Upgrade Storageedited Zotero CSL code for manuscript/archival items
I have edited the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (full note, with Ibid) CSL code for manuscript and letter item types. If any Zotero users want to test out the edited code, you can download it at: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5iqo8mwbcpghlvvx401rf/chicago-fullnote-bibliography-with-ibid-manuscript-edit.csl?rlkey=trbva67io3ljofu5y6u52gjyq&st=apg5pfio&dl=0. I would be interested to hear how it works for you.
The specific edits I made are detailed below, with my rationale following each bullet point:
Titles:
- Removal of the quotation marks around manuscript and letter item types and manuscript collection titles. If you want an item to have quotation marks around the title, you can add curly quotation marks to the Zotero title field. This allows users to decide for themselves whether or not the item at hand requires quotation marks around the title.
- Removal of default title casing for manuscript and letter titles in footnotes. Manuscript and letter titles will appear as entered in the Zotero field. Chicago guidance is nuanced; users can decide for themselves whether title or sentence casing is most appropriate for the item at hand.
Dates:
- Removal of the parentheses around a date or “n.d.” in a manuscript item footnote. Chicago guidance does not contain parentheses around dates in manuscript citations.
- Removal of the “n.d.” from manuscript collection bibliography entries. If dates are associated with a manuscript collection, they typically appear as part of the title. The indication of “no date” is not needed for the collection as a whole.
- The date format for manuscript and letter citations has been changed from month-day-year to day-month-year. Chicago guidance accepts both formats, but their examples employ day-month-year.
Subsequent citations:
- If a date is present in the Zotero date field, it will appear in subsequent shortened citations for manuscript and letter item types. If no date is present in Zotero, the “n.d.” will not appear in subsequent shortened citations. Chicago guidance indicates that more information than just the title may be useful in subsequent citations. Dates can be useful to distinguish between multiple similar documents.
- If the user enters text into the Place field in manuscript item types, that text will appear at the end of the shortened citation. This can be used for names of manuscript collections or repositories, if needed (e.g., if you have documents with similar titles across multiple collections or repositories). It may be useful to distinguish multiple similar documents by the collection or holding repository.
A few notes about how to best use this edited citation style:
- Use separate manuscript item and collection records: Create separate Zotero records for each individual manuscript item that you cite from the archival collection, plus another Zotero record for the collection as a whole. Use the individual manuscript item records to create footnote citations. Use the collection record for the bibliography. Note that when you put together the bibliography, you can use the functionality of the Zotero plugin in Word to edit the bibliography: specifically, you can remove the individual manuscript items from the bibliography and add in the collection record.
- Additional editing needed for letters that are part of manuscript collections:
- Instead of using the “Author”, “Contributor”, and “Recipient” options in Zotero’s creator field, write [sender’s name] to [recipient’s name] in the title field, as you’d like it to appear in the citation.
- For shortened subsequent citations, enter the shortened version of the title into the “Short Title” field in Zotero (e.g., Smith to Williams).
The specific edits I made are detailed below, with my rationale following each bullet point:
Titles:
- Removal of the quotation marks around manuscript and letter item types and manuscript collection titles. If you want an item to have quotation marks around the title, you can add curly quotation marks to the Zotero title field. This allows users to decide for themselves whether or not the item at hand requires quotation marks around the title.
- Removal of default title casing for manuscript and letter titles in footnotes. Manuscript and letter titles will appear as entered in the Zotero field. Chicago guidance is nuanced; users can decide for themselves whether title or sentence casing is most appropriate for the item at hand.
Dates:
- Removal of the parentheses around a date or “n.d.” in a manuscript item footnote. Chicago guidance does not contain parentheses around dates in manuscript citations.
- Removal of the “n.d.” from manuscript collection bibliography entries. If dates are associated with a manuscript collection, they typically appear as part of the title. The indication of “no date” is not needed for the collection as a whole.
- The date format for manuscript and letter citations has been changed from month-day-year to day-month-year. Chicago guidance accepts both formats, but their examples employ day-month-year.
Subsequent citations:
- If a date is present in the Zotero date field, it will appear in subsequent shortened citations for manuscript and letter item types. If no date is present in Zotero, the “n.d.” will not appear in subsequent shortened citations. Chicago guidance indicates that more information than just the title may be useful in subsequent citations. Dates can be useful to distinguish between multiple similar documents.
- If the user enters text into the Place field in manuscript item types, that text will appear at the end of the shortened citation. This can be used for names of manuscript collections or repositories, if needed (e.g., if you have documents with similar titles across multiple collections or repositories). It may be useful to distinguish multiple similar documents by the collection or holding repository.
A few notes about how to best use this edited citation style:
- Use separate manuscript item and collection records: Create separate Zotero records for each individual manuscript item that you cite from the archival collection, plus another Zotero record for the collection as a whole. Use the individual manuscript item records to create footnote citations. Use the collection record for the bibliography. Note that when you put together the bibliography, you can use the functionality of the Zotero plugin in Word to edit the bibliography: specifically, you can remove the individual manuscript items from the bibliography and add in the collection record.
- Additional editing needed for letters that are part of manuscript collections:
- Instead of using the “Author”, “Contributor”, and “Recipient” options in Zotero’s creator field, write [sender’s name] to [recipient’s name] in the title field, as you’d like it to appear in the citation.
- For shortened subsequent citations, enter the shortened version of the title into the “Short Title” field in Zotero (e.g., Smith to Williams).
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bwiernikPlease feel free to submit your updates to the CSL Style Repository: https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md