Upgrade StorageMLA Style implementation improvements
Dear zotero developers,
thanks for bringing to the world this great tool. It really helps me a lot.
I have found some issues with the MLA style implementation in zotero 2.0.2 which I would like to share with you:
1. Omission of introductory article in saved newspaper articles
According to section 5.4.5. of the MLA handbook, introductory articles should be omitted when citing newspaper articles.
Example (italics for newspaper name are not in here due to formatting limitations in this text editor):
Daley, Suzanne. “Inspirational Black History Draws Academic Fire.” New York Times 10 Oct. 1990. Web. 19 Jan. 2010.
However, zotero currently lists the article as
Daley, Suzanne. “Inspirational Black History Draws Academic Fire.” The New York Times 10 Oct. 1990. Web. 19 Jan. 2010.
It seems that zotero captures the 'The' before 'New York Times' in the publication column of zotero. I can manually delete the 'The' but I wonder whether it would be possible to fix this in the future.
2. Abbreviation of Publishers' Names
According to section 7.5 of the MLA handbook, the names of university publishers should be abbreviated.
Example (italics for book title are not in here due to formatting limitations in this text editor):
Bercovitch, Sacvan. The American Jeremiad. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1978. Print.
However, zotero does not abbreviate the publisher and lists the book like this:
Bercovitch, Sacvan. The American Jeremiad. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978. Print.
I can manually edit this but I wonder whether it would be possible to fix this in the future.
3. In bibliographies, zotero puts an extra space in non-dated entries
I had some online newspaper articles that did not have a publishing date in them. Therefore, I typed 'n.d.' into the date column in zotero. When I looked at the automatically generated bibliography, I noticed that zotero made 'n.d .' out of it (with an extra space after the 'd').
I can manually edit this but I wonder whether it would be possible to fix this in the future.
4. Open Office plug-in and automatically generated bibliographies
It seems to me that between the entries in the automatically generated bibliography there is too much (vertical) space.
I can manually delete the space but each time I refresh the bibliography, it reappears. This is quite annoying. Is there a way to fix this?
Best, Ben
thanks for bringing to the world this great tool. It really helps me a lot.
I have found some issues with the MLA style implementation in zotero 2.0.2 which I would like to share with you:
1. Omission of introductory article in saved newspaper articles
According to section 5.4.5. of the MLA handbook, introductory articles should be omitted when citing newspaper articles.
Example (italics for newspaper name are not in here due to formatting limitations in this text editor):
Daley, Suzanne. “Inspirational Black History Draws Academic Fire.” New York Times 10 Oct. 1990. Web. 19 Jan. 2010.
However, zotero currently lists the article as
Daley, Suzanne. “Inspirational Black History Draws Academic Fire.” The New York Times 10 Oct. 1990. Web. 19 Jan. 2010.
It seems that zotero captures the 'The' before 'New York Times' in the publication column of zotero. I can manually delete the 'The' but I wonder whether it would be possible to fix this in the future.
2. Abbreviation of Publishers' Names
According to section 7.5 of the MLA handbook, the names of university publishers should be abbreviated.
Example (italics for book title are not in here due to formatting limitations in this text editor):
Bercovitch, Sacvan. The American Jeremiad. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1978. Print.
However, zotero does not abbreviate the publisher and lists the book like this:
Bercovitch, Sacvan. The American Jeremiad. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978. Print.
I can manually edit this but I wonder whether it would be possible to fix this in the future.
3. In bibliographies, zotero puts an extra space in non-dated entries
I had some online newspaper articles that did not have a publishing date in them. Therefore, I typed 'n.d.' into the date column in zotero. When I looked at the automatically generated bibliography, I noticed that zotero made 'n.d .' out of it (with an extra space after the 'd').
I can manually edit this but I wonder whether it would be possible to fix this in the future.
4. Open Office plug-in and automatically generated bibliographies
It seems to me that between the entries in the automatically generated bibliography there is too much (vertical) space.
I can manually delete the space but each time I refresh the bibliography, it reappears. This is quite annoying. Is there a way to fix this?
Best, Ben
2. Same here - automatic abbreviations suck, so this would have to work through a list or through a separate field. Both are clunky and unless they're frequently used I don't think a Zotero implementation is likely.
for both 1. and 2. you could consider just putting the name in correctly (i.e. correcting NY Times entries and abbreviating Universities yourself. Batch editing is a planned feature and will help you do this much more quickly.
3. Just leave the date field for non-dated items empty - Zotero/csl deals with that correctly, putting n.d. in manually just creates problems.
4. I'll have a look, but I thought I remember MLA having very broad double-spaced requirements for the bibliography.
thanks a lot for your suggestions.
I am really looking forward to batch editing capability. That would be a really good feature.
Keep up the good work
Ben