Mixed types of names and et al.

Olaf.Mandel
A short question if this is a bug or a feature: I have an entry that contains several authors (first and last name for each) and one author that only has a single name (either entered as a single-field entry in the database or as a last name with the first name left blank. In the Zotero Firefox plugin, this is displayed correctly as "Firstauthor et al.". But when using a CSL file for output, the list of authors gets shortened to "Firstauthor et al., Groupname".

This seems to happen with every CSL that has a sufficiently low et-al-min, for example Nature or Modern Language Association or American Political Science Association, ...

If there are more single-element authors (i.e. large teams) after that, the list becomes:
"Firstauthor et al., Groupname1 and Groupname2, Groupname3, Groupname4"

Bug or feature?
  • fbennett
    Feature, although it may need some lobbying on my part to get there.

    (If you want the single-element name to render as a person rather than an institution, try putting the name in the firstname field rather than the last.)
  • Olaf.Mandel
    Using the first name works, thanks.

    In general, if this is (or will become) a desired feature, wouldn't it also be useful to be able to switch this off (e.g. for my name-label citations)? An attribute to the name or the names tag might be possible...

    In any case: my custom CSL now does what I want and you have helped me a lot with it, fbennett. Thank you very much!
  • fbennett
    Yes, this pushes the refinement of names just about as far as it can go without tearing into the user interface.

    Very glad to hear that the style is working correctly for you -- thank you for your patience, this early feedback very important to the launch.

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