De Buck citation style

Hi,
I have a problem with changing the format of the De Buck style.
1. First, it struck me that almost all styles sort the title of an author in a bibliography in alphabetical order. De Buck is no exception and I would like to change that to a chronological order.
2. Secondly, most styles (e.g. MHRA) change automatically the first letters of key words in a title to capitals if it is indicated that it concerns an English title. However, De Buck doesn't do that.
3. Thirdly, I would like that De Buck adds 'dl.' of 'vol.' if it the title is part of a work of several volumes.
I am sorry that I don't know how exactly to change the code of the De Buck style to obtain the desired output so I hope you can help.
Best wishes,
Mario
  • What does the style guidelines say regarding this? Can you share a link that showcases this behaviour?
  • I only see links to the style, no actual guidelines.
  • The guidelines are in a book in Dutch which is not in line. In fact, the current stylesheet is in some respects already not in line with the 'original' (e.g. the incorporation of the publisher is not in the original guidelines). So I propose we move on or create a separate stylesheet?
  • A style should be correct, so your suggestion of creating a second style is not what we want.

    You can try contacting the creator of the style to make an update.
    https://www.zotero.org/styles/de-buck?source=1
    (not Rintze, as he basically stopped working on CSL)
  • edited February 25, 2026
    Hi,
    I am trying to change (again...) the De Buck style. I want that the bibliography also gives multiple years of a publication (e.g. 1980-1982) but it generates only the first year (1980). So I have tried to change the code like this but that does not work. Do you have any tips?


    <macro name="issued">
    <choose>
    <if type="graphic report article-newspaper personal_communication speech" match="any">
    <date variable="issued">
    <date-part name="day" suffix=" "/>
    <date-part name="month" suffix=" "/>
    <date-part name="year" range-delimiter="-"/>
    </date>
    </if>
    <else-if type="book">
    <text variable="issued"/>
    </else-if>
    <else>
    <date variable="issued">
    <date-part name="year" range-delimiter="-"/>
    </date>
    </else>
    </choose>
    </macro>
  • edited February 25, 2026
    sorry it seems that I cannot copy the code?: <macro name="issued">
    <choose>
    <if type="graphic report article-newspaper personal_communication speech" match="any">
    <date variable="issued">
    <date-part name="day" suffix=" "/>
    <date-part name="month" suffix=" "/>
    <date-part name="year" range-delimiter="-"/>
    </date>
    </if>
    <else-if type="book">
    <text variable="issued"/>
    </else-if>
    <else>
    <date variable="issued">
    <date-part name="year" range-delimiter="-"/>
    </date>
    </else>
    </choose>
    </macro>

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u33882/5ndfkuuzgzrz66h6kod5.png
  • I'd guess the issue is how you enter the date in Zotero. The Zotero date field can't handle date ranges. It'd need to be entered as Issued: 1980/1982 in the Extra field.
  • That is strange... so many published sources have a number of volumes, published in different year. The extra field does not work; zotero does not include it in the citation
  • This definitely works, including in the current De Buck style. You need to enter the data exactly as in my post in the grey box: it needs to be preceded by "Issued:" and the start and end date separated with a /
  • Yes you are right! Thx!
    Although it gives an en-dash but ok we can get over that....
  • And now I am in direct contact with you: there is another issue which is not incorporated in the De Buck style: the number of volumes of a work. I have tried to copy that from the MHRA style but that gives several errors. Do you have a way to come around that?
  • en-dashes are almost always typographically correct for ranges (pages, years, other numbers).

    For number of volumes, I don't know how they're supposed to look for De Buck. The relevant code for the bibliography is in the volume macro:

    <macro name="volume">
    <choose>
    <if type="article-journal">
    <text variable="volume"/>
    </if>
    <else>
    <text variable="volume" form="short"/>
    </else>
    </choose>
    </macro>


    You'd have to edit it there after the else, so something like
    <else>
    <group delimiter=" ">
    <text variable="volume" form="short"/>
    <text variable="number-of-volumes" prefix="of "/>
    </group>
    </else>


    (adjust accordingly by adding the right prefix etc.

  • So something like this in MHRA style:
    Morand, François (ed.), Chronique de Jean le Fèvre, seigneur de Saint-Remy, 2 vols (Parijs: Renouard, 1876–1881).
  • <else>
    <group delimiter=" ">
    <number variable="number-of-volumes"/>
    <text term="volume" form="short" plural="always"/>
    </group>
    </else>
  • THis is very helpful!
    Final point: a komma right after the title and before the nr of volumes. Now it looks like
    Morand, François ed., Chronique de Jean le Fèvre, seigneur de Saint-Remy , 2 vols. (Parijs 1876–1881).
    so with an extra space which I don't want there..
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