Author's first initial appears when it shouldn't

gforce8
I read this post in the forum: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/17859/style-error-for-apa-non-primary-author-initials-incorrectly-included/ and it almost describes my problem.

In my Zotero library, I have a number of books by Erik H. Erikson. I also have one by Erik H. Erikson and a co-author, Joan Erikson. My understanding is that the in-text citation in APA 6th should come up as either (Erikson, YYYY) or (Erikson & Erikson, YYYY). Instead, I keep getting (E. Erikson, YYYY).

Is there some coding issue? Is Zotero looking at my library and realizing there are two Eriksons there, but not in my paper?

The solution in the link (above) offered a solution that I don't understand and it didn't work for that user. HELP!

I'm about to write my dissertation and Erik Erikson is a big part of it!!

Jennifer
  • adamsmith
    APA is supposed to disambiguate primary authors - so if there are two different first authors with Erikson as a last name you should get the initial according to APA style, yes.
    We would need examples to say more, though.
  • dsaldana
    Hello,

    from what I can see, Zotero is recognizing two authors with same last name IN THE WHOLE OF MY DATABASE. Should this not be happening only for a given paper?

    Best,

    David
  • fbennett
    THAT CAN'T HAPPEN.

    :)
  • DWL-SDCA
    I think the question is more related to the style and what is proper than to the Zotero database. Should the style include both authors (when there are two)?

    Also, it appears to me that at least one of the Erik Erikson authors in his database and cited in the paper is not entered exactly the same as the others -- thus, the disambiguation.
  • dsaldana
    Perhaps I should be clearer:
    - I have a Sally J Rogers with three references in my paper. No more Rogers. Initially, I thought it might be because she is sometimes a Sally Rogers, others SJ Rogers, in my database.
    - I corrected all the references that I am using.
    - No result.

    There is no other Rogers in the paper (first author or otherwise), thus inclusion of initials is incorrect as far as I understand.
  • fbennett
    edited April 22, 2012
    Three things to check are:

    - Which style
    - Whether any of the author entries are entered in single-field mode
    - Whether Zotero updates to any of the affected citations have been suspended due to editing in the document or in the edit citation dialog

    (edited to add third item to the list)
  • dsaldana
    Hi,

    thanks for your responses. I believe I have found a possible answer. There is two authors working on this paper: both authors may have different first names for the same reference.
    And: the style is APA 6th; no, the author entries were not in single-field mode; and there were no editing anomalies in the citations.
    I shall keep an eye on this problem to check whether it reappears in my own papers, where I can ensure no incorrect/different first names in references.
  • adamsmith
    "both authors may have different first names for the same reference."
    that would do it - you should make sure you're actually inserting the same reference from Zotero (i.e. it needs to be the same Zotero item, shared through a group or cited by selecting it from "cited items" in the word processor plugin) not just clean up possible differences in first authors, else it will show up twice in the bibliography.
  • dsaldana
    Yes. We did not get the reference repeated, because we did not use the same reference, but different references by the same author. That seems to be enough.
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