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I was trying to use different Custom styles with Biblatex, but seems that maxcitenames=2 is not properly working with biblatex-apa. The option is working with build-in style (e.g. authoryear,verbose), following these post Biblatex: Modify maxcitenames to work in three cases and biblatex is ignoring maxcitenames.

File test.tex

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}

\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage[backend=biber,style=apa,maxcitenames=2]{biblatex}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{american}{american-apa}

\bibliography{Biblatex.bib}

\begin{document}

Test \cite{campbell2007}, \cite{Goldetal08}.

\printbibliography 
\end{document}

File Biblatex.bib

@article{Goldetal08,
    title = {A room with a viewpoint: Using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels},
    volume = {35},
    shorttitle = {A room with a viewpoint},
    issue = {3},
    pages = {472-482},
    journaltitle = {Journal of Consumer Research},
    author = {Goldstein, {N.J.} and Cialdini, {R.B.} and Griskevicius, V.},
    date = {2008},
    file = {Google Scholar Linked Page:files/599/Goldstein et al. - 2008 - A room with a viewpoint Using social norms to mot:}
}

@article{campbell2007,
    title = {"Says who" How the source of price information and affect influence perceived price (un) fairness},
    volume = {44},
    issue = {2},
    pages = {261-271},
    journaltitle = {Journal of Marketing Research},
    author = {Campbell, {M.C.}},
    date = {2007},
    file = {Google Scholar Linked Page:files/912/jmkr.44.2.html:text/html}
}

And I get this output,

enter image description here

So the maxcitenames=2 option seems to fail, any suggestions how this can be done? Is this a problem related to the specific style ("apa")?

Community
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Emanuel
  • 169
  • 2
    APA style is quite strict and particular about citations and these rules are coded into the style. This means you can't really change some of the settings (or it wouldn't be APA).To do what you want, you'd have to change some macros in apa.cbx – PLK Nov 20 '13 at 19:38
  • I manage to get the desire result with biblatex-chicago. So it seems to be related with "apa" style. – Emanuel Nov 20 '13 at 20:04
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    The biblatex bundled styles are meant for customisation. Special styles like APA might not be fully customisable because they are aimed as a specific style which demands certain (in the case of APA, complex) rules. – PLK Nov 21 '13 at 10:56
  • @PLK: So you are saying that some Custom styles (i.e. special styles) does not allow fully customization. The use of maxcitenames is not an available option, is that it? If so, why the package allows the option without retrieving an error message or warning? – Emanuel Nov 21 '13 at 15:05
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    Essentially because APA users, in this case, shouldn't need to ever use the option because it's not APA style. – PLK Nov 21 '13 at 15:43
  • let us continue this discussion in chat – Emanuel Nov 21 '13 at 16:56

0 Answers0