AOSIS Harvard referencing style and Zotero

robheimburger · June 20, 2018

Hello, I am submitting an article with a journal that uses AOSIS publishing. AOSIS has its unique kind of Harvard referencing, listed here:

https://aosis.co.za/documents/Harvard_Reference_Style_Guide.pdf

Zotero doesn't seem to have an AOSIS-Harvard style. I've started looking through the Harvard styles Zotero has, but I haven't found one yet that matches AOSIS style. Could you provide some guidance - either pointing out a matching Harvard style or suggesting some other way forward?

damnation · June 20, 2018

https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles/wiki/Requesting-Styles

adamsmith · June 20, 2018

(AOSIS approached us some years back to ask about commissioning these styles, but nothing came of it; they have a range of journals using the same style, but I don't have a list)

robheimburger · June 21, 2018

Thanks. I'll create a style request on github.com.

robheimburger · June 21, 2018

I mean, following the instructions from github.com.

damnation · June 21, 2018

Great. Just add it to your post here please.

robheimburger · June 21, 2018

AOSIS Publishing manages a number of journals using their own version of Harvard referencing. Of the 93 or so Harvard styles that Zotero offers, I can't find one that matches AOSIS. One that was close was the University of South Australia 2013 – Harvard. I checked Zotero forums and found nothing. So, I request a new style if someone has time to create it.

Here is a link to AOSIS’ online style documentation:
https://aosis.co.za/documents/Harvard_Reference_Style_Guide.pdf

Specifically, I’m preparing an article for the journal HTS Theological Studies,
https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts
ISSN: 0259-9422 (PRINT) | ISSN: 2072-8050 (ONLINE)

Here are two citations. I think I’ve produced them correctly according to the style.

In-text citation:
(Campbell & Pedersen 2007:307-332)
(Mares 2001)

Bibliography:
Campbell, J.L. & Pedersen, O.K., 2007, ‘The varieties of capitalism and hybrid success’, Comparative Political Studies, 40(3), 307–332.
Mares, I., 2001, ‘Firms and the welfare state: When, why, and how does social policy matter to employers?’, in P.A. Hall & D. Soskice (eds.), Varieties of capitalism. The institutional foundations of comparative advantage, pp. 184–213, Oxford University Press, New York.

I follow these articles rather than AOSIS’ style guide in using sentence case for titles:
https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4786/11268#CIT0020_4786
https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4876/10974

All articles at HTS are open access, so there would be plenty more to check.

Thanks for considering this request.

damnation · June 21, 2018

I'll look at this over the next days. Please keep an eye on this thread. :)

robheimburger · June 21, 2018

Thank you.

damnation · June 21, 2018

@robheimburger
See this here draft (right click, save as, install in Z): https://github.com/POBrien333/styles/raw/a27eff650907ea5e9bc7c2cbc0324355e112a8be/havard-aosis-publishing.csl

let me know what needs fixing.

enozkan · June 21, 2018

I don't know if it matters, but the csl file name has a typo (havard instead of harvard).

damnation · June 21, 2018

It matters. But can you test the actual style? I'll fix the typo then.

bwiernik · June 21, 2018

The style you just linked to says “havad” in the filename instead of “harvard”.

damnation · June 22, 2018

Style without typos and correct title...
https://github.com/POBrien333/styles/raw/3186a103b616e55624dace714a5526281f89b020/harvard-aosis-publishing.csl

robheimburger · June 28, 2018

That was quick work! Sorry I just now saw this post and figured out how to install a style manually - Tools > Preferences > + button.

I will test the style and respond soon.

robheimburger · June 28, 2018

@damnation The style is working well – thank you!

I’ve noticed a couple of things that need updating:
1. In bibliographies, journal titles (like Comparative Political Studies) are not in italics like they should be.
2. In bibliographies, book titles are not in italics like they should be – except when they are part of a reference to a book chapter or section.
3. In-text references with three authors should shift to a different style in the second instance and they aren’t currently. The AOSIS style guide says:

In-text: initially
(Johnston, Mak & Kurnia 2001)
In-text: thereafter
(Johnston et al. 2001)

4. The first word of a subtitle should be capitalized. (Is that something I just need to do manually in the source entries, or can the style do that automatically? If it can be automatic, could title case source entries be transformed into sentence case for AOSIS style?)

I’ll keep working with this and see if anything else comes up.

damnation · June 29, 2018

1. fixed
2. fixed
3. fixed. please test this one out. Just coded it without testing.
4. No idea. Adamsmith will know.

https://github.com/POBrien333/styles/raw/a9062e692b7ceb58c609ad89db7912486012dfcd/african-online-scientific-information-systems-harvard.csl

adamsmith · June 29, 2018

4. Either you need to do this manually or this is a plugin that helps with this, but I can never remember. I think @bwiernik uses it?

bwiernik · June 29, 2018

Yes, there’s a plugin.

