Lower-case first letter of the surname

gdv87
The first letter of each bibliographic item in the bibliography is always automatically capitalized, even if it is the first letter of the surname of the fist author of the bibliographic item (in the citation styles that put the surname before the name). However, if the surname starts with a lower-case letter, I do not want it to be modified: how can I disable the capitalization?
Greets

gdv87
  • adamsmith
    do you have an example? Might be doable depending on the exact name.
  • gdv87
    this article is an example:
    http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/odps.2015.1.issue-1/odps-2014-0001/odps-2014-0001.xml
    I've tried both in Microsoft Word 2007 and in LibreOffice Writer and I have tried with several citation styles (that put the surname before the name) and the result is the same.
    gdv87
  • Gracile
    @adamsmith: what's your solution? I remember a discussion on the forums with Frank on this subject, when it was decided to force the capitalization of the first letter in the bibliography.
  • adamsmith
    No, I don't have a solution. I thought there was one, but there isn't. We should revisit the forced capitalization, I think it does more harm than good (it's wrong in Chicago and APA, too, for example).
  • Gracile
    Ok, I agree. I think it was done after a user request but I'm not sure.
  • fbennett
    @adamsmith: how would you like to proceed? Happy to act, but I don't want to be sure I'm putting in agreed changes.
  • adamsmith
    There are two questions, I suppose
    1) Does this need to be configurable in CSL? (My tentative answer would be yes, it should be)

    2) What is the best default until then? (My tentative answer would be to don't force capitalization, since it's a) not in the specs and b) wrong for APA and Chicago Manual

    Does anyone remember why/when this was implemented in the first place? Would be helpful to look at the discussion back then to make sure we're not forgetting something that was once well thought out.
  • fbennett
    It was probably just me, responding to a user request. Won't happen again.

    The change is rolled back in a processor patch at propachi-vanilla-v1.1.6beta2.xpi (and propachi-upper-v1.1.8beta2.xpi for upper-casing the first word in subtitles). That will have to do until Zotero upgrades the processor in a later release.
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