# CSL in production chains?

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/csl-in-production-chains/1136>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [October 16, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/csl-in-production-chains/1136 "2012-10-16T23:01:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Frank\_Bennett](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/frank_bennett/32/198_2.png) [@Frank\_Bennett](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Frank_Bennett)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/csl-in-production-chains/1136/1 "2012-10-16T23:01:08Z")

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I have received a query about the use of CSL in production chains.

Does anyone know of publishers or publishing projects that encourage  
or require the use of CSL tools?

(I checked the FAQ on [http://citationstyles.org/faq](http://citationstyles.org/faq) and came up dry,  
but maybe there have been developments since the last revision of the  
page?)

Frank

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**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 11:06pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/csl-in-production-chains/1136/2 "2012-10-16T23:06:14Z")

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Is it even feasible to do that? I doubt it, since documents aren’t  
portable (they’ve have to mandate use of Zotero, or Mendeley).

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**Author:** ![Frank\_Bennett](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/frank_bennett/32/198_2.png) [@Frank\_Bennett](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Frank_Bennett)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/csl-in-production-chains/1136/3 "2012-10-16T23:22:01Z")

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> Is it even feasible to do that? I doubt it, since documents aren’t  
> portable (they’ve have to mandate use of Zotero, or Mendeley).

The specific use case is legal publication, which would indeed require  
a specific tool (MLZ).

Apart from initial manuscript preparation, CSL might be used by  
editors themselves to normalise citations and produce embedded  
citation data. We’d be interested in that experience as well, if it’s  
out there.

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**Author:** ![Robert\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@Robert\_Knight](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Robert_Knight)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 8:38am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/csl-in-production-chains/1136/4 "2012-10-17T08:38:34Z")

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Hello Frank,

We’ve had one or two inquiries from publishers who have created CSL  
styles on how to make them available  
to Mendeley users - I’ll have to check on the details.

This is about making it easier for users to create suitably formatted  
citations in word processor documents rather than  
using CSL on the production side of things though.

> I doubt it, since documents aren’t  
> portable (they’ve have to mandate use of Zotero, or Mendeley)

Mendeley and Zotero\* at least embed full citation data using a  
documented schema in Word documents -  
which could potentially be quite useful for compiling citation lists.

Regards,  
Rob.

- Last I looked, I think this is optional in Zotero?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Frank\_Bennett](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/frank_bennett/32/198_2.png) [@Frank\_Bennett](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Frank_Bennett)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 8:56am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/csl-in-production-chains/1136/5 "2012-10-17T08:56:38Z")

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> Hello Frank,
> 
> We’ve had one or two inquiries from publishers who have created CSL  
> styles on how to make them available  
> to Mendeley users - I’ll have to check on the details.
> 
> This is about making it easier for users to create suitably formatted  
> citations in word processor documents rather than  
> using CSL on the production side of things though.
> 
> > I doubt it, since documents aren’t  
> > portable (they’ve have to mandate use of Zotero, or Mendeley)
> 
> Mendeley and Zotero\* at least embed full citation data using a  
> documented schema in Word documents -  
> which could potentially be quite useful for compiling citation lists.
> 
> Regards,  
> Rob.
> 
> - Last I looked, I think this is optional in Zotero?

Yes, it’s an option (enabled by default IIRC).

The query I’ve had relates to legal styles, which can be a terrible  
pain to proof even for an experienced editor; the aim would mostly be  
to save time for author, editor or both through automation. (As you  
say, though, having structured cite data in the document opens up  
interesting possibilities as well.)

Frank

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Robert\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@Robert\_Knight](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Robert_Knight)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 9:29am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/csl-in-production-chains/1136/6 "2012-10-17T09:29:07Z")

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Hello Frank,

> The query I’ve had relates to legal styles, which can be a  
> terrible pain to proof even for an experienced editor; the aim would  
> mostly be to save time for author, editor or both through automation

Do the works being cited here usually have an identifier (eg. DOI)  
that would allow  
verifying the metadata?

Regards,  
Rob.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Frank\_Bennett](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/frank_bennett/32/198_2.png) [@Frank\_Bennett](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Frank_Bennett)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 11:25am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/csl-in-production-chains/1136/7 "2012-10-17T11:25:40Z")

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> Hello Frank,
> 
> > The query I’ve had relates to legal styles, which can be a  
> > terrible pain to proof even for an experienced editor; the aim would  
> > mostly be to save time for author, editor or both through automation
> 
> Do the works being cited here usually have an identifier (eg. DOI)  
> that would allow  
> verifying the metadata?
> 
> Regards,  
> Rob.

Funny you should ask. None of the commercial legal information  
providers in the US market provide structured metadata of any kind in  
their pages, and there are no unique identifiers (yet) for court  
judgements. That could change in the near future, but not for legacy  
material. The national information infrastructure for law is still  
astonishingly 1980’s for the most part.