In-text citations keep putting in first names

rukhna
I've been at this for several hours. This shouldn't be this difficult...

All I've done is inserted in-text citations into my manuscript. But any author that has the same last name as another has their first name and middle initial put in the text. I've selected ASA style...which does not do this. I'm using MS Word.

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out the fix for this in forums, but could not find it. This must be a common issue. It would help us all if we could find a solution more easily. Thanks for your help.
  • Jon Rubin
    edited November 25, 2010
    The behaviour you're describing is standard disambiguation (and you can find plenty of discussion on it if you use this search term).

    If you are certain that ASA should not disambiguate, then you need to provide a link to some documentation saying that it should not disambiguate, as the main style file that everybody uses won't be changed on one person's say so.

    If, on the other hand you want a personal version of ASA that doesn't disambiguate, then you'd need to alter the csl style file for ASA, search for disambiguate and delete these two lines, should do it.
    <option name="disambiguate-add-names" value="true"/>
    <option name="disambiguate-add-givenname" value="true"/>

    But I'm still pretty sure that ASA should disambiguate. If it's really the same author and you don't want it to disambiguate, then you need to make sure the initials / first names are identical.
    Hope that helps.
  • rukhna
    Hi Jon,
    Thanks for your response. You're right, ASA does disambiguate, but not in the way that zotero is doing it. Here's what ASA requires:

    "When two authors in your reference list have the same last name, use identifying initial, as in (J. Smith 1990)."

    http://www.sagepub.com/journalsProdDesc.nav?ct_p=manuscriptSubmission&prodId=Journal201973

    I looked at some of ASA's academic journals and it seems either authors don't disambiguate at all or they do it as above.

    How can I change the code so that it matches the ASA requirement as above? Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    not currently possible - Zotero 2.1beta has more sophisticated disambiguation and will be able to do this - right now it's either all or nothing - the latter can be implemented as described by Jon above.
  • fbennett
    @adamsmith: Is it not possible to set initialize-with="." on the author name (in the macro author-short of the ASA style)?
  • adamsmith
    oops - I misread that - I thought it was about more sophisticated disambiguation.
    Just fixed it on the repository - this will show up in the "dev" section of the repository (not at the top with the pre-installed styles) any time soon - check the data next to the style.
    Update by clicking the "install" link.
  • Hazel Jackson 79
    PLEASE HELP

    I am having the same problem using the Harvard style. How can i fix this? I'm desperate..a large document is due in soon!!
  • adamsmith
    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation
  • Hazel Jackson 79
    Many thanks, that worked a treat!

    phew!!!
  • rukhna
    I'm trying to make it stop disambiguate all together. I followed the instructions fine (http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation ) except when I get to where it says drag into a firefox window and to click "install" ...there's nowhere that says "install." I'm stuck at that point.

    Thanks for your help.
  • adamsmith
    what exactly do you see at that point? If you see the style - is there a grey bar at the top? Which OS are you on? Have you made absolutely sure the actual extension is .csl and note .csl.txt?
  • rukhna
    Solved. It was the extension thing. I thought it was displayed b/c I'd typed .csl ... but after looking at the embedded link with instructions and making it actually display the extension, it was .csl.txt as you said. You guys rock! Thanks again. I'm loving zotero by the way ... so nice for organizing cites and docs.

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