I am using APA formatting and I am having issues with Zotero inserting first names for articles where the first authors share the same surname and initials. The 7th edition of APA states "If the first authors of multiple references share the same surname and the same initials, cite the works in the standard author–date format." - I found this on the following website - https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/citing-authors-same-surname
Currently, Zotero is inserting my citations as:
(Jackson Katz et al., 2011) and (Jennifer Katz, 2015)
However, if my understanding of the APA guidance is correct, then shouldn't they be formatted at (Katz et al., 2011) and (Katz, 2015)? I have been through the thread above to make sure all the references in Zotero are consistent in terms of names so I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Yeah, APA changed that between the 6th and 7th edition and Zotero/CSL don't handle this at all. You can use a version of the style entirely without disambiguation (link will prompt install) or you can fix the citations manually at the end.
Actually, now that I think about this, I think CSL will do with by changing the disambiguation rule to “primary-name-with-initials”. Will submit a fix.
I have had the same issue. Even after correcting the first names in Zotero it stays. There is ONE question above by somebody "do you experience the same issue in new document?"
What worked for me is simply remove all occurances of ONCE differently disambiguated instance, refresh and adding them again. This seems to me to be a bug because word/zotero remembers wrong disambiguation even after editing it correctly in zotero
Have there been any changes to this? Any way to fix the issue and refresh without having to cut out all of the references and re-enter them again? My computer is pretty old and slow and takes quite a long time for the Word plugin to pull up the pop-up to enter or edit citations. I fixed the first names of authors with publications in the same year and refreshed it, but it didn't fix anything. :( I don't know if I feel comfortable editing the style directly...unless that really would be the fastest way to fix this (and is safe to do). Any updates would be greatly appreciated!
EDIT: to clarify, I just found the documentation about this issue (https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation), but it still doesn't address how to get it to refresh properly and update within the document once you edit the first names. Again, deleting my citations and reinserting them would be quite onerous... :/
Please provide more information. What style? Provide examples of the author names with problems. Explain further what you mean, "I fixed the first names of authors with publications in the same year".
You will not need to "cut out all the references" but you may need to edit a few of them (then again, depending upon what is in your Zotero records, maybe this can be solved very easily). This depends on what you tell us in detail with specifics about your problem.
In your Zotero library, the same author should have his or her name exactly the same for every item. If there are even subtle differences the author names will be disambiguated. Do you possibly have duplicate records and are citing each?
Hi, thanks for the swift reply. I'm having the exact same issue as many other people I've found in the forum, including this thread (except for not using the same style), but I'll explain if that helps. The format I'm using is the Journal of Wildlife Management and should only include last names for in-line citations (which it is doing for most, but not all). For example, say the person was Karen A Smith; her two papers in 2000 should show up as Smith 2000a and Smith 2000b. Instead, one is showing up as Karen A Smith 2000.
After seeing the reason for this issue on this site (mismatched first or middle names or initials), I went in and fixed the names/initials to be the same as each other in Zotero for the specific publications where this appeared to be an issue. (Side note, I'm not sure whether to include periods after initials or not--not sure if the bibliography will automatically detect and generate them if needed...). I hit "refresh" in the Zotero tab of my Word doc, but it did not update the citations with the correct name format (and the necessary disambiguation).
In terms of some of these names still being initials in my library, I know the ideal is to have the full name of the authors, but very few authors appear to include their middle names, or sometimes even their first names, at least in my field, so it would be a huge task to update everyone to have full first and middle names... and likely impossible for most middle names. (In my field, it seems that we rarely require any names to be written out in the citations except last names.)
Any suggestions for how to get the Word doc to update with the correct citation formats?
To be clear, the APA style in Zotero is meticulously correct -- if you don't want the disambiguation features specified in the APA manual (such as given name disambiguation of all primary authors, see https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation ), you can use a different style, including the version linked further up in this thread.
I have the same problem, but with different authors and different years. For example, I have a Jane Smith (2010) and a Bailey Smith (2012), but they appear as
(J. Smith, 2010) and (B. Smith, 2012) in 7th APA citation. How do I fix that?
See my comment above on June 18th -- what you're getting is correct APA 7th edition. There's an APA version that doesn't follow the manual on disambiguation linked further up in this thread.
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Currently, Zotero is inserting my citations as:
(Jackson Katz et al., 2011) and (Jennifer Katz, 2015)
However, if my understanding of the APA guidance is correct, then shouldn't they be formatted at (Katz et al., 2011) and (Katz, 2015)? I have been through the thread above to make sure all the references in Zotero are consistent in terms of names so I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You can use a version of the style entirely without disambiguation (link will prompt install) or you can fix the citations manually at the end.
What worked for me is simply remove all occurances of ONCE differently disambiguated instance, refresh and adding them again. This seems to me to be a bug because word/zotero remembers wrong disambiguation even after editing it correctly in zotero
EDIT: to clarify, I just found the documentation about this issue (https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation), but it still doesn't address how to get it to refresh properly and update within the document once you edit the first names. Again, deleting my citations and reinserting them would be quite onerous... :/
You will not need to "cut out all the references" but you may need to edit a few of them (then again, depending upon what is in your Zotero records, maybe this can be solved very easily). This depends on what you tell us in detail with specifics about your problem.
In your Zotero library, the same author should have his or her name exactly the same for every item. If there are even subtle differences the author names will be disambiguated. Do you possibly have duplicate records and are citing each?
After seeing the reason for this issue on this site (mismatched first or middle names or initials), I went in and fixed the names/initials to be the same as each other in Zotero for the specific publications where this appeared to be an issue. (Side note, I'm not sure whether to include periods after initials or not--not sure if the bibliography will automatically detect and generate them if needed...). I hit "refresh" in the Zotero tab of my Word doc, but it did not update the citations with the correct name format (and the necessary disambiguation).
In terms of some of these names still being initials in my library, I know the ideal is to have the full name of the authors, but very few authors appear to include their middle names, or sometimes even their first names, at least in my field, so it would be a huge task to update everyone to have full first and middle names... and likely impossible for most middle names. (In my field, it seems that we rarely require any names to be written out in the citations except last names.)
Any suggestions for how to get the Word doc to update with the correct citation formats?
My problem were
1. First name keep appearing.
2. Sometimes all authors are presented.
Just sharing.
(J. Smith, 2010) and (B. Smith, 2012) in 7th APA citation. How do I fix that?