need period after initials in citations

BDPopp

When abbreviating names (at least for letters) in a citation, a period needs to be added after initial.

Screenshot of entry in Zotero:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u7521875/8zovfdeza6bfi28rif8p.png

Screenshot of citation in Word:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u7521875/jdjs7bxe8058ybd3w3n7.png
In this screenshot, there needs to be a period after M.

aborel

It is determined by the citation style. Which one are you using?

BDPopp

I am using Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (author-date) style.

I have a copy of the 17th edition. Referring to the last set of examples (for "different authors with the same last name") in 15.22, there should be a period after the initial.

Also, I looked for what CMOS said about reference format for manuscript letters. I didn't see anything about including the recipient name, or not. Personally, I like including the name.

dunning

This should be an easy fix: I’ll look into it later in the week. I would guess that you’re citing another item that includes a different Curie (even if it’s just a marginally different form of Marie) and therefore it’s adding the initial to disambiguate them.

dunning

By the way, you don’t need to repeat the names in the title field — you’ll get a more correct citation if you instead put ‘letter’ in the Type field.

BDPopp

Yes, I also have citations of Pierre Curie. A similar situation occurs with Jean Perrin and Henriette Perrin, Paul Langevin and André Langevin, and several other families.

I do have letter in the type field. I'm not sure what to put in the title field for a letter. Maybe the first words of the body??? What do you suggest?

dunning

The only situation in which one would normally provide a title when citing correspondence is when quoting a subject line or memorandum title. Otherwise, the title should be left blank, instead providing a brief description (‘letter’, ‘email’, ‘memorandum’) in the Type field.

If you need extra identifying indication, Chicago suggests adding the place of composition, which you can do using event-place in the Extra field, like this:

https://www.zotero.org/groups/2205533/test_items_library/collections/5V67EPX3/items/DLSKHA5T/item-details

Note that this example is from a published collection, meaning that the date of the book is in the Date field and the letter date is in event-date in Extra.