Kindle or Perlego edition doesn't format correctly for SBL style

Adding 'Medium: Kindle' in the Extra field, or adding 'Kindle edition' to the Edition field, doesn't result in the correct ebook format for SBL, when using the SBL 2 style sheet. It is necessary to manually move the 'Kindle edition' from before the publisher's details to after it in the footnote, and to manually move it to the end of the citation in the bibliography. The result should look like this (SBL 2nd ed. 6.2.25):

14. Henning Graf Reventlow, From the Old Testament to Origen. Vol. 1 of History of Biblical Interpretation, trans. Leo G. Perdue (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), Nook edition, ch. 1.3.

18. Reventlow, From the Old Testament to Origen, ch. 1.3.

Reventlow, Henning Graf. From the Old Testament to Origen. Volume 1 of History of Biblical Interpretation. Translated by Leo G. Perdue. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009. Nook edition.

Are there any suggestions, or plans to address the need for an ebook format that would help?

Or is it possible to manually edit the style sheet to produce this result? (I'm not very proficient to make such major changes to style sheet coding myself, but could give it a go if pointed in the right direction.)
  • +1

    Also, not sure how to change the style sheet either. Any tech savvy folks out there who can help us with this?
  • I thought that I'd follow up on the posts today and try a few things to see if I could find a suitable workaround, especially since I've an essay to do soon. I began with a suggestion from a friend, which was to use the URL field for the electronic edition.

    If we put "Nook edition" in the URL field, and then use the suffix field (with a blank page number) for the location, adding a comma and space: ", ch. 1.3" (or a longer chapter and section text instead of chapter and number), the citation and bibliography are exactly what are needed for SBL2 using the current SBL2 Zotero style sheet.

    [That is, aside from a few other differences. The Zotero SBL2 stylesheet puts the translator in the wrong position in both the citation and the bibliography entries. And the volume number is inserted in the second short citation when SBL2 doesn't require it. The capitalisation of "vol." is different too, but that is very minor. Yet, I doubt if the rare instances of use of translators and volumes would matter too much for student essay submissions, although I imagine they would for books and journals.]


    Here's the extract from SBL2 (note that I can't show the title of the book or series in italics here, as it is in the SBL2 [6.2.25 Electronic Book]):

    14. Henning Graf Reventlow, From the Old Testament to Origen. Vol. 1 of History of Biblical Interpretation, trans. Leo G. Perdue (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), Nook edition, ch. 1.3.

    18. Reventlow, From the Old Testament to Origen, ch. 1.3.

    Reventlow, Henning Graf. From the Old Testament to Origen. Volume 1 of History of Biblical Interpretation. Translated by Leo G. Perdue. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009. Nook edition.



    Here is how it looks in Microsoft Word with SBL2 stylesheet:

    14 Henning Graf Reventlow, From the Old Testament to Origen, trans. Leo G. Perdue, vol. 1 of History of Biblical Interpretation (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), Nook edition, ch. 1.3.

    18 Reventlow, From the Old Testament to Origen, vol. 1, ch. 1.3.

    Reventlow, Henning Graf. From the Old Testament to Origen. Translated by Leo G. Perdue. Vol. 1 of History of Biblical Interpretation. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009. Nook edition.



    The URL is needed for some resources, such as online only journals. However, since they are simply online rather than Perlego or Nook editions, there is no conflict between using the URL field for this workaround.

    This is only a temporary workaround, but one that is helpful for student essays, as it avoids having to manually edit footnotes or bibliographies.
  • Please look at the style I provided. No workaround needed.
  • edited August 8, 2024
    Ah, I didn't realise that your link was a modified style to be downloaded. I thought you were pointing the previous poster to the existing stylesheet code to try to edit it.

    However, having just tried it out, I found that it doesn't work as needed. Here are the results in Word when I put "Nook edition" into the Edition field:


    14 Henning Graf Reventlow, From the Old Testament to Origen, trans. Leo G. Perdue, Nook edition., vol. 1 of History of Biblical Interpretation (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), chap. 1.3.

    18 Reventlow, From the Old Testament to Origen, vol. 1, chap. 1.3.

    Reventlow, Henning Graf. From the Old Testament to Origen. Translated by Leo G. Perdue. Nook edition. Vol. 1 of History of Biblical Interpretation. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009.


    Should I put "Nook edition" somewhere else for it to work as you have intended?
  • The edition field is for the edition.
    My style is programmed to use the medium field.
  • That's brilliant. I've got that working now. Thanks.
    I did note, however, that if there are multiple lines in the Extra field, I need to put "Medium: Nook edition" as the first line. It wasn't picked up when it was the third line. That's a far better solution moving forward than my workaround. Thanks again.
  • That should just work, with several things. Share the contents of your extra field and we can actually tell you what's wrong
  • Each time I move the "Medium..." line to the bottom of the three, it doesn't pick it up.

    Although when I use other modifiers in the Extra field, at the bottom of the other content, there's never a problem, as you note there shouldn't be.

    Here are the entries in the Extra field.

    Medium: Nook edition
    OCLC: 913025172
    Citation Key: reventlowHistoryBiblicalInterpretation2009a
  • edited August 8, 2024
    thank you, damnation!

    I understand that this style will work off the medium field. However, after installing the citation style, I can't see an option to select a medium which is ebook/kindle/epub/or the like. Or is there a way that I can type a medium field? Sorry to bother you with such a silly question
  • Scroll to the bottom of the list of fields and you'll see the Extra field. Add a line in the Extra field with the following (changing the text after the colon and space to suit the resource concerned):

    Medium: Nook edition

    Then click on any other field so that that is then saved. If you have other items in the Extra field, I have found that this line needs to be above all the others.
  • Oh I see - thank you!
  • Oh that works a treat! Oh wonderful thank you so much!
Sign In or Register to comment.