# need feedback on handling footnoted citations

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/need-feedback-on-handling-footnoted-citations/902>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [October 30, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/need-feedback-on-handling-footnoted-citations/902 "2010-10-30T20:23:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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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 30, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/need-feedback-on-handling-footnoted-citations/902/1 "2010-10-30T20:23:36Z")

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This is mostly for Simon, I believe, but we’re talking about enhancing  
citeproc-hs integration with pandoc, and John came across some issues  
outlined here:

[http://groups.google.com/group/pandoc-discuss/browse\_frm/thread/43af3c7b89f8d16f](http://groups.google.com/group/pandoc-discuss/browse_frm/thread/43af3c7b89f8d16f)

The key bit has to do with punctuation issues when printing these  
footnoted citations:

> Here there are three problems:
> 
> - The footnote is missing a period, since the period was outside  
> of the citation
> - The period occurs after the footnote.
> - There is a space before the footnote.
> 
> It’s a bit hard to see how to resolve these issues, given that, when  
> pandoc is actually parsing the citation, it won’t know whether the  
> output is to be rendered using a footnote style or an author/date  
> style.

So how is this done in Zotero with citeproc-js?

On a related note, do we need to start a CSL API document somewhere,  
where we might address all these details?

Bruce

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**Author:** ![Simon\_Kornblith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Simon\_Kornblith](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Simon_Kornblith)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 6:23am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/need-feedback-on-handling-footnoted-citations/902/2 "2010-10-31T06:23:34Z")

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If I understand what you are saying correctly, the first problem isn’t actually an issue when the citations are formatted according to the style. Footnote styles code for a period at the end of the citation, while author-date styles don’t.

WRT the latter two problems, at the moment, we do nothing. In 1.0, the plug-in would automatically get rid of the space and switch the period around the punctuation if it was present, but I didn’t end up implementing this in the 3.0 series plug-ins. I was planning to add it back at some point, but I haven’t heard many requests for its return.

Simon

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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 31, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/need-feedback-on-handling-footnoted-citations/902/3 "2010-10-31T11:44:40Z")

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…

> If I understand what you are saying correctly, the first problem isn’t  
> actually an issue when the citations are formatted according to the style.  
> Footnote styles code for a period at the end of the citation, while  
> author-date styles don’t.

Right.

> WRT the latter two problems, at the moment, we do nothing. In 1.0, the  
> plug-in would automatically get rid of the space and switch the period  
> around the punctuation if it was present, but I didn’t end up implementing  
> this in the 3.0 series plug-ins. I was planning to add it back at some  
> point, but I haven’t heard many requests for its return.

Consider this a request 😉

What’s the best/easiest way to to code this conceptually?

Bruce