How to use shorthand in biblatex without altering the bibliography entry?

Question

I am using shorthand = {Text} in a biblatex entry to change the inline citation. However, the shorthand also changes the bibliography entry. How can I tell biblatex not to use the shorthand in the bibliography entry, but the author entry instead? This post defines a command to eliminate the entry altogether from the bibliography. I guess my case is a slight modification of it, but I am clueless on how to proceed. My MWE:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{filecontents,xcolor}
\usepackage[colorlinks=true,linkcolor=blue, citecolor=blue]{hyperref}
\usepackage[style=authoryear-comp,url=false,isbn=false,maxcitenames=3,maxbibnames=99,backend=bibtex]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{bib.bib}

@book{OECD08,
    title={Growing Unequal?: Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries},
    author={OECD},
    year={2008},
    publisher={OECD Publishing, Paris}
}

@book{OECD08b,
    title={Growing Unequal?: Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries},
    shorthand = {2008}
    author={OECD},
    year={2008},
    publisher={OECD Publishing, Paris}
}

\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{bib.bib}

\begin{document}

I want the result to be like this:\\

\begin{quote}

This topic has been addressed by the OECD in numerous reports, including Growing Unequal (\textcolor{blue}{2008}).

\end{quote}

My workaround using the shorthand in bibliography item "OECD08b" looks like this:\\

\begin{quote}

This topic has been addressed by the OECD in numerous reports, including Growing Unequal (\textcite{OECD08b}).\\

\end{quote}

The problem, is that the bibliography changes too. I want it to look like a normal reference. Compare them below. \nocite{OECD08}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

The output:

You forgot a comma after shorthand = {2008}. I'm not sure if it already solves your problem, but it definitely makes the output more natural. — moewe, May 18 '18 at 10:36
@moewe OMG. I am ashamed. Indeed. It solves the issue. I guess I rather delete the question, as it is unlikely someone might make the same noob mistake. — luchonacho, May 18 '18 at 10:37
If it were my document I would not use shorthand at all and would be happy with the output "OECD 2008" that I get. If you want to emphasise the title of the report write something like ... including \citetitle{OECD08b} \parencite{OECD08b} and be done with it. — moewe, May 18 '18 at 10:40
@moewe Thanks. That looks good too, but it is the short version of the title to be cited. Maybe there is a way to do so easier than with shorthand. — luchonacho, May 18 '18 at 10:44
Then give a shorttitle = {Growing Unequal}. Or - even better - my preferred solution title={Growing Unequal?}, subtitle = {Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries},. In an authoryear style I would stick with author-year citations. If one citation is actually title-year, it may be harder to find in the bibliography at the end. Think about consistency. And if the title is important to you, then go the extra mile of mentioning it explicitly. ... — moewe, May 18 '18 at 10:57
Alternatively, there is the starred version of \cite* that does not mention the author: in the OECD report \citetitle{OECD08b} \parencite*{OECD08b}. The starred version reminds you that you have to mention the author manually. Whatever you do, please don't use shorthand = {2008}. shorthands should be short, memorable and natural handles (in German there is the term "Sigel") for the citation. Like KpV for Kant's "Kritik der praktischen Vernunft" or Gen for the First Book of Moses — moewe, May 18 '18 at 10:57
Do you want me to type up a quick answer with my suggestions or do you want to delete the question? — moewe, May 18 '18 at 11:51

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 18 '18 at 12:20

The acute problem was a missing comma after shorthand = {2008} in OECD08b. BibTeX jumped over the entire rest of the entry and would not read the author. With the comma added in the entry looks as expected.

@book{OECD08b,
  title     = {Growing Unequal?: Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries},
  shorthand = {2008},
  author    = {OECD},
  year      = {2008},
  publisher = {OECD Publishing, Paris}
}

Normally a shorthand does not influence the output in the bibliography. It is not even mentioned there in many cases. That is why one normally prints a list of shorthands with \printshorthands to resolve the shorthands.

I would, however, not (ab)use the shorthand as shorthand = {2008}. A shorthand should be a short, memorable and reasonably natural abbreviation/handle for the work. I assume it is strongly influenced by the German "Sigel", good examples are KpV for Kant's "Kritik der praktischen Vernunft" (especially if you are writing about Kant and mention many of his works) or Gen for the First Book of Moses.

Since you are using an author-year citation style I would find it quite unnatural to depart from this scheme for certain entries with a title-year scheme. That makes the citations harder to find in the bibliography at the end.

I'd ever go with

This topic has been addressed by the OECD in numerous reports,
including \citetitle{OECD08} \parencite{OECD08}.

or

This topic has been addressed by the OECD in numerous reports,
including \citetitle{OECD08} \parencite*{OECD08}.

if you want to mention the title explicitly. If the title is not that important you could even go with

This topic has been addressed by the OECD in numerous reports,
including \cite{OECD08}.

but to me that feels a bit weird.

The starred version of the citation commands does not print the author name, it is useful if you don't want the name to be repeated because you have mentioned it in a salient place in the same sentence already.

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{filecontents,xcolor}
\usepackage[colorlinks=true,linkcolor=blue, citecolor=blue]{hyperref}
\usepackage[style=authoryear-comp, url=false, isbn=false, maxcitenames=3 ,maxbibnames=999, backend=biber]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{bib.bib}
@book{OECD08,
  title     = {Growing Unequal?},
  subtitle  = {Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries},
  author    = {OECD},
  year      = {2008},
  publisher = {OECD Publishing, Paris}
}
@book{OECD08b,
  title     = {Growing Unequal?: Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries},
  shorthand = {2008},
  author    = {OECD},
  year      = {2008},
  publisher = {OECD Publishing, Paris}
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{bib.bib}

\begin{document}
This topic has been addressed by the OECD in numerous reports,
including \citetitle{OECD08} \parencite{OECD08}.

This topic has been addressed by the OECD in numerous reports,
including \citetitle{OECD08} \parencite*{OECD08}.

\printbibliography

\newrefsection
\nocite{OECD08b}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

How to use shorthand in biblatex without altering the bibliography entry?

1 Answers1