Add standalone author name

daniel.r
It seems currently not possible but it is important to be able to refer to the name of an author using Zotero. Here is why:

With some citation styles, e.g. Chicago author-year, Zotero adds the initials to an author name in order to distinguish between authors with the same last name, e.g.

(A. Miller 2000) and (B. Miller 2000).

Now, if one adds an author name manually and does not know (does not remember, it is only later the case) that there is (or will be) an additional author with that name, then the reference becomes ambiguous. So, it is important that the initials are added in such cases.

Hence having Zotero take care of this seems quite important. Though I don't know whether there are any particular problems for implementing this.

And if this feature is added, why not make it also a bit more comfortable to add other kinds of citations. It is extremely common to write both an author name and the year successively, e.g.

A. Miller (2000)

It would be great to let the user not only choose name or year but also this common combination of name and year.

Another would be the title with the correct typesetting according to the citation style.
  • adamsmith
    The second version of the feature request (i.e. automating narrative citations in the form A. Miller (2000)) has been long requested and is generally in the works, though it does pose some more complex issues that have delayed implementation so far, so no ETA.
  • aborel
    I'm not sure I understand the 1st request. Isn't it already handled by the relevant styles?
  • daniel.r
    The first request is also about using the author name in text as is the second. But, I take it, sometimes the author name is not immediately followed by the year hence the combination of author name and year will only give the reader a unique reference if the initials are added to the name as needed. Does that clarify the first request?

    Generally, I would suggest Biblatex as a good guide to useful citation types. For many, it seems like the current gold standard.
  • daniel.r
    @adamsmith, since I seem to be asking in part for features that are already in the works, is there a list if those somewhere? I don't want to bother people unnecessarily.
  • aborel
    edited 17 days ago
    I still don't get it. The way I understand things, the 1st request is already covered by the existing name disambiguation mechanism for in-text citations https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation

    This is implemented in the citation styles, when the guidelines for a specific style require it. Some styles will want this behavior, some will not.

    I might be missing your point, feel free to elaborate!
  • daniel.r
    Yes, you can get "(A. Miller 2000)". But you cannot get "A. Miller" (without the brackets and year) and you cannot get "A. Miller (2000)". In both latter cases, you would have to manually take care of adding the initials just in case they are needed. Does that make sense?

  • aborel
    edited 17 days ago
    Thanks, I see.
    So basically, the functionality that you require actually already exists. The missing part is to let the user choose variants such as (name year), name (year), etc.
  • daniel.r
    That is right.

    It seemed to me that the step from having the functionality to choosing which parts of a citation to omit (or format differently) would not be large, in particular since the author name omission is already implemented. Unfortunately, I was wrong...
  • daniel.r
    I guess you know this, but I just checked Mendeley and they have the options I mentioned:

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u4723337/x7bp1kjuq871tddiieft.png
  • adamsmith
    edited 14 days ago
    Yeah, but my understanding is that it breaks left&right as you switch between the different citation style types.

    I also don't think it handles APA correctly
  • daniel.r
    edited 13 days ago
    I see that it does not handle '&' vs 'and'. I found the github discussion for this and put it here for reference:

    https://github.com/zotero/zotero/issues/1580

    By the way, Biblatex seems to handle it correctly. Maybe something could be learned from the way they implemented it?

    Edit

    I saw that there was discussion on handling multiple citations, etc. That seems to be handled properly in Biblatex as well, e.g.

    (Miller 2000; Jones 2001)

    will be

    Miller (2000) and Jones (2001)

    which seems correct to my mind.
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