Citation Style "Frontiers journals" vs multiple "Frontiers in XYZ"

ben.meier
edited October 6, 2023
There are currently 73 citation styles found, if searched for "frontiers". Checking "Show only unique styles" shows 7 remaining styles.

Frontiers journals (2023-01-03 15:52:01) might be the latest one, updated because of my post here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/102071/word-plug-in-does-not-insert-n-d#latest

Actually Frontiers only got 2 different citation styles (see See https://www.frontiersin.org/guidelines/author-guidelines#references):
1. Frontiers – Harvard (author-date)
2. Frontiers – Vancouver (numbered)
I propose these two names as in analogy to the naming scheme of Elsevier styles.

Actually, Frontiers lately updated their reference explanations – at least a visual update. Compare the site version from 2023-08-04: https://web.archive.org/web/20230804030138/https://www.frontiersin.org/guidelines/author-guidelines#references

I don't know, if "the plan" is to keep all 73 Frontiers styles. If so, they might be checked for differences, be merged and synced. (If one currently selects an outdated Frontiers style, one will not know this [or how should I notice this without checking "every" reference?] and produce incorrect references.)
However, I would suggest to keep only two Frontiers styles
1. Frontiers – Harvard (author-date)
2. Frontiers – Vancouver (numbered)


List of styles:

Frontiers for Young Minds (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Bioscience (2018-10-21 01:28:32)
Frontiers in Built Environment (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Chemistry (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Communication (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Digital Humanities (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Earth Science (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (2022-05-25 01:18:52)
Frontiers in Education (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Endocrinology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Energy Research (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Environmental Science (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Genetics (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in ICT (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Immunology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine (2018-03-09 05:06:46)
Frontiers in Life Science (2014-05-17 16:39:46)
Frontiers in Marine Science (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Materials (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Medicine (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Microbiology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Neural Circuits (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Neuroanatomy (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology (2018-03-09 05:06:46)
Frontiers in Neuroenergetics (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Neuroengineering (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Neuroinformatics (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Neurology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Neurorobotics (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Nutrition (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Oncology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Optics (2013-12-06 02:44:59)
Frontiers in Pediatrics (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Pharmacology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Physics (2014-08-28 01:36:46)
Frontiers in Physiology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Plant Science (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Psychiatry (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Psychology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Public Health (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Robotics and AI (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Sociology (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Surgery (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Synaptic Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2017-01-21 20:28:41)
Frontiers in Zoology (2016-02-13 21:18:53)
Frontiers journals (2023-01-03 15:52:01)
Frontiers medical journals (2022-05-14 20:59:11)
Frontiers of Architectural Research (2018-03-09 05:06:46)
Frontiers of Biogeography (2022-04-07 12:49:06)
Information Systems Frontiers (2014-05-18 01:40:32)
Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers (2014-05-16 01:43:47)
Organic Chemistry Frontiers (2014-05-16 01:43:47)
  • damnation
    The grand majority of these are so-called dependent styles. They are only a link to the parent style. That way people find a style specific to a certain style easier.
    That's why they also don't show up when you click "show unique styles".
  • ben.meier
    edited October 7, 2023
    I somehow would have expected something like this. Great, that it actually works!

    It seems to be that:
    – 61 styles depend on frontiers.csl (searched for frontiers" rel="independent-parent"/>) and
    – 14 styles depend on frontiers-medical-journals.csl (searched for frontiers-medical-journals" rel="independent-parent"/>)

    So these seem to be the main parent styles. I would propose to:
    1. Rename the parent styles into "Frontiers – Harvard (author-date)" and "Frontiers – Vancouver (numbered)"
    2. Sync all dependent styles

    Regarding the remaining parent styles:
    Frontiers in Bioscience (2018-10-21 01:28:32)
    Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (2022-05-25 01:18:52)
    Frontiers in Optics (2013-12-06 02:44:59)
    Frontiers in Physics (2014-08-28 01:36:46)
    Frontiers of Biogeography (2022-04-07 12:49:06)

    I would suggest to include a comment on the differences to the two main styles, as in frontiers-in-physics.csl
    ""
  • damnation
    You can see it here also: https://github.com/citation-style-language/journals/blob/master/frontiers/_journals.tab

  • adamsmith
    All the other independent styles (except Frontiers in Physics, which you already note) have no relationship to Frontiers the publisher. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, e.g., is a journal published by the Ecological Society of America that's been published since 2003, four years before Frontiers Publishing was founded. Similar stories for the other four, so nothing to do about those. Journals have similar names.

    I generally agree that the proposed renaming makes more sense than what we currently have, but renaming has all sorts of logistical costs and I've not seen any signs of confusion that would justify those.

  • ben.meier
    This seems to be a reasonable argument. Then I think the thing to do is to update all dependent styles.
  • adamsmith
    The dependent styles are just links -- they automatically update to the current version of the style they link to (or do you mean that some of them link to the wrong style?)
  • ben.meier
    I misunderstood the "Updated" column in the cite settings (and the identical dates displayed in the "Get additional styles" window). The dependent styles in fact display the date when their actual file was updated and not when the style was updated, which happens by updating the parent style.

    Seeing a "Frontiers journals" style with a date of 2023 and a "Frontiers in ..." style with a date of 2017 lets the "Frontiers in ..." style feel to be outdated – at least for me.

    My conclusion now would be, that dependent styles should show their parents date in the "Updated" column.
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