • AmyEForrest
    3. Zotero doesn't seem to automatically put 'a' and 'b' next to the date when the author and date are both the same (see below). Can this be changed on the style (I am unable to do it myself...)?

    Pernaut, Sophie-Pierre. 2011. ‘La Barbe au Petit Journal : La Barbe répond à madmoiZelle’, Madmoizelle <http://www.madmoizelle.com/la-barbe-repond-a-madmoizelle-77301>; [accessed 25 November 2012].

    ---. 2011. ‘La Barbe au Petit Journal : retour sur un échec médiatique’, Madmoizelle <http://www.madmoizelle.com/la-barbe-petit-journal-76930>; [accessed 25 November 2012]

    Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    thanks - I'm following along, might just take a little before I get to fixing this. 2. is currently not possible. Please keep listing anything else you find.
  • adamsmith
    The style is now up. It will appear on the style repository within 30mins.. (See here if you need instructions for installing styles in standalone.)

    I've fixed issue 1 (though there is no period at the end of the bibliography) and 3, as I say above 2 isn't currently possible.
  • AmyEForrest
    Hi again,

    For some reason, problem number 3 is back and I'm unable to fix it myself, could you help?:

    West, Ashley. [n.d.]. Annie Sprinkle: The Early Years, The Rialto Report

    ---. [n.d.]. John Amero and ‘Body of a Female’, The Rialto Report

    Thanks in advance!
  • AmyEForrest
    Just realised that the problem is back only with references with [n.d.]

    (But this crosses over to another problem, elsewhere mentioned on the forum about podcasts not yet having a date field: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/21350/need-date-field-for-podcasts/#Item_5 )

    But even when the podcast date field problem gets resolved, there will still exist the problem of references with [n.d.] not having a and b and c after them to distinguish them apart.

    Anyone able to help? Perhaps something I'm doing wrong? Or maybe someone can just tweak the MHRA author-date style (I am unable to understand it myself)?
    Thanks in advance!
  • adamsmith
    that's almost certainly a problem in the style. I'll take a look, but will take a while.
  • adamsmith
    The style is now fixed. The updated version will appear on the repository within 30mins (check the timestamp). Update your copy of the style by re-installing it from the repository. (See here if you need instructions for installing styles in standalone.)

    Styles should also update automatically within 24hs for Zotero 4.0+
    In an existing document, you may have to switch to a different style and back for the changes to take effect once the style is updated.
    Any further problems please let us know.
  • AmyEForrest
    Thank you very much for sorting that problem out!

    However, now it seems that there is no a, b, and c for the references *with* dates:

    Bourcier, Marie-Hélène. 2011. Queer Zones 1: Politique des Identités Sexuelles et des Savoirs, 3rd edn (Paris: Amsterdam)

    ---. 2011. Queer Zones 3: Identités, Cultures et Politiques (Paris: Amsterdam)

    Stüttgen, Tim. 2009. ‘Before Orgasm: Fifteen Fragments on a Cartography of Post / Pornographic Politics’, in Post / Porn / Politics: Queer_Feminist Perspective on the Politics of Porn Performance and Sex_Work as Culture Production, ed. by Tim Stüttgen (Berlin: b_books), pp. 8–19

    --- (ed.). 2009. Post / Porn / Politics: Queer_Feminist Perspective on the Politics of Porn Performance and Sex_Work as Culture Production (Berlin: b_books)

    I've reinstalled the style (3rd edition), I've switched back and forth between styles, but still this problem persists.

    Any help will be much appreciated! :)
  • adamsmith
    should be fixed now.

    If you have any insights on how these should look in text, that'd be great.

    Let's assume we also have a Bourcier 2009 item, would it be
    (Bourcier 2009; Bourcier 2011a; Bourcier 2011b) as it is now? Seems unusual to me.
    Or should it be something like
    (Bourcier 2009, 2011a, 2011b)?
    or
    Bourcier 2009, 2011a,b?
  • AmyEForrest
    Thanks, it works now. At the moment, it's coming up like this:

    Bourcier, Marie-Hélène. 2005a. ‘Post-pornographie’, in Dictionnaire de la pornographie, ed. by Philippe Di Folco (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France), pp. 378–380

    ---. 2011a. Queer Zones 1: Politique des Identités Sexuelles et des Savoirs, 3rd edn (Paris: Amsterdam)

    ---. 2011b. Queer Zones 3: Identités, Cultures et Politiques (Paris: Amsterdam)

    ---. 2010. ‘Red light district et porno durable?! Le rouge et le vert du féminisme pro-sexe?: un autre porno est possible’, Multitudes, 42, 82–93 <doi:10.3917/mult.042.0082>

    ---. 2005b. Sexpolitiques: Queer Zones 2 (Paris: La Fabrique)


    1. Is it supposed to be doing it only alphabetically according to the title, rather than according to the date (or at least taking into account the date)? There is pretty much zero info in the MHRA style guide (obviously they don't love the author-date system enough!)

