Problem with some author names in inline cites

michaelkatell · April 27, 2018

I'm having a problem with some, not all, entries in my db. In these isolated cases, the author name appears correctly formatted in the Zotero 'info' pane, but when I add an inline cite of one of the affected references to a document (APA format), instead of the name showing (Lastname, 1990), I get (Lastname F.N., 1990) - or similar with some piece of the first name showing up. This occurs no matter how many times I check or reenter the author name in the info pane - or whether I use the single field name entry or double field name entry. It happens to just a few of my Zotero records. The problem must be in some underlying feature of the record that I cannot see in the GUI. Any tips?

fbennett · April 27, 2018

This is the effect of cite disambiguation, which is invoked (intentially) by the style you are using. If the names with added details all refer to the same author, editing the names in Zotero for consistency will fix it. Details here: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation

bwiernik · April 27, 2018

If you are seeing the first name AFTER the last name, however, that would suggest that you have the name entered wrong in Zotero, such as in single-field mode.

fbennett · April 27, 2018

@bwiernik I think you mean "BEFORE" maybe? In either case, @michaelkatell, you should be entering ordinary names in two-field mode.

(edited)

bwiernik · April 27, 2018

They said “Lastname F.N.” APA style would show it as “F. N. Lastname”

fbennett · April 27, 2018

D'oh! Sorry, my mistake.

tangri · June 20, 2018

I'm having the same problem. One author shows up in different ways in in-line citations and the bibliography. After I change all citations in Zotero and refresh the Word doc, the error persists.

adamsmith · June 20, 2018

Could you paste citation & bibliography here? Same problem in a new document?