Bug in MLA 8 citations? Short titles get used instead of title if there is no author.

jerryplotnick
I happened to come across an unaccountable problem with how citations are generated in MLA 8 when there is no author. The short title gets used instead of the full title if there is no author, which doesn't seem to be explainable from anything in the .csl file for Modern Language Association 8th Edition, so I can see no easy way to fix this on my own. (My knowledge of .csl is rudimentary, so I might be missing something.) I couldn't reproduce the problem for APA 6th or Chicago Manual of Style 17th ed. Thanks in advance for any insights or suggestions.
  • adamsmith
    You mean in the bibliography?
  • jerryplotnick
    Sorry for the confusion. Yes, that is what I meant. One wants the short title in the citation and the long title in the bibliography item, irrespective of whether there is or isn't an author.

    It should be fairly easy to reproduce the problem.
  • jerryplotnick
    . . . short title in the citation, of course, only when required to resolve an ambiguity—same author(s).

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Before commenting here, you should strongly consider starting a new discussion instead. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.

Sign In or Register to comment.