Non-exact dates

beismo
edited April 9, 2017
I'm trying to create a Zotero bibliography in which the date published is inexact for many of the books. How do I get the bibliography to display, for eg, "196?". When I type 196? into Zotero, the bibliography displays it as "196AD" !!
  • bwiernik
    Try putting it in Extra like this:
    issued: 196?

    If that doesn't work, then do:
    issued: "196?"
  • adamsmith
    Is this an uncertain date in the 1960s or is does this actually refer to a year in the second century? If the former, I think this is a poor way of expressing uncertainty (as you can tell by the fact that it's unclear to me). Chicago Manual, e.g., recommends ca. 1960 or [1960?] for such cases. You'll still need to use the workaround bwiernik suggests, though.
  • lbga
    Is there any improvement on this matter? In APA we need to have this expression on the incertainty [1990] - but the brackets doesn't appear in Word although typed in the reference from Zotero.

    Sorry for no able to find, if an answer already has been given.
    Best wishes from Denmark :-)
  • bwiernik
    Enter in Extra like this:
    Issued: 1990?
  • kberntse
    @lbga As far as I know there is no use of square brackets when concerning dates in APA-style (at least not in APA 7)? The solution bwiernik provided is the correct one according to the style guide.

    --

    In extension of the above -it might be more of a fringe case, but could be useful to know:

    I tried to replicate the example from APA 7 on ancient Greek or Roman work:

    (Aristotle, ca. 350 B.C.E./1994).

    When trying:
    Issued: Issued: 350 B.C.E./1994?

    The result become (Aristotle, ca. 350-1994 B.C.E.)

    The closest I get is by having 1994 in the Date field, and Original Date: ca. 350 B.C.E. in Extra, with the result (Aristotle, 350 B.C.E./1994), only missing "ca.".

    Is there way to include "ca."?
  • bwiernik
    @lbga Note that the formatting for uncertain dates changed in APA 7. They are now indicated by including "ca." rather than by using square brackets [ ]. Square brackets are no longer used with dates in APA style.

    @kberntse You have several things going on here.

    First, the item has two dates--the date of publication and the original pulication/creation date. Those need to be entered in separate fields to be formatted correctly. Enter "1994" (the date of publication of the modern version of the work) in the regular date field in Zotero.

    Enter the original date in Extra like this:
    Original date: 350BCE?

    Or:
    Original date: ~350BCE

    Note that there is no space between the date and "BCE" and no periods in "BCE".

    (You also seem to have the word "Issued" twice in your post. If that was the case in Extra, that would also be a problem.)

    See here for how to enter item 36 from the APA manual in Zotero:
    https://www.zotero.org/groups/2205533/test_items_library/collections/MR2N872S/items/4FJ5LXMY/collection
  • nathan.hopson
    Does Chicago (author-date) not support approximate dates?

    I get the following output:

    *Chicago (author-date)*
    Okada Masami. 1952–1953. “Eiyō sanshoku undō.” C1993-0135. Hiroshima Municipal Archives.

    *Chicago (note)*
    Okada Masami. “Eiyō sanshoku undō,” [1952–1953?]. C1993-0135. Hiroshima Municipal Archives.

    FWIW, I don't see reference to this in the CMS quick guide and was unable to track it down in the full manual either:
    https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html
  • bwiernik
    For a date range, you need to enter the date in Extra like this:

    Issued: 1952?/1953?
  • adamsmith
    I think Nathan has the date entry right and is just asking about it's implementation in Chicago author-date? I don't think we have that -- not least because it's not described in the Manual, but I can take a look
  • nathan.hopson
    @bwiernik, thank you, but I guess my question was not clear enough. Apologies.

    Currently, the dates are entered in the Extra field as:
    Issued: ~1952/1953

    That results in:

    *Chicago (author-date)*
    Okada Masami. 1952–1953. “Eiyō sanshoku undō.” C1993-0135. Hiroshima Municipal Archives.

    *Chicago (note)*
    Okada Masami. “Eiyō sanshoku undō,” [1952–1953?]. C1993-0135. Hiroshima Municipal Archives.

    Your suggestion (Issued: 1952?/1953?) yields:

    *Chicago (author-date)*
    Okada Masami. 1953. “Eiyō sanshoku undō.” C1993-0135. Hiroshima Municipal Archives.

    *Chicago (note)*
    Okada Masami. “Eiyō sanshoku undō,” [1953?]. C1993-0135. Hiroshima Municipal Archives.

    My question is:
    Why does Chicago (author-date) not correctly result in an approximate date like Chicago (note)? Is this something about the CMS styles, or is it something about Zotero?
  • nathan.hopson
    Looks like @adamsmith beat me to it. Yes, that's the question. Thank you!
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