Journal Abbreviations Not Appearing in Footnotes (Using the SBL Style)

anaselli · September 23, 2009

Problem: I and some friends of mine have entered some abbreviations for journals in Zotero, but when we insert footnotes in a Word doc, the footnotes includes the journal's full title rather than the abbreviation. We're using the SBL style (no period).

Question: Is there a way to include the journal abbreviations in footnotes?

adamsmith · September 23, 2009

There is a way, yes.
The SBL style does that, and does that correctly as I have just confirmed.

I could not find a style name "SBL (no period)" in the repository. Is that a custom style?

anaselli · September 24, 2009

Thanks, Adam.

I just asked a friend of mine about this, and he replied, "They won't know anything about a 'no period' style because it's my modification based on his (adamsmith) instructions. I just re-installed the SBL format on my computer and he's right, it does work correctly now. They must have updated the style. So I have created a new SBL (no period) style."

My friend further wrote: "I might suggest just using the style with the period for the following reasons--first, if they update the style you will have to make the appropriate changes every time. Second, if you switch your document to another style you will have to have that style converted to a 'no period' style. Third, at some point in time they may include the option of suppressing the period, if that's even possible. If they do, it won't be easy to convert your document."

I'm very hesitant to switch back to the standard "SBL" style (that unhelpfully ends all insertions with a period). Would it be possible for Zotero to create a standard "SBL (no period)" style so that it's not a custom style?

Thanks for letting me know.

anaselli · October 13, 2009

Dear Adam, I've been hoping that you'd reply to my last comment (i.e., the one directly above). Would it be possible for Zotero to create a standard "SBL (no period)" style so that it's not a custom style?

Many thanks for letting me know!

adamsmith · October 13, 2009

sorry, overlooked this one.
I think your friends reasons are very valid and you should consider working with prefix/suffix instead.
If not: you could either look if you find my instructions to your friend somewhere on the forum or ask him and modify the style yourself. The second reason he gives applies nonetheless.
As for the first reason:
Having an additional style in the repository means someone has to keep updating that style if we change SBL in the future, it's not like that happens magically - so, no, I'm not very inclined to add another branched style that I'd feel like I would need to maintain.

If you want to take charge of that and monitor SBL updates and implement them in your no period style I'll be happy to upload that and future changes to the repository for you (that part of the process is a little more involved).
See here for a guide to simple style edits.
http://www.zotero.org/support/csl_simple_edits

anaselli · October 15, 2009

Thanks, Adam. This morning my friend (Todd Patterson) gave me a tutorial on how to maintain the "SBL (no period)" style. I'll plan to do this when future updates to the SBL style occur. It doesn't make sense for me to switch back to the SBL style now since I have hundreds of footnotes and even more resources in my dissertation Word doc with the "SBL (no period)" style.

If you want to make it available online, I'm happy to share it with you. Perhaps you could contact me off-list with your email address?