Using Conditional Elements: Example 2

Here is another example of how using conditional elements in bibliography definitions can save a lot of time, and produce better results than you are likely to get without them.

In APA 5 (APA, Fifth Edition), like all of the author-date formats, in-text citations typically look something like this: (Smith, 1997). But things get more complicated, depending on the details of the reference. For example, these are also valid in-text citations in APA 5:

1. (Smith, Jones, Black, White, and Grey, 1996) for the first occurrence of a reference, and
2. (Smith et al., 1996) for the same reference in subsequent occurrences
3. ("Summer Solstice," 1972) when there are no authors for an article
4. (Western Slope Inns, 1981) when there are no authors for a book

There are many other variations, of course, but these will do for this example. Rather than talk about all of the details of APA in-text citations, I am going to focus on the use of different author list formats for the first and subsequent occurrences, and the substitution of titles for authors.

First, the rules for in-text citations are essentially the same for all reference types, so I created a component for the complete in-text citation that I then just use for all reference types. This means that I only have to get the details right in one place.

Next, just to keep things a little clearer in my head, I created a sub-component to handle the author names and titles. This component has four elements:

• One Primary Contributors element (like an Authors element, but see elsewhere for more information) with the proper name formatting for the first occurrence of a reference in a document (e.g., up to 5 authors, then et al.). This element is set ti be used only under the condition that this is the first occurrence of the reference in the document.
• A second Primary Contributor, with the name formatting set up properly for all subsequent occurrences (e.g., up to two authors, followed by et al.), and dependent upon it not being the first occurrence.
• An Article Title element to be included only if there are no primary contributors, but there is an article title.
• A Publication Title to be included only if there are no primary contributors and no article title.

That is really the core of the strategy. The component uses which ever version of the Primary Contributors element is appropriate in context (first occurrence or subsequent occurrence), and a fall-back cascade to use article title or publication title as appropriate if there are no primary contributors.

One side note, by using Primary Contributors instead of Authors, I automatically get whatever contributors are flagged as "primary." For most journal articles and books, this would be the authors. But for any reference where I have indicated that some other contributor should be considered "primary," those contributors will automatically be used both here in the in-text citation as well as in the bibliography. So when I decide to cite a particular recording by conductor rather than composer, the format automatically handles it for me.