APA intext reference and Bibliography: Some lists as "full name"

asapee

I am having trouble with some of the references using Zotero.
In some cases, when referencing (both intext and bibliography) an author, zotero references that author with a full name without omitting the authors first name (this is not APA referencing). My preferences are set as APA.

For example, say if I wanted to reference John Smith (2010). When I use zotero to reference in-text, instead of: bla bla bla (Smith, 2010), Zotero refereces this as: bla bla bla (John Smith, 2010).

This also occurs in my Bibliography as well. Instead of Smith, J. (2010). Title ... , zotereo references this as: Smith, John (2010). Title....


At first, I thought this occurred because in the information box (via firefox), both first name and last name were inserted. However, I have other authors that also has their first and last names inserted but zotero references them correctly. It only occurs for some journal articles/authors.

This is becoming a problem because whenever I edit my bibliography, it automatically resets the bibliography and I have to self-edit them again.

Please help me!

Thanks in advance

adamsmith

sounds like something is wrong with your data entry in Zotero. With correct data, Zotero will never spell out a first name in APA style. Double check that the respective name is input correctly in Zotero. If you're sure, then export a problematic item to Zotero RDF (right -click --> export selected item), open the file with a text editor and paste the content to a public gist at gist.github.com and provide the URL here.

jelena_e

Hey!

I have the exact same problem, have checked my data entry about a hundred times now but can't figure it out.

Here's the gist:
git://gist.github.com/1705810.git

I have the problem with 4 citations (two different authors). The weird thing is that I have other citations of both authors where the problem does not occurr...?!?!?!

adamsmith

I suspect you're actually seeing this:
http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation

jelena_e

No, I read all the comments on disambiguation and formatted the name the exact same way for all articles.

adamsmith

you only provide the data of one item above - it's impossible to tell from that, I'd have to see all citations in question.
First name and last name are obviously correct here, but I do notice that the author doesn't have full first names, just initials.

Note that the original post has full first names in her/his citations - that can't possibly be the case for you, since those aren't even in your data.

jelena_e

yeah, the initials are there because I tried to have the same name in all entries so that the system would know that it's the same author. Anyway, here are all correct citations:

git://gist.github.com/1709574.git
git://gist.github.com/1709543.git
git://gist.github.com/1709545.git

and here the ones that are not working:
git://gist.github.com/1709551.git
git://gist.github.com/1709547.git
git://gist.github.com/1709549.git

fbennett

In a fresh document, all of those references work fine here. None of them come up with initials or full first names in citations.

Do you find this error when you insert the citations in a fresh document? If not, try cutting and pasting the content of your problem document into a new, empty document, and see if the behavior improves.

fbennett

Ah, one thought. Did you edit the problem citations in the Zotero plugin popup by any chance? If the editor field is open on them and their content has been altered manually, they won't change until you close the popup editor for each one.

jelena_e

I tried it in a new document and there it works perfectly as well. I then deleted all the faulty citations in my original doc and reinserted them, now everything is fine.

Thanks a lot, that was a very useful hint!
Cheers!

AnneAnneAnne

Hello,

I've got the exact same problem. As my document ist quite large and contains lots of formattings I don't want to copy and paste everything in a new document. Are there any other ways to stop the occurance of names and surnames in APA?
Thanks a lot Anne

adamsmith

In most cases this is the disambiguation issue I link to above.
http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation

The other frequent option is that you have author and initial in single field mode (i.e. in Zotero you have J. Smith rather than Smith, J.)

If you're 100% certain that's not the case, there is likely no other way than copy&paste your entire document - something is broken in the document that falsely triggers disambiguation. But again, this last possibility is by _far_ the least likely