    2. RE. citations in the text - I'm not sure how that would work, as Zotero doesn't seem to allow putting two or more citations within one set of parentheses (unless I'm missing something)?
    But if it did allow it, it should look like this: (Bourcier 2009, 2011a, 2011b)

    Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    1. I don't know anymore than you do, but to me this looks wrong. I'll sort this chronologically when I get a chance.

    2. Of course Zotero allows multiple citations - that'd be a problem otherwise. See http://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage#citations_with_multiple_cited_items

    I'll adjust the output accordingly.
  • adamsmith
    both done.
  • AmyEForrest
    Thanks!
  • Luis Castellví
    Hi everyone

    I have a few minor problems with the MHRA author-date and would be very grateful if someone could help me to fix them.

    I will use this example to illustrate the problems I have. When I create a bibliography with the works written by Mercedes Blanco, this is what I get:

    Blanco, Mercedes. 1996. ‘Lienzo de Flandes: las Soledades y el paisaje pictórico’, in Actas del IV Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Internacional Siglo de Oro, ed. by María Cruz García de Enterría and Alicia Cordón Mesa, 2 vols (Alcalá de Henares: Universidad de Alcalá), I, 263–274

    ---. 2004. ‘Góngora et la peinture’, Locus Amoenus, 7, 197–208

    ---. 2006. ‘Les Solitudes de Góngora: una poétique du paysage?’, in Nature et paysages: l’émergence d’une nouvelle subjectivité à la Renaissance (Paris: École nationale des chartes), pp. 117–138

    ---. 2012a. ‘El paisaje erótico entre poesía y pintura’, Criticón, 114, 101–137

    ---. 2012b. Góngora heroico: las Soledades y la tradición épica (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica)

    ---. 2012c. Góngora o la invención de una lengua (León: Universidad de León)

    1- According to the MHRA author date, the second and subsequent references by the same author should be introduced by a long dash ( —) and not by this (---.). How can I fix that?

    2- What do I do if there is a title of a literary work within the title of an academic article? For instance, in the first reference the word “Soledades” should appear in italics because it is in itself the title of a book. But I do not know how to put a word in italics within the title of an academic article in Zotero.

    3- According to the MHRA author date, when including an article in the bibliography there should be a colon (:) between the volume number and the pages. They give this example in page 77:

    Grady, Hugh. 2001. ‘Falstaff: Subjectivity between the Carnival and the Aesthetic’, MLR, 96: 609–23

    However, as you will see in the second and fourth references above, Zotero separates the volume number and the pages with a coma (,) not a colon (:). Is there any way to fix this?

    4- Finally, I am not entirely sure about this because the MHRA author date section does not give examples of references to works contained in many volumes. If you please take a look at the first reference, could you please tell me if it is OK that it appears with a coma (,) separating the number of the volume of the cited reference and the pages? Or should it be a colon (:) instead?

    Thanks in advance for your help.

    All best

    Luis
  • adamsmith
    1. I've switched this to 3 em dashes, which is the standard and should look like a long dash in most fonts. (In the MHRA manual it's actually 2 em-dashes if you look closely, but in most fonts that's quite short).
    2. http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/rich_text_bibliography
    3. fixed
    4. I've fixed how this looks - the example for a chapter wasn't included in the 2nd edition, so I had to adjust that a bit, too. The comma there is OK, though, but now the page numbers are given with pp.

    The updated version of the style will appear on the repository within 30mins (check the timestamp). Update your copy of the style by clicking "Update Now" in the General tab of the Zotero preferences.

    Styles also update automatically within 24hs for Zotero 4.0+
    In an existing document, you may have to switch to a different style and back for the changes to take effect once the style is updated.
    Any further problems please let us know & thanks for reporting
  • Luis Castellví
    Hi! Thank you so much for your help, you are really quick!

    Please let me give you some input on the above mentioned points:

    1- The long dash looks fine to me, but there is still a full stop (.) after the long dash which should not be there. Please see how it looks now:

    ———. 2004. ‘Góngora et la peinture’, Locus Amoenus, 7: 197–208

    2- I can use italics in the titles now, thank you so much!

    3- It works perfectly now, thanks!

    4- Now the page numbers are given with pp., which is great, but there is a new problem that did not exist before. According to the MHRA author date, for chapter of books the preposition “in” should appear after the title of the chapter. This is the example they give in page 77:

    Hermetet, Rachel. 2006. ‘The Criterion et les littératures européennes, 1922–1925’, in Benoît Tadié (ed.), Revues modernistes anglo-américaines: lieux d’échanges, lieux d’exil (Paris: Ent’revues), pp. 189–200

    This preposition “in” would appear in the previous version of MHRA author date in Zotero (e.g. see my first reference yesterday), but for some reason it does not appear anymore.

    I really appreciate your help. Thank you so much.

    Best regards

    Luis
  • adamsmith
    I fear I'm not able to get rid of the period after the em dashes. You'll have to fix that with search and replace.

    For 4 - the "in" would appear together with the editor if your item is a chapter or a conference paper - just tested, that's definitely the case.
  • Luis Castellví
    No worries, with search and replace it's done in a second. Ah, and you were right with the "in". Sorry for that!

    Thank you so much for your help.

    Best

    Luis
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