Once a style has been added to the repository can it be edited by anyone, or is the style fixed?

brookestest · May 20, 2014

Hi, please could you help with a couple of questions. Once a style is added to the repository, can anyone edit it, only the person who added the style, or is it set in stone and any changes required would need a new style to be added? We know we can copy the style and edit that, but what about the original file?
Is there any control over the naming of styles? We are concerned that an organisation name (such as our University name) can be added to a title by anyone without us having any control over the content.
Many thanks,
Gerard

adamsmith · May 20, 2014

Anyone can propose changes to any style on the repository. Just like for new submissions, we (i.e. the people running the CSL repository) perform a basic review and then accept those changes. How closely the review is depends mostly on the style - if you wanted to change the APA or Chicago style, I'd go over every line with a fine comb. To change e.g. a university's Harvard style I'd just have a quick look to make sure that the proposed changes make basic sense.
https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

We require a link to a style guide for new submissions, so if someone wants to upload a style for, say, Oxford Brookes university, they'd have to provide a link or related documentation for a citation guide put out by Oxford Brookes. Obviously we're happy to receive input from people overseeing styleguides, be it publishers of style manuals or journal editors. If there are concerns that a guide's naming will mislead users, i.e. cause them to generate incorrect citations, we'd take such concerns very seriously. While we don't have an official line, I personally would look much less kindly on trademark/copyright concerns, since I don't believe those apply to style guides.
Hope that helps.

Rintze · May 20, 2014

In addition to what @adamsmith already said, we have a strict rule to only have one independent CSL style per style guide. We try our best to accept all edits that improve the quality of an existing style, and reject those that do not. So if you're unhappy with the existing style for your university, you're more than welcome to help improve it.

Control over naming lies with @adamsmith and me. The majority of our styles are contributed by students and researchers. It's relatively rare for institutions to contribute styles themselves. As @adamsmith mentioned, we believe that we are free to use organisation names in style titles (and that there is no harm to you in this).