Upgrade StorageAPA7th: Disambiguation override rule for works with 3+ authors and same year
I am frustrated by the APA 7th ed. disambiguation override rule handling multiple works with three or more authors and the same publication year, which would (without applying this rule) shorten to the same in-text citation form. For details, please see https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/same-year-first-author
APA 7th ed. demands to "write out as many names as needed to distinguish the references", plus a special case distinction depending on whether that rule would leave one or more authors unreferenced.
Therefore, the in-text citation is even more context-dependent (and complex) than the well-known case of with identical author/year, which is disambiguated using suffixes ("a", "b" etc).
In an ideal world, Zotero would detect whether such a collision exists within a collection (or based on the entries the user selects at once) and create a citation that depends on the collection (or the other user-selected sources).
Can anyone recommend a workflow or life hack to make handling such cases in Zotero easier?
APA 7th ed. demands to "write out as many names as needed to distinguish the references", plus a special case distinction depending on whether that rule would leave one or more authors unreferenced.
Therefore, the in-text citation is even more context-dependent (and complex) than the well-known case of with identical author/year, which is disambiguated using suffixes ("a", "b" etc).
In an ideal world, Zotero would detect whether such a collision exists within a collection (or based on the entries the user selects at once) and create a citation that depends on the collection (or the other user-selected sources).
Can anyone recommend a workflow or life hack to make handling such cases in Zotero easier?
Zotero/CSL’s APA style implements APA’s disambiguation rules correctly.*
* The sole exception is that Zotero/CSL will still use “et al” to replace a single author if two citations have identical authors up until the second to last—APA’s characterization that “et al” is inherently plural is incorrect and APA’s unique handling of et al substitution for a single author isn’t something Zotero’s citation processor can handle).
Williams, R. I., Jr., Raffo, D. M., Clark, W. R., & Clark, L. A. (2023). A systematic review of leader credibility: Its murky framework needs clarity. Management Review Quarterly, 73(4), 1751–1794. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-022-00285-6
Williams, R., Jr., Clark, W. R., Raffo, D. M., & Clark, L. A. (2023). Building leader credibility: Guidance drawn from literature. Journal of Management Development, 42(2), 106–124. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-09-2022-0230
Zotero citation output, identical for both:
(Williams et al., 2023) and (Williams et al., 2023).
Which is correct - until you use both sources in the same text. Then, the discussed APA 7th ed. rule demands:
(Williams, Raffo, et al., 2023) and (Williams, Clark, et al., 2023).
As I wrote, this is a (IMO highly unpractical) context-dependent rule, which causes *a lot* of work for non-trivial longer texts. And this is only the "simple" base case, the tweaked "et al." extension of the rule complicates things even more.
- Standalone Zotero on Win.
- Select a collection.
- Mark all required sources
- Richt-click, select "Create Bibliography from Items"
- Select Output mode "Citations"
- Hit "Ok"