Capitalization in OSCOLA

oliviahamlyn
How can I stop Zotero automatically capitalizing the titles of legislation in OSCOLA (Oxford law referencing style). OSCOLA requires that the titles of these particular types of legislation are all in lower case apart from the first few words which describe the type of legislation it is. Can I make Zotero just include it exactly as I type it into the database?
Thanks
  • fbennett
    I've applied for a change to the style. When it is picked up by a member of the CSL team, the force capitalization will go away for legislation items.
  • oliviahamlyn
    That's wonderful, thank you. By the way, I have noticed quite a few things in Zotero's OSCOLA citations that don't match up with the official style. Is the forum the best way to transmit them to you when I come across them, or should I use a different method?
  • adamsmith
    edited February 21, 2015
    yes the forum is the right place.

    But please note that, given Zotero's limitations on legal data, OSCOLA requires specific data entry conventions, in particular for legal cases. For examples (all using citation examples from the manual) see
    https://www.zotero.org/groups/oscola_samples/items/order/itemType (this is a public group, you can also join it to directly sync those items to Zotero)
  • oliviahamlyn
    Thanks Adam. A few things I picked up that Zotero doesn't manage:

    1. references to chapters are required by OSCOLA to be in this format: "ch 1". Zotero uses "chap" instead of "ch". Is it possible to change that?

    2. EU case law needs to be cited as in this example: Case C–176/03 Commission v Council [2005] ECR I–7879, paras 47–48. "Case C-176/03" should not be italicised, "Commission v Council" should be italicised and "[2005] ECR I-7879, paras 47-48" should not be italicised. Currently, the entire reference is put into italics. Is there anything that zotero can do about this? Is there anything I can do about this?

    3. Occasionally, I need to write some text in a footnote in italics, eg when I am referring to a case. Is there any way of formatting citations through zotero?

    Thanks for your suggestion re the OSCOLA group. Unless I'm missing something, I can't see how these help me achieve what I need to do (I am not very tech-savvy). None of the example citations are ones I would need to cite and there aren't any EU cases there. Grateful for any help you can offer.

    Thank you
  • adamsmith
    edited March 3, 2015
    1. I can fix.
    2. Probably requires playing with data entry, specifically, try entering the case name as <i>Case C–176/03</i> Commission v Council
    (and then the rest just like other comparable cases) that might work.
    3. Use the same html tags -- i.e. <i> and </i> -- in the prefix and suffix field to italicize there.
  • adamsmith
    1. is fixed now

    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
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