Firstnames in parenthesis

Zotero has started to put the authors firstnames in the paranthesis. This very annoying, how can I fix this?
  • You'll need to be a lot more specific. Are you talking about on import from a certain website? Import of a file format? Export to a particular citation style?
  • I have (maybe) the same problem:
    1. When I enter a reference in my text, it includes the first name of the author in the reference. For instance, for a John Smith's book published in 2008, instead of "(Smith 2008)" it quotes as "(John Smith 2008)". This happens randomly, even if the same book has been correctly quoted previously in the same text, so that the text appears with two formats for the same book and style. But once I have refreshed the quotations, all quotations for that book (not for the other books) appear with first name and second name [ "(John Smith 2008)"].
    2. The only way I have found to correct the quotation format is to keep editing it. This is causing me an enormous waste of time, because it has compounded the problem of Zotero working very slowly due to the high number of references I have included in the text (a problem that has been reported in another thread).
    3. I am working with Windows Vista, OpenOffice, Zotero 1.0.3 and the extension 1.0b3. The style I have been used is Chicago Manual of Style (Author Date format)
    4. Is there something I can do to fix this problem?
  • It's almost certainly not a problem (feature, not a bug, honest). Check whether or not there is another Smith you are citing. Have a look at this:

    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/2040/citationstyles-without-firstnames-or-initials/#Item_4

    Regards, Jon.
  • edited March 2, 2008
    Hi, Jon,
    thanks a lot for your answer. You are right. But then, the situation seems a bit more complicated.
    It also occurs when I have entered two different books of the same author, but for one of them I have registered the full first name and for the other book only the initial, so as they appear in the publication. For instance: "Herman H. Goldstine" and "H.H. Goldstine" (and I feel I have to respect and enter the name exactly as they appear in the publication : Herman H. and H.H.). Then, the references appear as "(Herman H. Goldstine 1972)" and "(H.H. Goldstine 1975)".
    Even further: I quote often the same author in English and Spanish. The foreign first names in Spanish editions are often translated (for instance Charles into Carlos, William into Guillermo, and so on). In this case thus I get: "(W. Smith 2005)", "(G. Smith 2005)" and "(William Smith 2006)". But then, in the bibliography, all names begin by the second name and not as it appears in the reference, difference that makes it difficult to find directly the correspondence between the reference and the bibliography.
    Maybe this situation will always arise given the possibility of combinations. As I see this in relation to my work, I would prefer that the second name always appear in the first place in the reference, so as in the bibliography (I think that, in the end, the reference should take the reader directly to the bibliography, without having to mentally reorder the names before reading the latter. That seems to be also chuelibrueder's meaning in the the thread you refer above).
    Enfin, at least I know now what is happening with my references.
    Again, many thanks for your answer.

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