Different authors with same last name not distinguished

studemeyercc
Hello--

I have two authors, both with the last name Mitchell, that I need to put into a citation. Their first names are distinguished in my Zotero database (Katharyne Mitchell; Tony Mitchell). However the citation is failing to distinguish them. It spits out (Mitchell, 1996, 2003) rather than the (K. Mitchell, 1996; T. Mitchell, 2003) that it should show.

Any tips on how to fix this?
  • adamsmith
    which citation style? Most citation styles will only disambiguate where strictly necessary (i.e. only with same last name _and_ same year). Styles like APA and Chicago will do what you describe.
  • studemeyercc
    Thank you very much for this. I am using APA, and did not know that it will not distinguish unless the authors' works are in the same year.
  • adamsmith
    no, as I said -- in APA style it definitely should put initials before (primary) authors with the same last name and does for. Are you sure that's not the case and you're using the right style?
  • studemeyercc
    My apologies-- I misread your comment.

    I'd also forgotten that this particular paper (I'm writing several at once) uses Harvard citation style and not APA like all of my other ones. I'm sure that explains it.
  • adamsmith
    yes, that would explain it. You can test (if you're curious) that if you switch the paper to APA, initials will appear.
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