Chicago Styles do not conform to CMS 17

edited February 19, 2019
The current Chicago style does not conform to CMS 17. This is a problem now especially because those of us who work on mobile apps are now forced to always use online versions of styles in Zotero API.

Zotero forces capitalization of all titles for Books, Chapters/Articles and Periodicals. But CMS 17 states:

“11: Languages Other than English

11.6: Capitalization of titles from other languages

Chapter Contents / General Principles / Titles of Works from Other Languages

For titles of works from other languages, whether these appear in text, notes, or bibliographies, Chicago recommends a simple rule: capitalize only the words that would be capitalized in normal prose—the first word of the title and subtitle and all proper nouns or any term that would be capitalized under the conventions of the original language. That is, use sentence style (see 8.158). This rule applies equally to titles using the Latin alphabet and to transliterated titles. For examples, see 14.98. For special considerations related to German capitalization, see 11.39. For variations in French, see 11.27.”

The original version of the style did not have forced capitalization—I was one of the people who created it. The only way to conform to CMS in this case is either to leave it to the Z-user or to check for the language of the citation. I suggest the former.

This is not the case where the convenience of the “majority” of Zotero users should matter. When Z ignores CMS rule for sentence style in foreign publication titles it favors English-language users and scholars who only work with English language sources, and thus is the case of cultural imperialism. Please change the style to conform to these rules.
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