Author vs. contributor in physics

DerPlasma
Hi,

I just started to finally use zotero with importing my BibTeX-file. I realized that there seems to be no difference between author and co-author, i.e. all people/names from an article are imported as authors so there are a lot of authors for each paper.

My question now is if a "contributor" (I can change an author to be contributor) is supposed to be the same as a co-author or if that is something different not relevant for a classical paper?
  • zuphilip
    A contributor is not the same as a co-author. All authors independent of their actual role and position (there is a nice PhD Comics about the Author List) should be added as authors. If there is any further person/organization involved (or maybe just mentioned) in the paper, then you could add this as a contributor. Most (or maybe all) citation styles are ignoring contributors, where it is essential to give credit to all authors (maybe with some et-al-rule for abbreviation).
  • DerPlasma
    haha, I remember that PhD Comic :)

    Thanks for the clarification.
  • DerPlasma
    just for the sake of completeness, the cartoon is called "Author list" and here is the link:
    http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=562
  • adamsmith
    for completeness sake: indeed _all_ styles ignore contributors. It's impossible to cite them.
  • Cakebaker
    Adamsmith, do you mean that no style guides call for contributors to be included in the bibliography, because I'm working on a style from a style guide that does require contributors. I haven't found how to modify the style to include the contributors.
  • adamsmith
    No, I mean that it cannot be done in Zotero. What's the exact requirement in the style guide? Why not treat them as co-authors?
  • Cakebaker
    The style guide is here: http://www.enap.ca/enap/docs/Portail_etudiant/Plagiat/Guide_cit_ref_recto_sept_2012.pdf

    From the guide:
    Schéma
    NOM DE L’AUTEUR, Prénom (Année de publication). Titre : sous-titre, auteur secondaire, édition, lieu de publication, éditeur ou maison d'édition, nombre de pages ou nombre de volumes, « collection », numéro dans la collection. Renseignements complémentaires.

    Exemples

    BOISVERT, Jean (1994). Les grands esprits du management, avec la collaboration de Daniel Maltais, Sainte-Foy, Presses de l’Université du Québec.

    AUSTRUY, Jacques (1987). Le scandale de développement, commenté par G. Leduc et L.- J. Lebret, bibliogr. analytique et critique par Guy Caire, nouv. éd. corr. et mise à jour, Genève, Clairefontaine.

    Do you mean putting it in as another author or rather as editor? Because I have (dir.) in there when it's an editor and if another author, it comes to the front, rather than after, where she wants the contributor.

    CHARIH, Mohamed, et Michel PAQUIN (1994). « Plans stratégiques et politiques gouvernementales : une analyse de contenu », dans Mohamed Charih et Michel Paquin (dir.), Les organisations publiques à la recherche de l’efficacité, Québec, ENAP, p. 77-89.

    GRAVEL, Robert J. (1997). « Comment le partenariat peut-il améliorer la performance dans la gestion des services municipaux? », dans Marie-Michèle Guay (dir.), Performance et secteur public : réalités, enjeux et paradoxes, Sainte-Foy, Presses de l’Université du Québec, p. 141, 154.

    I'm moving along with the style, but sometimes it takes me a whole day to fix one thing. I am learning though.

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