Elsevier Citation without first names?

mattchoj
Hi all,
I am submitting to a Elsevier journal and finding difficulty getting any of the many Elsevier styles to produce references without first names and middle initial primarily for a single or two author paper.

For example,
(Fenlton, 2005; Edgitt and Mallin, 2000).
not
(Loren K. Fenlton, 2005; Edgitt and M. C. Mallin, 2000).

In some case, first author is fine but the second author has this problem. In some cases, multi-author papers are cited with first name, last name, et al., but randomly? Bibliography looks fine.

Elsevier Harvard (with titles)
Elsevier Harvard 2
Metabolic Engineering

All are close, but have the first/middle name issue. Ill go on to editing one soon, but figured someone has crossed this path before.

Thanks,
MC
  • adamsmith
    If you get full first names in an Elsevier Harvard citation, you have the name entered incorrectly in Zotero. It should be in the form
    "Fenlton, Loren K."
    I seems like you have "Loren K. Fenlton"

    You can also get first _initials_ because of this:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation
    but that should be quite rare, as they only appear where required to disambiguate two citations.
  • mattchoj
    Thanks for the swift reply Adam.

    I am testing the first case, where I have "Fenlton" and only that in the last name field. The only way I can make the first name not appear in the citation is deleting it all together. If any word appears in the first name field it shows up in the citation.

    I am convinced it is not the second case (i.e., no conflicts).

    I keep restarting Zotereo, Word, and Firefox to no avail.

    Suggestions?
    Thanks,
    MC
  • mattchoj
    Oh, and I noticed the Earth Surface Processes and Landforms style is working perfectly for making a "Harvard-like" references (w/o first names), but is a no-go because of the bibliography differences...
  • adamsmith
    First, make sure you have the most recent version of the style by re-installing it from the repository at zotero.org/styles

    Then, try it with just this one reference in a fresh document.

    Finally, please right-click on the reference in Zotero --> Export selected items --> Zotero RDF (no notes or files). Open the saved file with any text editor (TextEdit, Notepad) copy the entire content of the file and paste it gist.github.com create a public gist (bottom of the screen) and post the URL here.
  • mattchoj
    I think we are getting somewhere, thanks.

    A new document seems to work, but it is quite buggy after a few refreshes and more citations are added, resulting in it defaulting to the issue described above.

    I am running Firefox 15.0.1 so no go with Zotero 4.0 for Firefox. Rather I have v. 3.0.14 and Zotero Word for Mac 3.5.7 and Office 2011.
    What do you recommend. Upgrade to Firefox 20.0, or Zotero 4.0 Standalone for Mac, or something else?

    Thanks!
    MC
  • adamsmith
    you need as a minimum FF 17 to run Zotero 4.0 and I'd recommend updating to FF 20 (using outdated FF versions is a bad idea in any case).
    Whether you use Standalone or Zotero for FF won't make a difference, that's up to you.

    And yes, the new version has numerous bug fixes - I can't guarantee you this will work correctly (though it does for me) - but I don't think any of us are inclined to troubleshoot this with an outdated version.
  • mattchoj
    Ok. Up and running Firefox 20, Zotero 4.0.4, Word for Mac 3.5.7
    and a fresh version of Elsevier Harvard 2.

    Fresh document, citation 1 (no issue) added, citation 2 (no issue) added, but after citation 3 is added it and citation 2 revert to having first names. Citation 1 is stable, but not for long? It appears to degrade w more refs and single/double author pubs are the worst, but even et al eventually have problems.

    Also, you have "Finally, please right-click on the reference in Zotero --> Export selected items --> Zotero RDF (no notes or files)."

    You lost me here. When I right click on a citation, no Zotero options are availble, nor are any options availble with that description in the Zotero menu bar? I can however, "Toggle Field Codes" and cut and paste, but that only produces the citation in brief with no code?

    Again, AGU and Earth Surface Processes and Landforms styles are fine....

    Also, I am noticing the old citation manager is the default, not the mini-add citation manager. How do I get the latter.

    Thanks,
    MC
  • adamsmith
    So what you're seeing is some version of disambiguation - that's the only reason refs would change - but I'm not quite sure why.

    AGU and Earth Surface Processes and Landforms will never add initials/firstnames for disambiguation, but the Elsevier styles will and should where necessary, so that's in line with the general diagnosis.

    I can replicate some problems with that - they're in the processor (i.e. Zotero itself) no the style, I'll let you know when we have a fix.
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