APA style, Initials cut out

etienneengineering
Hi,
I have authors/editors names given as initials only, which get partially cut out when I generate the citation in APA.
In the citation below, the 5th editor is called "M.E Larsen", and the "E" gets cut out:

Mallam, S., & Lundh, M. (2014). Conceptual ship design, general arrangement & integration of the human element: A proposed framework for the engine department work environment. In O. Broberg, N. Fallentin, P. Hasle, P. L. Jensen, A. Kabel, M. . Larsen, & T. Weller (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Human Factors in Organisational Design and Management (ODAM), and 46th Nordic Ergonomics Society Conference (NES): Selected and peer reviewed papers (Vol. 2, pp. 829–834). Utrecht, The Netherlands: International Ergonomics Association.

Is there a way around? I am afraid I am unable to find the full name of this editor, and I have the same problem for quite a few other references.
I guess I could make up a name with the same initials, but if there is a better way to do it I am interested :-)

Thanks in advance!
/E
  • etienneengineering
    Ok, it seems if I write the initials without a dot it works better: "Larsen, M E" becomes cited correctly. Sorted :-)
  • bwiernik
    I believe the issue is that you need to enter a space between the initials. Zotero will treat "ME" or "M.E" as a name, rather than as initials.
  • etienneengineering
    that´s correct. space between the initials works.
  • adamsmith
    Though "M. . Larsen" looks like a processor but to me nonetheless
    cc @fbennett -- I think the correct behavior here would be to initialize Larsen, M.E. as M. E. Larsen. M. Larsen is fine, but M. . Larsen doesn't make sense.
  • fbennett
    So you want it to recognize "M.E", "M.E.", and "M E" as equivalent?
  • adamsmith
    I think so, yes, but I could be wrong about that.
  • bwiernik
    I agree with that. Also “M. E.” What about “ME” (all capital letters, no period or space)?
  • fbennett
    We could check the family name for lowercase characters, and split a given name string of all uppercase characters into individual initials if found. Shall we do that?

    Also, "M E." might come up, shall we give that the same treatment as "M.E"?
  • bwiernik
    Yes on “M E.” I think all treating all-uppercase given names as initials is reasonable. @adamsmith
  • fbennett
    Will see what I can do. Treating all-caps given names as initials unconditionally would include data that is in all caps everywhere, so I'll try step a little carefully there to avoid alarming results.
  • adamsmith
    yeah, I'm worried about being too aggressive with automation. The current system has the advantage of allowing almost any output given data entry is correct. I think we can tweak this a little bit to get correct output for slightly "off" data entry, but we want to avoid a situation where you can't display some all caps firstnames any more (and I'm sure they exist... all lowercase fistnames exist) because Zotero assumes they're initials.
  • bwiernik
    That’s a good point.
  • fbennett
    Will results like this be good enough?
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, M.]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M. E.]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M. E.]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, J. M. E.]
    >>[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M. E.]
  • adamsmith
    Yes, I think that works -- the only debatable one is [0] and I think per the discussion above it's better to leave that one alone and not try to interpret it as M. E.
  • fbennett
    If left out another possible case.
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, M.]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M. E.]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M. E.]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, J. M. E.]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M. E.]
    >>[5] [Darvan, ME.] becomes [Darvan, M.]
  • bwiernik
    That one looks correct too. It’s ambiguous enough that airing on not interpreting them seems appropriate.
  • fbennett
    edited February 19, 2019
    ... aaaand adding one more! The last in the list below is a form that I had covered in an earlier test, but I just discovered that the result of my effort to parse it was delivering erratic results.
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, M.]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M. E.]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M. E.]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, J. M. E.]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M. E.]
    ..[5] [Darvan, ME.] becomes [Darvan, ME.]
    >>[6] [Darvan, Me.] becomes [Darvan, Me.]
  • bwiernik
    5 has changed from above, and 6 is not initialized at all. Both 5 and 6 should initialize to M.
  • fbennett
    There are multi-character abbreviations in the wild (I've seen "Ts." in abbreviated Mongolian names, I think, and I believe I've seen "Ph." for "Phillip" out there). The [6] line shows input and output for one of those.

    As you say, line [5] is ambiguous, it's not clear what the user intends. In most cases that form will be a typo, but the processor is leaving it untouched (apart from tacking on the abbreviation terminator set in the style), to make it easy to spot in the text, if it's an error.

