Odd use of author first name initials in citations in Harvard styles
I'm getting odd appearances of author first name initials in the Harvard reference styles I'm using.
I've tried with the default Harvard, and the Open Univeristy and Annals of the Ass. of American Geographer style (which are both close enough to what i need for now) and all tend to add first name initials in odd locations.
For example, the first two references of what I'm currently writing appear as:
(Dorrian & G. Rose 2003)
(M. Rose & Wylie 2006)
For some reason it's adding first name initials on a seemingly random basis. I've got around this before by manually editing citations, but would like to just be able to sort it out once and for all.
In both those articles in the Zotero library, and throughout my library I have all authors first name in full and surname in full, saved in <surname>, <first name> form, and so I have no idea why it is adding initials in odd places - there seems no rhyme or reason.
I've tried with the default Harvard, and the Open Univeristy and Annals of the Ass. of American Geographer style (which are both close enough to what i need for now) and all tend to add first name initials in odd locations.
For example, the first two references of what I'm currently writing appear as:
(Dorrian & G. Rose 2003)
(M. Rose & Wylie 2006)
For some reason it's adding first name initials on a seemingly random basis. I've got around this before by manually editing citations, but would like to just be able to sort it out once and for all.
In both those articles in the Zotero library, and throughout my library I have all authors first name in full and surname in full, saved in <surname>, <first name> form, and so I have no idea why it is adding initials in odd places - there seems no rhyme or reason.
Never seen that done in citations before. Is this something more common to science journals?
Edit: in some cases the rules are more sophisticated and Zotero can't do that - so while Zotero disambiguates all authors with same last name, some styles would only do that when there could indeed be confusion - i.e. if there are two Rose 1999 you don't want the as Rose 1999a and Rose 1999b if really they are G. Rose 1999 and B. Rose 1999), but not in your case where the two citations are clearly identifiable.
When I check the entry in the style browser, citation is correct, only in OOo Writer is the initial added. I had this couple of times with other authors before, where there might have been an ambiguity (wasn't aware of the rule than), but here I am dead sure there's no ambiguity at all.
Any other ideas?
There are a number of ways this could happen - there could be another Read somewhere hidden as the 15th author of an et al. article. There could be a Read&Read article etc.
You could have the same item twice in your database, with different author spellings.
But it's definitely some form of disambiguation.
Touche, there is a 6th author, Read, S. in another publication - but it doesn't make sense to differentiate here, as the quote wouldn't be identified with Read in the slightest (as it is given as Gray et al). But probably that's where the style guides are to blame and not Zotero.
It is odd though, that when I hightlight the source and go to chrome://zotero/content/tools/csledit.xul, everything looks peachy - no initial. Shouldn't the same rule apply there as well?
Wouldn't a rule, only disambiguating if actually cited author names are identical make more sense? In the bibliography, it remained clear who's who, so transparency was maintained. Any idea what changes in the csl code this would require?
I don't know what's up with the test pane - did you try highlighting both citations?
I really appreciate your work - it's a great help with domesticating academic referencing, particularly when writing in several locations!
<option name="disambiguate-add-givenname" value="true"/>
from the style.
See here for a generic how to on simple modifications:
http://www.zotero.org/support/csl_simple_edits
Thank you.
http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/citation_styles/style_editing_step-by-step
I'm not sure that it is what @adamsmith was pointing to but I think you will find it helpful.
1 - I have updated the APA 6th edition style from the Zotero Style Repository.
"Update existing style "American Psychological Association 6th Edition" with "American Psychological Association 6th Edition" from http://www.zotero.org/styles/apa? Confirm Install?" Which I've done and that is good.
My problem starts with the next step.
2 - How do I download the style onto my computer please? Every time I click on the style in the Zot Style Repos - it just asks the above question "Update existing....etc" again.
Thanks for help.