Some mistakes Zotero makes in APA

Dendenzel

I found some problems where the CSL doesn’t generate correct references according to the APA standard.

1/ In the English version of APA when you cite a work with multiple editors, the abbreviation “Ed.” Becomes “Eds.” In plural form.
E.g.: W. Dewachter, G.-H. Dumont, M. Dumoulin, E. Gerard, & E. Lamberts, Eds.
However in the Dutch version, "(Red.)" always remains singular and should be plural when a work has multiple editors.
E.g. W. Dewachter, G.-H. Dumont, M. Dumoulin, E. Gerard, & E. Lamberts, Red. -> should be (Reds.)
Can this be adjusted in the Dutch translator of APA?

2/In case a source does not have an author, according to the APA rules you cite the title of the work first, followed by the year of publication. However it generates the title between single quotations marks, it should be double quotation marks.
E.g.: (‘ An Introduction to Fundamental Rights in Europe History, Theory, Cases’, 2022)-> should be: (" An Introduction to Fundamental Rights in Europe History, Theory, Cases", 2022)
This rule only applies for the item types “journal article” or “book chapter”, where it should be between quotes.
E.g.: ("A few words", 2014) = article/ book chapter
If you're citing an entire work, like item type “book” then it should be in italic.
E.g.: (A Theory of Justice, 1971) = book, but "A Theory of Justice" should be in italic.

3/ A: When you use item type “TV Broadcast” not all fields are generated. If you select “Director” in the drop down, then this field is generated in the reference. However when you select “Producer” or “Scriptwriter” the field is not generated anymore. It should be added to the CSL that these fields are also generated.
B: Also for “TV Broadcast” the field “Running time” isn’t generated in the citation nor the bibliographic reference. When you would fill this value in in another field like “date”, then it doesn’t generate it properly. For example, if the period the TV series ran was from 1999-2009, then only “1999” is generated. Probably because that field only is used for a single date, but it means there is no alternative for "Running time".

Can these problems be changed to the CSL for APA 7 in Zotero and in the Dutch translator?

adamsmith

So some of these are specific issues you have with the Dutch translation for APA -- that translation uses general rules for Dutch as translated by native speakers. Since there is no official APA style for Dutch -- the APA Manual describes rules for manuscripts written in English -- we use those. That applies to both the Red/Reds (my understanding is that the s for plural abbreviations is not standard in Dutch) and the single quotes.

Re: 2. You should see the book title in italics already, the style does that correctly

Re 3. "Running time" is the duration of an individual broadcast/film etc. (like "65mins"). That's not included in APA. If you want a date range, Zotero currently doesn't properly capture those, nothing the citation style can fix. You'll need to add them into the Extra field like so: Issued: 1999/2009

Dendenzel

Thanks for your response. Would it be possible to change this translation of the APA to Dutch so that the Ed. singular in ENG remains Red. in Dutch, but the Eds. in plural also becomes Reds. in plural in Dutch. These are the rules for most Dutch APA users. Here is a manuel for Dutch APA: https://www.scribbr.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/De-Nederlandse-APA-regels-Handleiding-7e-editie-Scribbr.pdf. See page 54. If this is possible when ENG is selected when using the APA, it should also be possible when Dutch is selected.

"s" is indeed normally not used for plural in Dutch, however in this case, Red. is the abbreviation for "redacteur", in plural this is "redacteuren" or "redacteurs". In other manuals Reds. in plural is also used, like this one: https://auteursrechten.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/De-APA-richtlijnen-uitgelegd-3e-editie.pdf
or this one: https://libguides.ru.nl/apa7/nederlandse-conventies

Would it then also be possible to change the single quotes into double quotes hen referring to an article that has no author, when you selected the Dutch language when using APA?

In general: Can we change anything about how the translation of the APA-style happens in Zotero?

Re: 2. Thanks, indeed, I was wrong, it does work.

Re: 3. Thanks for the tip. This works

damnation

You can of course add your own locale specific terms by making your own APA version.

At the beginning of the style you'll find a bunch of locales and it has one for dutch ("nl").
Add this to the other term in there:

<term name="editor" form="short">
<single>red.</single>
<multiple>reds.</multiple>
</term>

Make sure to first read this guide and follow it, otherwise your style WILL be overwritten: https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/citation_styles/style_editing_step-by-step

Dendenzel

Thanks damnation, for the info. However, the fact that Red. in plural is generated instead of Reds. is actually a mistake in the main Dutch version of APA. I could create my own style, but since everyone who uses the Dutch APA uses Reds. instead of Red., could it be possible to change this to the main Dutch APA that is standard in Zotero. That way Reds. is correctly generated for every Dutch user. Is it possible to change that?

bwiernik

I read through a couple dozen Dutch psychology articles across 6 journals and they all used (red.) for the plural of editor. That’s good enough for me. I’ll update the APA locale.

adamsmith

they used red. or reds.? The current version is red.

bwiernik

Ah, yes, sorry I misread Dendenzel’s post. Every example I saw used “red.”—I haven’t seen any article in Dutch or Belgian psychology journals that used “reds.”

Dendenzel

Indeed, I'm afraid different abbreviations are used, I now found some publications where they even use the English "eds."

Another problem that more certainly is wrong in the Dutch APA is the order of a date. In English this always first the month followed by the number of the date in Dutch its the other way around like in this example:

Speksnijder, C. (2020, 26 augustus). Helft ijsplaten Antarctica gevoelig
voor afbreken. De Volkskrant. Geraadpleegd op 29 augustus 2020,
van https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/helft-ijsplatenantarctica-gevoelig-voor-afbreken~b51ce74e/

In English this would be: Speksnijder, C. (2020, August 26). Helft ijsplaten Antarctica gevoelig
voor afbreken. De Volkskrant. Geraadpleegd op 29 augustus 2020,
van https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/helft-ijsplatenantarctica-gevoelig-voor-afbreken~b51ce74e/

Could this general mistake be changed? Thanks in advance.

adamsmith

We can't change the date order there by locale, no (it's also not as clearly a mistake as you think: 2020, August 26 is also ungrammatical in English, but it _is_ in chronological year, month, day order, i.e. analogous to sorting in the bibliography, so there is a logic to this awkward date display)

Dendenzel

And there is no other way that the date order could be changed, since it also is wrong in English?

adamsmith

It's correct APA style. It's ungrammatical

Dendenzel

I stumbled on another issue which I think is a mistake in the Dutch APA. When a sources does not have an author it refers, correctly, to the title.

This is the case when you have a book: (Animal Farm, 1945)
However when you have an article it does precisely the same thing, it puts the title in italics, like a book: (What Is a Restorative City?, 2021), whereas it should be between quotes.
When you select item type book-section, when you refer to a book chapter, it does it correctly: (‘Quantitative methods for comparative constitutional law’, 2012).

I believe that the same rules apply when referring to an article in a journal or a chapter in a book, when the author in unknown. So could this be adjusted to item type "article in an academic journal".

adamsmith

Whether a title is rendered in italics or not in quotes in the text for APA isn't determined by the item type (with some exceptions like legal item types) but by the presence/absence of a container -- so for journals articles, a publication title, for chapters a book title, etc. If a container is present, the title is enclosed in quotation marks, otherwise it's italicized. That's in line with how the APA Manual makes that disctinction.