# Implementation MHRA note w/o bibliography

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/implementation-mhra-note-w-o-bibliography/516>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [October 25, 2008, 9:08am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/implementation-mhra-note-w-o-bibliography/516 "2008-10-25T09:08:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/rintze_zelle/32/175_2.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 9:08am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/implementation-mhra-note-w-o-bibliography/516/1 "2008-10-25T09:08:26Z")

</div>

I’ve started to rewrite the MHRA note w/o bibliography style in 'modern’  
CSL, but have come across some issues with the MHRA guide (  
[http://www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Books/StyleGuide/download.shtml](http://www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Books/StyleGuide/download.shtml)) I was  
unable to implement:

- instead of “et al.”, “and others” is used in case of more than 3 authors.  
Can I specify that the “et al.” term should be replaced by the "and others"  
term?
- can I specify that a variable should be enclosed by single quotes instead  
of double quotes (as in “”)?
- I don’t seem able to specify the strings “trans. by” and “ed. by” to  
indicate translators and editors. gives "trans"  
and “ed”, while gives “translated by” and “edited by”.
- MHRA states that in case the first edition is cited, the edition does not  
have to be listed. Is it possible to check the value of a field in a  
conditional? So that when the edition field contains the value 1, the  
edition field output is skipped? The same goes for volumes (in case a work  
consists of only one volume, the number of volumes doesn’t have to be  
listed).
- “edn” is used as the abbreviated form of edition, but isn’t available from  
within CSL. The MHRA note with bibliography style solved this with  
hard-coding, but that’s clearly not optimal.

Rintze

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**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/rintze_zelle/32/175_2.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 11:02am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/implementation-mhra-note-w-o-bibliography/516/2 "2008-10-26T11:02:13Z")

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I already solved some things on my own:

- can I specify that a variable should be enclosed by single quotes instead

> of double quotes (as in “”)?

For now I just use a prefix and suffix.

- instead of “et al.”, “and others” is used in case of more than 3 authors.

> Can I specify that the “et al.” term should be replaced by the “and others”  
> term?
> 
> - I don’t seem able to specify the strings “trans. by” and “ed. by” to  
> indicate translators and editors. gives “trans”  
> and “ed”, while gives “translated by” and “edited by”.
> - “edn” is used as the abbreviated form of edition, but isn’t available  
> from within CSL. The MHRA note with bibliography style solved this with  
> hard-coding, but that’s clearly not optimal.

I discovered the possibility to define your own locale-dependent terms,  
which solves all three issues quite nicely.

Rintze

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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 26, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/implementation-mhra-note-w-o-bibliography/516/3 "2008-10-26T20:54:06Z")

</div>

> I’ve started to rewrite the MHRA note w/o bibliography style in ‘modern’  
> CSL, but have come across some issues with the MHRA guide  
> ([http://www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Books/StyleGuide/download.shtml](http://www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Books/StyleGuide/download.shtml)) I was  
> unable to implement:
> 
> - instead of “et al.”, “and others” is used in case of more than 3 authors.  
> Can I specify that the “et al.” term should be replaced by the “and others”  
> term?
> - can I specify that a variable should be enclosed by single quotes instead  
> of double quotes (as in “”)?

Is this by any case a locale-specific issue?

…

> - MHRA states that in case the first edition is cited, the edition does not  
> have to be listed. Is it possible to check the value of a field in a  
> conditional? So that when the edition field contains the value 1, the  
> edition field output is skipped? The same goes for volumes (in case a work  
> consists of only one volume, the number of volumes doesn’t have to be  
> listed).

I’ve never used it, but look into the number related conditional that  
I believe Julian requested.

> - “edn” is used as the abbreviated form of edition, but isn’t available from  
> within CSL.

Is there any reason not to add this as a term?

Bruce

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/rintze_zelle/32/175_2.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 9:06am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/implementation-mhra-note-w-o-bibliography/516/4 "2008-10-27T09:06:50Z")

</div>

> > - can I specify that a variable should be enclosed by single quotes  
> > instead  
> > of double quotes (as in “”)?
> 
> Is this by any case a locale-specific issue?

Uhm. Yes. The MHRA website is [http://www.mhra.org.uk](http://www.mhra.org.uk), so I guess the style  
is British.

> > - MHRA states that in case the first edition is cited, the edition does  
> > not  
> > have to be listed. Is it possible to check the value of a field in a  
> > conditional? So that when the edition field contains the value 1, the  
> > edition field output is skipped? The same goes for volumes (in case a  
> > work  
> > consists of only one volume, the number of volumes doesn’t have to be  
> > listed).
> 
> I’ve never used it, but look into the number related conditional that  
> I believe Julian requested.

Did you refer to the following thread?:  
[http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg\_id=52C37979-8F51-4D7D-82B8-96CAE5C5C9B7%40simonster.com](http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=52C37979-8F51-4D7D-82B8-96CAE5C5C9B7%40simonster.com)  
But no support for number related conditionals has been implemented as of  
yet, right?

> - “edn” is used as the abbreviated form of edition, but isn’t available  
> from
> 
> > within CSL.
> 
> Is there any reason not to add this as a term?

I did (when I wrote the first email of this thread I didn’t know yet how one  
could define custom terms).

Rintze