Disambiguate with similar names

Dannoral

Hello everyone (and sorry for my English),

I have a question regarding the way to remove the initial of an author when cited in the texte (not in the references).
For example, when the author Mark D. Griffiths is also reported as Mark Griffiths, it is referenced as (M. Griffiths et al., 2012) and as (M.D. Griffiths et al., 2008).

I'm using the APA style 6th edition, and I found the possibility to modify the code by suppressing the "disambiguate-add-givenname="true" " line of code. I did that, but I have still one author appearing as (D. Li, Liau; & Khoo, 2011).

I also suppressed the line of code "disambiguate-add-names="true" " (why? at random...) and it works now...
However, can someone told me if I did it well? What is the difference between these two lines of code if there seems to be an identical impact by removing the author's initial in the texte.

Thank you in advance for your help !

adamsmith

generally that option does something different -- it adds names before using et al to disambiguate citations (e.g. Smith, Meyer, Jones vs. Smith, Meyer, James instead of Smith et al.). It's possible there is some overlap, though, so it's possible that, given the rest of the document, it would somehow trigger the initial.

I'd also delete the givenname-disambiguation-rule if you haven't already.

You should be aware, though, that by removing disambiguation, you're no longer following APA style. Those options are in the style for a reason.

Dannoral

Thank you, I deleted your suggestion too and put the disambiguate-add-names="true" back, and it works!

I know I'm not following strictly the APA style by doing this, but everytime the correctors (thesis director and editors) are removing these initials... It's easier to remove them directly without spending too much time to check all citations.

bwiernik

In my experience, this is a rule that APA journals and APA style instructors [not sure which applies to you] tend to insist on pretty strongly. Your better bet is to change the items in your Zotero data to consistently use the same spelling/form for the same author across items.

Dannoral

Do you think this applies to authors with similar names only, or also when a single author is referenced sometimes with the middle name, sometimes not?

I don't know if we can add or remove the middle name for such authors...

Ok to distinguish a "John Smith" from a "Michael Smith", but what about "Brandon Clark" and the same guy "Brandon C. Clark"?

bwiernik

Basically, APA says that you should disambiguate John Smith and Michael Smith as J. Smith and M. Smith. But there is no way for Zotero (or any other software) to know that Brandon Clark and Brandon C. Clark are the same person. The only feasible solution really is to store all instances of an author using the same form. This really is not a practical problem--nearly all authors use the same format throughout their careers. If there are different formats, they almost always are due to bad reporting of data by publishers/databases or journal requirements (e.g., to only use author initials). I would definitely recommend just making the author names consistent across items. It won't impact article discoverability or citation indexing (which are the two major functions of current citation).

DWL-SDCA

In an ideal world, authors do tend to use the same name form, however often publishers truncate names. I have reviewed mauscripts for colleagues that I know were submitted to Elsevier journals with full names only to see the published version with only initials.

This is a problem with small-world conferences where a an author known by friends as Bill but authors his journal articles and scholarly reports with his given name William can nonetheless have his authorship of the conference paper changed by the conference organizer to the casual "Bill". I've noticed this problem in public health and engineering specialties.

Both APA (6.27) and especially Chicago (¶14.72) have requirements to address this problem.

From the Chicago manual:

“Authors’ names are normally given as they appear on the ti tle pages of their books or above their articles. Certain adjustments, however, should be made to assist correct identifiction. First names may be given in full in place of initials. If an author uses his or her given name in one cited book and initials in another (e.g., “Mary L. Jones” versus “M. L. Jones” versus “Mary Jones” versus “Mary Lois Jones” versus “M. Jones”), the same form, __preferably the fuller one, should be used in all references to that author__. To assist alphabetization, middle initials or names should be given wherever known”. [¶14.72] (emphasis mine)

A few specialist bibliographic databases actually disambiguate author names by determining each author's true full name (the fullest name used in any of her publications) and use that full name for all of the author's records.

DWL-SDCA

Implied in my previous post but not stated--

Always use full names for authors in the Zotero creator fields. That means examining the actual pdf or printed copy of the item to see the authors' names. One will often make mistakes of omission when relying on publisher metadata to be complete or bibliographic database records to represent exactly the published document. That further means one should have knowledge of authors' other publications so that the fullest name available may be included in all Zotero records.