1. Install the propachi plugin: https://github.com/Juris-M/propachi-vanilla/releases
2. Enable the Uppercase Subtitles option in the Propachi preferences
3. Store your titles in Zotero in sentence case (with lowercase letters after the colon)
4. Store the part of the title before the colon in the Short Title field

Zotero will now uppercase all subtitles.

damnation · June 30, 2018

Fixed style merged: https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id:african-online-scientific-information-systems-harvard

robheimburger · July 5, 2018

Thanks @damnation for fixing those problems. I’ve found others:

1. Multiple in-text references should be separated by semicolons rather than commas. They should look like this:

Recent studies (Bradford 1992; Curtis 1983; Graham 1997) agree that …

But they currently look like this:

Recent studies (Bradford 1992, Curtis 1983, Graham 1997) agree that …

2. Translators disappear in the bibliography. They should be in this style:

Bakhtin, M., 1984, Rabelais and his world, transl. H. Iswolsky, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

3. Editions should appear like this

Dyson, G.G.H., 1977, The mechanics of athletics, 7th edn., Homes and Meier, New York.

But instead they appear like this

Dyson, G.G.H., 1977, The mechanics of athletics 7th edition, Homes and Meier, New York.

Once you make updates, I assume I need to download the style again.

And thanks, @bwiernik. The uppercase subtitles option works well!

damnation · July 6, 2018

Thank you for reviewing so thoroughly, @robheimburger .

1. fixed
2. added (please test) for books and chapters.
3. fixed

New style: https://github.com/POBrien333/styles/raw/3a267719d8f97ab73c796e049f4dac1b9c145d2f/african-online-scientific-information-systems-harvard.csl

robheimburger · July 9, 2018

Thanks for the quick responses.

2. is partly working, but there should be a comma after the title and ‘transl.’ rather than ‘tran.’ So, instead of

Bakhtin, M., 1984, Rabelais and his world tran. H. Iswolsky, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

It would be:

Bakhtin, M., 1984, Rabelais and his world, transl. H. Iswolsky, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

3. is also partly working, but if I enter ‘new edn.’ Or ‘revised edn.’ Into the edition field, it comes out like this

Bruner, F.D., 2007, Matthew: A commentary revised edn. , Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Mich.

When it should look like this (with added comma and a space after edn. taken away)

Bruner, F.D., 2007, Matthew: A commentary, revised edn., Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Also,

4. Would it be possible to allow something like ‘forthcoming, 2018’ to be displayed as the date in the bibliography, or would this just mess things up? When I enter that information, the date is just displayed as ‘2018’.

damnation · July 10, 2018

2a. comma added
2b. transl. fixed
3. 2a. also fixed this.
4. @bwiernik and @adamsmith will be able to help/advise here.

Please test: https://github.com/POBrien333/styles/raw/2f792d4afb540e338d2320fa0f94f501cebae70d/african-online-scientific-information-systems-harvard.csl

bwiernik · July 10, 2018

4. @damnation You should change the year to display both the ‘status’ and ‘issued’ variables.

@robheimburger Enter the data in Extra like this:
Status: forthcoming

damnation · July 10, 2018

Thanks. Like this (lines ~80)?
https://github.com/POBrien333/styles/blob/76be6924f670daf59cd29047841e9b45953b298b/african-online-scientific-information-systems-harvard.csl

For Rob to download: https://github.com/POBrien333/styles/raw/76be6924f670daf59cd29047841e9b45953b298b/african-online-scientific-information-systems-harvard.csl

bwiernik · July 10, 2018

Yep, that should work.

robheimburger · July 27, 2018

3a. There is still a space showing after new edn. or revised edn. and before a comma.
3b. There is a new problem: numbered editions should display as 7th edn. rather than 7th ed.

Everything else is working well. Thanks, @damnation.

damnation · July 27, 2018

3b. ed. vs edn.: fixed
3a. This outputs like this for me:
Dunnett, N. & Kingsbury, N., 2008, Planting green roofs and living walls, 2nd edn., Timber Press, Portland, OR.

https://github.com/POBrien333/styles/raw/b46f1223e1628d06ad8978232dd0dda2e3f50612/african-online-scientific-information-systems-harvard.csl

robheimburger · July 27, 2018

Thanks.
3a. Putting numbers in the Edition field makes things work correctly like 2nd edn.,

But if I put in text like 'revised edn.' or 'new edn.', a space appears after edn. and before the comma like this: 'revised edn. '

Is there any way around that?

damnation · July 27, 2018

3a: Now I understand.

https://github.com/POBrien333/styles/raw/c34be9de3086e08c8eb6edd0b45d3fb4899dcb02/african-online-scientific-information-systems-harvard.csl