    That's the intention for those, anyway.
  • adamsmith
    I agree 6 is right as Me. and I don't think we should care much about 5 either way -- users are going to be able to get any desired results with what fbennett has implemented now, and it's going to be incredibly rare (and I agree, mostly a typo)
  • bwiernik
    Agreed
  • fbennett
    Nearly finished! The forms discussed above will need to work correctly in the various parameter combinations that might be applied to them. The current output for the obvious configurations is shown below. If this all looks good, I'll push the new code.

    initialize-with=" " initialize="true"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, M]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M E]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M E]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, J M E]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M E]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph M E]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph M E]


    initialize-with=" " initialize="false"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, ME]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M E]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M E]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, John M E]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M E]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph M E]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph M E]


    initialize-with="" initialize="true"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, M]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, ME]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, ME]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, JME]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, ME]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph ME]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph ME]


    initialize-with="" initialize="false"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, ME]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, ME]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, ME]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, John ME]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, ME]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph ME]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph ME]


    initialize-with=". " initialize="true"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, M.]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M. E.]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M. E.]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, J. M. E.]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M. E.]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME.]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me.]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph. M. E.]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph. M. E.]


    initialize-with=". " initialize="false"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, ME]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M. E.]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M. E.]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, John M. E.]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M. E.]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME.]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me.]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph. M. E.]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph. M. E.]


    initialize-with="." initialize="true"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, M.]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M.E.]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M.E.]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, J.M.E.]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M.E.]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME.]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me.]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph. M.E.]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph. M.E.]


    initialize-with="." initialize="false"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, ME]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M.E.]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M.E.]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, John M.E.]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M.E.]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME.]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me.]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph. M.E.]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph. M.E.]

  • adamsmith
    Almost all looks exactly right to me but I'd have expected

    Immel, Ph. M.E. to become Immel, PhME and Immel, Ph.M.E. with initialize-with="" and initialize-with="." respectively.

    Again, I think this is fairly rare so if there's a reason for the space let's by all means keep it in, but seems inconsistent to me.
  • fbennett
    Wasn't sure about those two either.
  • bwiernik
    Agree with Sebastian
  • fbennett
    Great! So here are the revised results for the fixtures that change with that adjustment:
    initialize-with="" initialize="true"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, M]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, ME]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, ME]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, JME]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, ME]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, PhME]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, PhME]


    initialize-with="" initialize="false"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, ME]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, ME]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, ME]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, John ME]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, ME]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, PhME]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, PhME]


    initialize-with="." initialize="true"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, M.]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M.E.]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M.E.]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, J.M.E.]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M.E.]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME.]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me.]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph.M.E.]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph.M.E.]


    initialize-with="." initialize="false"
    ..[0] [Axford, ME] becomes [Axford, ME]
    ..[1] [Behn, M.E] becomes [Behn, M.E.]
    ..[2] [Crosler, M E.] becomes [Crosler, M.E.]
    ..[3] [Dimauro, John M.E.] becomes [Dimauro, John M.E.]
    ..[4] [Evans, M E] becomes [Evans, M.E.]
    ..[5] [Faquhar, ME.] becomes [Faquhar, ME.]
    ..[6] [Grant, Me.] becomes [Grant, Me.]
    ..[7] [Hudson, Ph.M.E.] becomes [Hudson, Ph.M.E.]
    >>[8] [Immel, Ph. M.E.] becomes [Immel, Ph.M.E.]

  • fbennett
    edited February 20, 2019
    I hit one further edge case when running the new code against the full test suite. It's a separate test from the ones above, but this is what the (correct) output looks like, with initialize-with="." and initialize="false":

    Doe, John J.J., Jane G.G. Molly Roe & Richard Q.Q. Snoakes.

    It was dropping the space after "G.G.", but that's been fixed. We should be good now.
  • adamsmith
    Yes, lgtm
  • fbennett
    A citeproc-js version 1.1.216 release is now available for testing via the Propachi plugin. Highlights:

    * Fix bugs in name initialization (the issue covered in this thread)
    * Remove legacy e4x support. Processor is capable of string-parsing serialized XML directly, this layer is no longer needed.
    * Permit empty values in CSL fields added via the note field hack.
    * Add support for cs:alternative and cs:alternative-text elements, for use in citing translated or reprinted materials in CSL-M.
    * Clean up syntax somewhat. HT to jshint.
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