Instructions for contributors

alucet Jan 14, 2015 4:03:24 PM

In order to make this bibliography as useful as possible to international readers, we should make sure that:

  1.  references are as precise as possible (including page numbers, ISBN, language, etc.), including a link to either full text (when available) or library catalog entry (make sure you use the permanent link in this case). Importing references instead of typing manually all the information makes this much easier. On the other hand, some information is superfluous and should be removed or adapted when the reference is imported from a library catalog (this includes many tags which will be automatically added, the name of the country after the place of publishing when it is obvious, some information as the "signature" of a document in a specific catalog...).
  2. Tags should include the name of all authors/translators/editors etc. (written as "Name, First name"); the name of other persons discussed in the text ; the type of document when relevant (i.e. when not explicit in the type of item) ; the language (see next point) ; a minimal list of periods/concepts relevant for research on Landauer , and for some of Landauer´s texts, the signature he used. See the discussion concerning "Tags and notes".
  3. when a translation of a piece of work is available, then the main article should be tagged with the subsequent language too (tags for languages and in the reference blocks should be abridged as "en", "de", "it" etc., in order to avoid dissimilar spellings) and then the translation should appear in the bibliography as a separate reference (in the dedicated "Translations" folder, so as to avoid that several references with the same content should appear in the main category) and linked to the original text.
  4. when Landauer is mentioned in a text which is not directly dedicated to him, a note should be created mentioning the pages where his name appears, and if possible the content of this reference (if relevant, the exact quotation). See "Bibliography structure" for a discussion of this section.
  5. when an edited volume contains various chapters related to Landauer, they should all be listed (including page numbers) in a note. When these chapters are articles from different authors on Landauer, they should also be mentioned in a separate reference file (and they should then be related to the main book). As far as anthologies of texts by Landauer are concerned, it should be sufficient to add a note with the list of contents, and not to create a separate entry for each text, which might eventually create an excess of information.
alucet Jun 16, 2015 2:00:14 PM

A few specific issues:

  • Spelling titles: upper and lower cases. Various countries have different codes for spelling titles (e.g.: upper cases for most words in a title in English styles, as in Woodcock, George. Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1962). However, not every bibliographic style requires this, and Zotero is able to adapt automatically when creating a bibliography, depending on the style which has been chosen. Therefore, when filling in the item information, upper cases should only be used as in a normal sentence in the language in which it is written.
     
  • Spaces. Make sure no superflous space is included. We should choose to remove spaces surrouding dashes (e.g.: "1918-1919" and not "1918 - 1919"). Even when a language normally requires a space before a punctuation sign (e.g. before a colon in French), it should be removed: this can avoid problems when creating an edited library.
  • Punctuation marks. No field in the item information should end with a full stop. When there is a quotation within a title, the best way to make sure it will be properly exported when editing a library in any style and language is to put it between apostrophes (e.g. 'Aus der Scholle festem Grunde wächst dereinst die Freiheitsstunde'. Gustav Landauer und die Siedlungsbewegung; not "Aus der Scholle...; and not « Aus der Scholle...)
     
  • Preface authors.When automatically importing an item, any preface or postface author will generally appear as "Author". So as to avoid any confusion, I suggest we converted it into "Editor" if relevant, or simply remove the name and add a note stating that a preface was written by such or such person. (Of course, if the preface is particularly relevant to this bibliography, it should be a reference in itself, and it could also be stated in the field "Extra": "Preface by xxx").
  • Short titles. Can be very useful when the title of an item is particularly long. However, make sure it remains obvious (e.g. for studies on Landauer, better to avoid "Gustav Landauer" as short title because it could describe so many items), and do not feel you need to use this field whenever there is a doubt.
     

Problems with Item types:

  • Whole journal issues. When a whole issue of a journal is to be added to the library, the best solution (though not totally satisfactory) is to refer to it as a "Book", and the name of the journal should be written in the field "Series" (see for example: Landauer Gustav et Erich Mühsam, « Sei tapfer und wachse dich aus »: Gustav Landauer im Dialog mit Erich Mühsam. Briefe und Aufsätze, Lübeck, Erich-Mühsam-Gesellschaft, coll. « Schriften der Erich-Mühsam-Gesellschaft », n° 24, 2004.)
  • Journal articles / Newspaper articles. Although many items should be refered to as "Newspaper articles", I suggest we used the "Journal articles" type for newspapers such as Der Sozialist. The reason is that the "Newspaper article" type doesn't allow to state the "Jahrgang" and issue number (but they can be added in "Volume" and "Issue" when presenting the article as "Journal article"). For an example as "Journal article", see La Boétie, Étienne de. “Von der Freiwilligen Knechtschaft.” Translated by Gustav Landauer. Der Sozialist 2, no. 17 (1/9/1910): 130–34. For an example as "Newspaper article", see Landauer, Gustav. “Ueberschätzung der Wahlen.” Die Republik, 21/1/1919, Jg. 2, n° 21 (I only let this item as "Newspaper article" to give an example).