APA -- everytime: more than 3 Authors = et al.

hansihans
edited November 10, 2017
Hi my friends,
i use Zotero for my master thesis (citationstyle: APA 6th Edition). Now the citation looks like that:
The first time i use the source: (Adam, Berens, Smith & Weed 2010, 43)
-> And then everytime: (Adam u. a., 2011, 43)

My wish Zotero to cite like that (EVERYTIME):
(Adam, Berens, Smith, u.a. 2010, 43)
-> it does not matter if it cite with u.a. or et al; but it should only name 3 authors (or 2, if there is no APA citation style with 3), then write u.a. or et al ---> EVERYTIME

Can you help me please?
Greets from good old Germay
Hansi
  • bwiernik
    edited March 6, 2019
    In the <citation> section of the .csl style, change et-al-min="6" to et-al-min="3". Then change the title and id at the top of the style and save, install.

    Here is a style that I sometimes use that does this already (it also removes APA's requirements to add extra authors or author given names in the case of disambiguation):
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools/master/apa-short-authors.csl

    Right-click and download that linked file, then install if you like.


    (For interested readers, here is also a version of APA that uses numeric citations, like Vancouver, rather than parenthetical author-date citations.):
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools/master/apa-numeric.csl
  • hansihans
    Oh, thank you my friend!
    I will test it tomorrow :)
  • hansihans
    edited November 11, 2017
    Hi, now it looks like this (i also changed id and name of the style):

    ...citation et-al-min="3" et-al-use-first="1" et-al-subsequent-min="3" et-al-subsequent-use-first="1" disambiguate-add-year-suffix="true" disambiguate-add-names="true" disambiguate-add-givenname="true" collapse="year" givenname-disambiguation-rule="primary-name"...

    But now there is everytime something like this (just 1 author):
    (Adam u. a., 2011, 43)

    Why?
    I need help again :(
  • bwiernik
    Oh, I misread what you wanted. Change the et-al-use-first number to 3 (and the subsequent version).
  • hansihans
    IT WORKS, YIHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
    Thank you, Mr. Misread!
  • rcharif
    @bwiernik I would like to get the modified APA style you described in your post on Nov 10, 2017, but the link you provided then is dead (error 404). Is an updated version link available? Many thanks.
  • bwiernik
    It works for me when I clicked on it just now.
  • rcharif
    Ooops-- my mistake! I just clicked on it instead of right-clicking to download. Duh.

    So now I got it downloaded but when I try to add it to Zotero, I get a message saying "an unexpected error occurred". Any ideas?

    Thanks.
  • Perssonhenrik
    Same problem. It does not work. ”unexpected error…”
  • adamsmith
    How are you adding the style to Zotero?
  • adamsmith
    Actually, if you're using the above links, the repository has moved and the raw links don't get redirected. The two linked files are now
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools/master/apa-short-authors.csl

    and
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools/master/apa-numeric.csl
    respectively.
  • Perssonhenrik
    Ah ok :) Thanks. I actually modified the code in a duplicate version of the APA 6th myself and achieved what I was looking for.
    Cheers
  • bwiernik
    (I've updated the links in the original post.)
  • stephen_chignell
    Hi everyone,

    Thanks for working on this. I'm attempting to modify this style but have been unsuccessful so far. I'd be very grateful if anyone can help me out.

    Here are the instructions from the journal (scroll down to "References" section):

    https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/14755661/homepage/forauthors.html#SUBMISSION


    Key points:
    "According to APA style, in-text citations should follow the author-date method whereby the author's last name and the year of publication for the source appear in the text e.g. (Jones, 1998). The complete reference list should appear alphabetically by name at the end of the paper. For references by three or more authors, please abbreviate citation using "et al.," after the first author: (Bottema et al., 2005). Please note, this is a deviation from APA style (which lists all author names in works by three to five authors in the first citation in text and "et al." in subsequent citations)."
  • bwiernik
    This style does exactly that.

    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools/master/apa-short-authors.csl

    @adamsmith There are a few journals I have seen with this specification. Would you be okay with adding the short authors APA to the CSL repository and specifying this journal as a dependent?
  • adamsmith
    are we sure about the disambiguation handling?
  • bwiernik
    We can clarify with the journal as to their preferences. In my experience, journals that want APA with et-al at first references also want to dispense with APA's given name disambiguation and adding author names disambiguation.
  • stephen_chignell
    edited April 11, 2019
    @bwiernik Thanks very much, it's working perfectly. Sorry, I think I must have misunderstood the first time the link was posted.

    On a related note, I often have citations appear in Calibri font when I refresh the bibliography in Word. This is a bit annoying since I'm usually writing in Times New Roman. Any thoughts on why this occurs or how to prevent it?
  • bwiernik
    Zotero sets the citations to the paragraph style of the current paragraph. You should change the paragraph style in your document (e.g., right click on "Normal" in the style picker in the Home tab, click Modify Style) and change the font, rather than changing it directly for the text.
  • stephen_chignell
    Perfect, thanks again!
  • bwiernik
    Just want to ping @adamsmith in case you missed my comment above:

    We can clarify with the journal as to their preferences. In my experience, journals that want APA with et-al at first references also want to dispense with APA's given name disambiguation and adding author names disambiguation. Thoughts?
  • alexa_bresan
    edited January 15, 2021
    Hello I just read this post, because I would like to have it exactly the way you @hansihans had it in the beginning: the first time I cite a paper all authors appear and afterwards it should be first author and then et al.
    My Zotero APA though uses et al. already the first time I cite a paper with several authors.
    I have never used the <citation> section you mentioned @bwiernik , and I honestly don´t know where to find it. Could you help me with this, please?
    Many thanks in advance!
  • adamsmith
    You can just use APA 6th edition: https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id:apa-6th-edition (but note that the behavior you're seeing, i.e. et al. for >2 authors throughout the paper, is correct APA behavior since the 7th edition)
  • bwiernik
    @alexa_bresan The APA 7th edition manual has been out for over a year and is now in use by APA and most other journal publishers. I would suggest that you use the APA 7 style.

    The change to always using “et al” even the first time was one of the big changes in the 7th edition. Zotero’s behavior is absolutely correct for the style.
  • alexa_bresan
    Thank you both very much!! This is really helpful. I will check again with my university if they want me to use 6th or 7th edition
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