Faulty citation style

Markus Austria
Dear Zotero Gurus!

The citation style for the The Review of International Organizations (https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id:the-review-of-international-organizations) has a weird error for the in-text citations. The following source, for example,

Martin, L. L., & Simmons, B. A. (1998). Theories and Empirical Studies of International Institutions. International Organization, 52(4), 729–757. https://doi.org/10.1162/002081898550734

is referenced in my text as (L. L. Martin and Simmons 1998). When I get the citation directly from Zotero (create bibliography from item -> citations) the reference is correct: (Martin and Simmons 1998). The same problem also occurs with a few other citations, but the vast majority displays correctly in the text.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

All best,
Markus
  • damnation
    See https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation
  • Markus Austria
    Thanks, damnation! That helps!

    The problem seems to be that I cite Lisa L. Martin and also have a Dian I. Martin. But the latter Martin (D.I.) is only cited in (Martin and Berry 2011), which Zotero indeed also turns into (D. I. Martin and Berry 2011). Given that I reference D.I. Martin only occurs together with Berry, I don't see the added benefit of adding initials. (I am not sure if APA, for example, requires initials in these cases... I have only seen examples amounting to me citing both Martins individually...)

    Anyway, I thus wanted to change the disambiguation manually, but the RIO style is just a few lines (https://www.zotero.org/styles/the-review-of-international-organizations?source=1). This is the first time I see this. I was expecting something more extensive (e.g., https://www.zotero.org/styles/journal-of-common-market-studies?source=1).

    Anybody any ideas why the first style is so sparse and how to suppress disambiguation in this case?

    Best wishes,
    Markus
  • damnation
    It's a so-called dependent style. You want to edit http://www.zotero.org/styles/springer-socpsych-author-date
  • Markus Austria
    Thanks! Worked like a charm. All best, Markus
  • vemcgee
    I'm having the same issue with APA 7. I don't want any initials to show in the in-line citations. I attempted to change the code in the style but got confused, and it didn't take. Is there a video walkthrough of how to make this change to the style?
    Help!
  • adamsmith
    You can install https://github.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools/raw/master/apa-no-disambiguation.csl (clicking on the link should just open install it in Zotero; otherwise you can download it and install by double-clicking).

    But to be clear, this is explicitly required in APA style, so you're no longer following APA if you're getting rid of disambiguation of first authors with the same last name.
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited October 31, 2023
    @vemcgee
    Consider this: If you have unwanted initials in your in-line citations, it may indicate that you have authors in your Zotero with names with various levels of completeness. J. Brown, J. A. Brown, John Brown, John Allan Brown, should all be edited to the most complete version of the author's name. Even when a shorter version of an author's name is on the printed page, if there is a work with a more complete name that is the preferred name for all of the author's works. I don't know the exact style rule number for APA 7 but the rule under APA 6 it is Guideline 6.27. This is common practice -- Chicago style has a similar rule.

    If you have an article by John Brown and another by Joseph Brown in the same year, APA demands that you disambiguate those names.
  • vemcgee
    @DWL-SDCA I have several entries by the same author but with different dates. I think that's what was causing the issue.

    @adamsmith Thank you so much!
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