Linking date for in-text CMoS citations

edited October 19, 2017
Hi, I'm working on a scientific chapter written in the CMoS style using the author-date format. In this style, there are two ways to reference an article, as illustrated by the following example:
Recently, Zheng et al (2015) reported a detection limit of 200 SPIO labeled cells with MPI (scan time: 20s), in comparison MRI has a sensitivity of about 104 cells (acquisition time: minutes to hours) (Nguyen et al 2014).
It appears that Zotero will always cite using the (author date) notation. How can I link to an article using the other notation, i.e. "Recently, author (year) did ..." ?? If I don't add a reference to this sentence then my bibliography might be incomplete. However if I cite at the end of the sentence using the other notation, then the sentence will include the reference twice.

Please help. Thanks.
  • Use suppress author and type "Zheng et al." as part of the text:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage#customizing_cites
  • edited October 19, 2017
    Perfect. Thank you.
  • edited October 30, 2017
    As a related question, is there a way to omit the parentheses from a citation? For the in-text citations obviously they're necessary. But we also have a table that summarizes the findings, and there's a column in the table for the source(s). For this we would prefer no brackets as they take up space in the cell and it would be repetitive.

    EDIT: Or alternatively, use multiple citation styles within the same document. For instance, could I insert a section break, add the table using a "CMoS (author-date, no brackets)" style (which doesn't exist so I'd have to create it), then insert another section break and switch back to the normal CMoS style? Or is this going to mess with my list of references?
  • no, sorry, neither of those options. Citations in tables are a bit tricky anyway, especially as you have many, so it might be a good idea to just insert those as plain text anyway (assuming they are cited in the text -- if they aren't you would need to use edit bibliography to add them).
  • edited October 26, 2017
    I see. I believe the table is already created this way, so less work for me. I'm not sure if they are all included in the text, so someone will have to check them against the reference list.

    Well, as a suggestion, adding an "Omit Brackets" checkbox to Zotero, similar to the "Suppress Author" option, might come in handy sometimes.
  • Just as an FYI, the CMoS does sometimes require citations without parentheses:
    https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/02/
    See the section on "Tables and Figures".
    Hence, to be compliant with their requirements, it would be nice if there were some way to add citations without brackets or parentheses.
  • Bump. Was hoping this would invite discussion...
  • Hi dryphi, I completely agree... Up to now I don't see that the "omit brackets" suggestions has been implemented. What a pity!
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