# Periods in journal abbreviations

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/periods-in-journal-abbreviations/578>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [March 22, 2009, 9:51am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/periods-in-journal-abbreviations/578 "2009-03-22T09:51:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle1)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 9:51am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/periods-in-journal-abbreviations/578/1 "2009-03-22T09:51:14Z")

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Some style guides require journal abbrevations with periods, others without  
(e.g. “Nat. Cell Biol.” vs. “Nat Cell Biol”, see  
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=journals&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=21417](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=journals&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=21417)),  
although the abbrevation itself is the same. As removing periods is easier  
than adding them (as in the example Cell shouldn’t receive a period), I made  
the choice to use the journal abbreviations with periods in all the entries  
of my Zotero library. The only caveat here is that I don’t have an easy way  
to remove the periods if needed. Is there a possible addition to CSL to  
facilitate this? I can think of the following:

- allow multiple abbreviation fields. This would require more input from the  
user, and clear ways to call a certain abbreviation type from within CSL  
styles.
- allow automatic conversion of abbreviation fields in the CSL  
implementations (e.g. strip/add periods). Adding periods would require some  
knowledge on which words shouldn’t receive a period, but removing periods  
should be relatively easy, although I don’t know what kind of syntax that  
could take: maybe some kind of strip-command could be added, e.g. .

Any thoughts?

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:** [March 22, 2009, 12:16pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/periods-in-journal-abbreviations/578/2 "2009-03-22T12:16:52Z")

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This has come up before.

[http://sourceforge.net/search/index.php?group\_id=117435&search\_subject=1&search\_body=1&type\_of\_search=mlists&all\_words=&exact\_phrase=strip+period&some\_word=&without\_words=&ml\_name[]=xbiblio-devel&posted\_date\_start=&posted\_date\_end=&form\_submit=Search](http://sourceforge.net/search/index.php?group_id=117435&search_subject=1&search_body=1&type_of_search=mlists&all_words=&exact_phrase=strip+period&some_word=&without_words=&ml_name%5B%5D=xbiblio-devel&posted_date_start=&posted_date_end=&form_submit=Search)

Do you think you can read through those threads and come back with a  
(potentially revised) proposal?

Bruce2009/3/22 Rintze Zelle \<@Rintze\_Zelle1\>:

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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:** [March 22, 2009, 12:18pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/periods-in-journal-abbreviations/578/3 "2009-03-22T12:18:31Z")

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Actually, this is the only thread:

[http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg\_id=0BB1DD0A-287B-483C-958D-0131B8FDFCEC%40simonster.com](http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=0BB1DD0A-287B-483C-958D-0131B8FDFCEC%40simonster.com)

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:** [March 22, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/periods-in-journal-abbreviations/578/4 "2009-03-22T14:26:45Z")

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If I read that thread correctly, what’s concluded is that this might be a  
possible solution (which is a bit more elegant than my previous proposal):

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:** [May 23, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/periods-in-journal-abbreviations/578/5 "2009-05-23T18:35:32Z")

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Hi Bruce,

Have you got any opinion on this one? Having the data from  
[http://periodicals.dataincubator.org/.html](http://periodicals.dataincubator.org/.html) will only supply matching between  
full and abbreviated journal titles, and doesn’t help distinguishing between  
multiple abbreviations per journal. But most of the variation is in the use  
of periods, and thus a way to strip periods would be a very valuable and  
simple to implement (intermediate) solution. You expressed some concern that  
this shouldn’t be handled at the text-element level, but I can’t come up  
with a good alternative from looking at the current schema.

Rintze---------- Forwarded message ----------  
From: Rintze Zelle \<@Rintze\_Zelle\>  
Date: Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 4:26 PM  
Subject: Re: [xbiblio-devel] Periods in journal abbreviations  
To: development discussion for xbiblio [xbiblio-devel@lists.sourceforge.net](mailto:xbiblio-devel@lists.sourceforge.net)

If I read that thread correctly, what’s concluded is that this might be a  
possible solution (which is a bit more elegant than my previous proposal):

Rintze