Original date of publication/creation for old literary works in the MHRA style

AmyEForrest · December 4, 2011

The MHRA style with bibliography on Zotero only proposes the box for putting the date of publication of the book itself, rather than the original date of publication/creation for old literary works.

e.g. the original date of creation is 1870, but Zotero creates the book as the following, which looks misleading:
Gaboriau, Émile, Le Petit Vieux Des Batignolles (Paris: Bibliothèque Gallimard, 2001).

whereas I assume this would be more correct:
Gaboriau, Émile, Le Petit Vieux Des Batignolles [1870] (Paris: Bibliothèque Gallimard, 2001).

Is there any way of adding this feature in?

Also, in order to do it manually, I looked in the MHRA Style Guide, but I am unable to find an indication of the correct position within the reference.
Is my assumption above correct?
Does anyone have any idea?

Thanks.

adamsmith · December 4, 2011

Giving an original date of publication is not currently possible, but will be in the future - I don't know what MHRA would want, Chicago says citing the original date is optional and suggests:

N: 23. Jacques Barzun, Simple and Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers, rev. ed. (1985; repr., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 152–53.

B: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925. Reprinted with preface and notes by Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Collier Books, 1992. Page references are to the 1992 edition.

adamsmith · December 4, 2011

yes, MHRA wants something similar, check 11.2.2 exampes iii and iv

AmyEForrest · December 5, 2011

Thanks for that, very helpful. It's not made clear in the MHRA style guide, so was initially a little difficult to find without your direction.

AmyEForrest · August 7, 2013

Hi!

Is it yet possible to get this feature in Zotero?

Gracile · August 7, 2013

It will come with fields update in Z4.2
Workaround in the meantime here.

[Edit:
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/22914/citing-original-date-together-edition-date-1914-2012-is-it-possible/
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/3673/2/original-date-of-publication/
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/17873/multiple-dates-and-multiyear-publications/
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/6111/better-date-field/ ]

S_Gauntlett · August 7, 2013

When indexing digital publications, it is often necessary and/or desirable to record a modification date (date modified), in addition to original publication date. Will Zotero developers be creating a field/metadata label for that as well?

In the meantime, does anyone have recommendations on a good way to separate multiple dates entered in the date field, so that the Zotero system will be able to export the entire contents of the Date field, instead of just the first date entered? I had been separating the instances with a semi-colon but am unsure that will be sustainable and interoperable when it comes to exporting data into another documentation system.

I have looked through the links posted by Gracile, and have also been poking around the web (including the CitationStyles.org and international date standards), to see if there are best practices for cases like this, but have only found incidental help - especially as I am fairly new to digital metadata systems!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Gracile · August 8, 2013

Will Zotero developers be creating a field/metadata label for that as well?

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15636/1/changes-to-fields-and-item-types-for-zotero-31-/

on a good way to separate multiple dates entered in the date field, so that the Zotero system will be able to export the entire contents of the Date field, instead of just the first date entered?

Try this.