Several works by the same author

kevinwilson

Hi, if I cite several works by the same author, the bibliography lists these works by the order I cited them in the essay, not in date order (oldest first, most recent second). Is there a way to make Zotero list them this way or will it need to be done manually afterwards?

adamsmith

which citation style? Zotero can sort this any way you like, just depends on the style.

kevinwilson

I'm using Harvard. Is it possible to arrange these works in the bibliography by date? That's great if it does.

adamsmith

there are dozens of Harvard styles. The "Elsevier Harvard" style, e.g. that comes with Zotero does sort items by the same author chronologically. As do APA and Chicago author-date, both technically Harvard styles.

I believe a fair number of the others styles actually called "Harvard" don't sort alphabetically by title, not by the order of appearance (though that, too, is certainly possible.

kevinwilson

Thanks Adam, yes the Elsevier Harvard does automatically list them by date. I use Harvard Cite Them Right as my default, which does list them by order of their citation in the document. Is this something that would have to be corrected by changing the code of the style? I might stick to Elsevier Harvard in that case.

adamsmith

Is this something that would have to be corrected by changing the code of the style?

yes. Though if you have access to Cite Them Right online (or the last edition of the book) and you can provide documentation that it _should_ be sorted by date, we'll change the style on the repository accordingly.

kevinwilson

In the 9th edition, the authors don't say it exactly, but they mention citing sources published in the same year by the same author, and do put e.g. Miller (2006a) and Miller (2006b) in the bibliography. I know it's not quite same criteria, but it's generally considered in Harvard that works by the same author in different years is cited chronologically, e.g. http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/content.php?pid=82408&sid=774855.

I can always contact the author, he's a UK librarian.

adamsmith

if you would ask the author, that'd be great--there is, unfortunately no consensus on how exactly to sort items by the same author. We see chronologically ascending, descending, as well as by title, so what a different Harvard style does (this one based on the Australian manual) doesn't help us.

kevinwilson

I emailed Richard Pears, he replied:

Hi Kevin,
I can see Zotero's issue, as there is not consistency. I would suggest that they are cited in chronological order (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013). This is used in other referencing styles, e.g. APA.
Best wishes
Richard

Is that enough to change it or would you recommend using Elsevier Harvard instead if I want chronologically listed bibliographies?

adamsmith

that's good enough for me. Will try to get to it over the weekend.

kevinwilson

Thanks Adam, please do let me know when that's done.

adamsmith

The style is now fixed. The updated version will appear on the repository within 30mins (check the timestamp). Update your copy of the style by clicking "Update Now" in the General tab of the Zotero preferences.

Styles also update automatically within 24hs for Zotero 4.0+
In an existing document, you may have to switch to a different style and back for the changes to take effect once the style is updated.
Any further problems please let us know & thanks for reporting

nickbraxton

Hi Adam, I'm using the Harvard Cite Them Right style and have just noticed that it has stopped using a, b, etc to differentiate between works by the same author in the same year e.g. Miller (2006a) and Miller (2006b). Is this possibly a result of the recent change discussed above?

nickbart

Noticed that too. I'd rather guess it has something to do with the change "'no date' instead of n.d. and disambiguation letters after no date (instead of behind access date)" listed in https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/19544/style-request-cite-them-rightharvard/#Item_26

adamsmithpresentatio

yes, sorry about it, will fix this weekend.

nickbraxton

Hi Adam, I noticed that the style was updated on 5 December, but still doesn't seem to differentiate with an a, b, etc between two works by the same author/s in the same year.

nickbraxton

Hi Adam. Sorry to sound like a squeaky wheel, but this still doesn't seem to be working and it makes it very difficult to differentiate between works cited in the text. Any chance of getting this fixed?

adamsmith

OK, I think should be fixed now:

The style is now fixed. The updated version will appear on the repository within 30mins (check the timestamp). Update your copy of the style by clicking "Update Now" in the General tab of the Zotero preferences.

Styles also update automatically within 24hs for Zotero 4.0+
In an existing document, you may have to switch to a different style and back for the changes to take effect once the style is updated.
Any further problems please let us know & thanks for reporting

nickbraxton

Brilliant, seems to be working now thanks Adam.