MLA: include citation of special issue

[felixhelix]

Hi,
we're using OJS for our journals. Some of them have special issues. According to MLA the title of the special issue should be given: https://style.mla.org/how-do-i-cite-a-special-issue-of-a-journal/

I already adapted the modern-language-association.csl locally, but thought it would be better to make this a permanent change in the repo.

Two other things I noticed:

• Author given names are always abbreviated, but should be spelled out
• The punctuation mark at the end of the title should be within the quotes, not after
  See the example give here
  https://style.mla.org/works-cited/works-cited-a-quick-guide/article

I was able to locally change the first topic, but have so far no idea how to address the second one.

Shall I make a pull request or just post my solution here?

Yours,
Felix

[denismaier]

I haven't checked, but if this MLA wants issue titles, then this should be in the official style. A PR would be great.

Regarding the other issues:

Author given names are always abbreviated, but should be spelled out

I think that should be the case. The relevant macro renders name with the appropriate setting (`initialize="false"):

<macro name="author">
    <names variable="author">
      <name name-as-sort-order="first" and="text" delimiter-precedes-last="always" delimiter-precedes-et-al="always" initialize="false" initialize-with=". "/>
      <label form="long" prefix=", "/>
      <substitute>
        <names variable="editor"/>
        <names variable="translator"/>
        <text macro="title"/>
      </substitute>
    </names>
  </macro>

The punctuation mark at the end of the title should be within the quotes, not after

That's a locale dependent setting. And it should actually be the case, at least if the locale is set to en-us.

You're using OJS so you may want to check whether this is a citeproc-php bug.

[felixhelix]

Thanks @denismaier for response!

The problem with the punctuation mark seems indeed to be a problem of citeproc-php: seboettg/citeproc-php#101

In the case of initialization: if I omit initialize-with in the CSL, then the name is rendered correctly by citeproc-php. So my question is: If we set initialize="false", what do we need initialize-with=". " for? Can we not just remove this?

Your's
Felix

[denismaier]

Check the specs:

initialize
When set to “false” (the default is “true”), given names are no longer initialized when “initialize-with” is set. However, the value of “initialize-with” is still added after initials present in the full name (e.g. with initialize set to “false”, and initialize-with set to “.”, “James T Kirk” becomes “James T. Kirk”).

initialize-with
When set, given names are converted to initials. The attribute value is added after each initial (“.” results in “J. J. Doe”). For compound given names (e.g. “Jean-Luc”), hyphenation of the initials can be controlled with the global initialize-with-hyphen option (see Hyphenation of Initialized Names).

[felixhelix]

Thanks @denismaier this makes it clear. Sorry for not checking the specs first.
Your's
Felix

[felixhelix]

Another question, however:

Together with the title, the phrase "special issue of" needs to be displayed. Since this, i.m.h.o., is not subject to translation–as the MLA format is restricted to English publications–is it apt to add the phrase to the locale section of the style?

Your's
Felix

[denismaier]

In CSL 1.0.2 there's already a term special-issue. Can this be used here?

[felixhelix]

I'm not sure:

For once, MLA style suggests the additional preposition "of", as in "special issue of The Medieval History Journal", whereas the entry for special-issue is "special issue" only. So there would be the need for a new term special-issue-of.

And second, I'm not sure what the use case for the MLA style is, but I suggest that it is books or unpublished papers (such as papers for seminars) written in English only. As such, it must not be translated, even if the user is requesting the stile with a "de" locale.

But I don't know what good practice is in this case. I only saw that there are some terms defined in the MLA template already for xml:lang="en" and thought it would be convenient to just add this specific piece of text.

[denismaier]

For once, MLA style suggests the additional preposition "of", as in "special issue of The Medieval History Journal", whereas the entry for special-issue is "special issue" only. So there would be the need for a new term special-issue-of.

I see. What do you think about this @bwiernik? Would that warrant for a new term?

And second, I'm not sure what the use case for the MLA style is, but I suggest that it is books or unpublished papers (such as papers for seminars) written in English only. As such, it must not be translated, even if the user is requesting the stile with a "de" locale.

No, that's not the case. MLA is locale dependent, so if a document locale is "de", terms will be localized. (Other styles don't take the document locale into account, but MLA does.)

But I don't know what good practice is in this case. I only saw that there are some terms defined in the MLA template already for xml:lang="en" and thought it would be convenient to just add this specific piece of text.

You can use the locale section in a style to override the defaults defined in the locale files, but you won't be able to add non-standard terms. (I haven't tested how the different citeprocs behave in this regard, they probably won't perform validation of terms. E.g. pandoc's citeproc does not, and it might be that citeproc-php doesn't either. But you won't be able to add a style with non-standard additions to the style repo.)

[bwiernik]

My preference would be for a separate of term, but not sure how applicable that is for non-European locales.

But also not sure that's necessary.

With the current set of terms, I suggest redefining the term in the style to "special issue of"

[felixhelix]

@bwiernik Would that imply that the term special-issue needs to be redefined in the style for every language?

[denismaier]

Would that imply that the term special-issue needs to be redefined in the style for every language?

Yes.