Remove trailing comma from state constitution citations

brianfb · May 20, 2021

I'm using Bluebook Law Review (http://www.zotero.org/styles/bluebook-law-review) and need to cite a state constitution. Per Bluebook (https://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/2-300), it should look like "N.Y. Const. art. I, § 9." -- no date or URL, etc.

Within Zotero, no matter where I put "N.Y. Const. art. I, § 9." -- as the author or title -- and no matter the type of document I select -- statute, bill, article, document, etc. -- I get a trailing comma in the footnote of my document (I'm using R version 4.0.5 (2021-03-31) and Markdown).

This is what I'm getting: "N.Y. Const. art. I, § 9.,"
This is what I want: "N.Y. Const. art. I, § 9."

In the exported BibTex document, the reference looks like this:

@misc{nycont8,
title = {{NY Const. art. I, \textsection{} 9.}}
}

I've tried digging around the CSL but can't get rid the the trialing comma unless I include a date or something else in the exported BibTex doc, which I don't want.

brianfb · May 20, 2021

Again, working within R Markdown, the following appears to provide the desired result.

First, at line 239 in bluebook-law-review.csl, change this block from:


        <else>
          <choose>
            <if type="book" match="any">
              <text variable="volume" suffix=" "/>
            </if>
          </choose>
          <text macro="author" suffix=", "/>
          <text macro="source"/>
          <text macro="access" prefix=", "/>
        </else>

to:


        <else>
          <choose>
            <if type="book" match="any">
              <text variable="volume" suffix=" "/>
            </if>
          </choose>
          <text macro="author"/>
          <text macro="source" prefix=", "/>
          <text macro="access" prefix=", "/>
        </else>

Second, remove the carrot when entering the citation key into Markdown: "[@nycont]" rather than "^[@nycont]."

FYI, the reference needs to be modified outside of Zotero (that is, in the exported BibTex file) to get the § (section) symbol processed in LaTex: "\S{}" rather than "§" or the html equivalent.

@article{nycont6,
title = {{\textsc{N.Y. }}{{{\textsc{Const}}}}. {{art.}} {{IV}}, \S{} 6.}
}

brianfb · May 20, 2021

Try this again -- at line 245, replace this:

text macro="author" suffix=", "/
text macro="source"/
text macro="access" prefix=", "/

with this:

text macro="author"/
text macro="source" prefix=", "/
text macro="access" prefix=", "/