Government Sources without Item Type

Jeffrey.Buchholtz
I am looking for a solution to easily cite government manuals, instructions and directives. I have not found an existing item type in Zotero that fits the need, but I do not want to necessarily create a whole new citation style.

Two examples are below, but in general these items include the main category of the directive, the specific title, and the date. The only work-around I have so far is to call these "Journal Articles" with the main category as the "author" and the specific title as the "publication" to get the right citation out, leaving the title blank. Am I missing something or is there no easier way to do this? While this fixes the overall bibliography output, my in-text citations do not format correctly.

Department of Defense (DOD) Directive 5015.2., 6 March 2000.

Comprehensive Planning Guide (CPG) 101. Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans, November 2010.

(NOTE: "DOD Records Management Program” in the first example and “Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans” in the second should be in italics)
  • Jeffrey.Buchholtz
    That first example was supposed to be:
    Department of Defense (DOD) Directive 5015.2. DOD Records Management Program, 6 March 2000.
  • adamsmith
    if you don't want to create a new citation style--which one do you want to use? And how are in-text citations supposed to look?
  • Jeffrey.Buchholtz
    I move between APA and Chicago for various papers, depending on the audience and application. For APA, the in-text citation would have the (Author, Year) format, but instead of author, it should be the abbreviated document title. For example: "DODD 5015.2" or "CPG 101." I have tried putting those as the "short title" in the various item types, but because the name has to go in the "author" block, the short title is of little use. Similarly, for Chicago, the notes at the bottom initially list the correct format with the author/title workaround listed above, but on the second instance of the citation when the automatic formatting goes to shorten the reference, I cannot get it to use the short title, similar with the APA issues.

    My reason for not wanting to go through and create a new citation style was that for everything else, APA and Chicago work seamlessly. It is just these specific types of sources I have issues with.
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