# new case

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/new-case/907>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [November 8, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/new-case/907 "2010-11-08T14:40:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**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:** [November 8, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/new-case/907/1 "2010-11-08T14:40:39Z")

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I think we’re going to need to add this, in a suitably general way:

[http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15080/composite-references/](http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15080/composite-references/)

I think we need a way to flexibly print the index of a multi-reference  
citation item.

Bruce

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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:** [November 8, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/new-case/907/2 "2010-11-08T16:19:42Z")

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I guess we need:

a) a variable that holds the index of the citation group, which can be used  
in cs:citation instead of “citation-number” (e.g. “citation-group-number”)  
b) a variable that holds the index of the items in each bibliography group  
(we could repurpose “citation-number” for this, but a separate variable  
might be clearer)  
c) an additional value for the “form” attribute on cs:number, “letters”  
(giving “a”, “b”, “c”, etc.), to go with addition (b)

I’m not sure what changes are required to support the additional level of  
hierarchy in the bibliography, though, as I expect there will be some issues  
with cs:layout and prefixes/suffixes.

Rintze

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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:** [November 8, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/new-case/907/3 "2010-11-08T21:11:05Z")

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> I think we’re going to need to add this, in a suitably general way:
> 
> [http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15080/composite-references/](http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15080/composite-references/)
> 
> I think we need a way to flexibly print the index of a multi-reference  
> citation item.

The examples given in the forum thread are footnotes, or multi-item  
bibliography entries?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [November 8, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/new-case/907/4 "2010-11-08T21:14:09Z")

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The latter. I believe it’s a numeric style at root.

Bruce

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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:** [November 8, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/new-case/907/5 "2010-11-08T21:46:00Z")

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The paper at  
[http://www.hechtlab.de/projects/HechtLab/static/custom/reprints/2010%20Chemistry.pdfshows](http://www.hechtlab.de/projects/HechtLab/static/custom/reprints/2010%20Chemistry.pdfshows)  
more complications, as in-text citations can apparently also refer to  
a single item in a citation-group or to multiple citation-groups (see e.g.  
“supramolecular architectures,[1b] optoelectronic[1b, 4] and magnetic[5]  
materials” and “in coordination chemistry.[9, 11]”). In addition, the  
bibliography is extensively annotated.

Even if CSL were to support all this, the word processor plug-ins would need  
a lot of work for this one.

Rintze

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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:** [November 8, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/new-case/907/6 "2010-11-08T21:51:26Z")

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I guess the most important thing to note here is that some bibliographic  
entries don’t contain any bibliographic references (e.g. numbers 42-44).

Rintze

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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:** [November 9, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/new-case/907/7 "2010-11-09T00:58:37Z")

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> The paper at  
> [http://www.hechtlab.de/projects/HechtLab/static/custom/reprints/2010%20Chemistry.pdf](http://www.hechtlab.de/projects/HechtLab/static/custom/reprints/2010%20Chemistry.pdf)  
> shows more complications, as in-text citations can apparently also refer to  
> a single item in a citation-group or to multiple citation-groups (see e.g.  
> “supramolecular architectures,[1b] optoelectronic[1b, 4] and magnetic[5]  
> materials” and “in coordination chemistry.[9, 11]”). In addition, the  
> bibliography is extensively annotated.
> 
> Even if CSL were to support all this, the word processor plug-ins would need  
> a lot of work for this one.

At first blush, it looks like this would be ridiculously difficult to  
implement. The bibliography has some attributes of a bibliography  
(i.e. the numbers and leaf-numbers point at bibliographic entries),  
and some attributes of a note style (i.e. there are multiple items  
under each heading).

While I’m generally up for a challenge, on this occasion I vote that  
we let the chemists sort this one out.