Biblatex with biber splits long name to first and last name

Question

I'm writing my thesis and I'm stucked with a problem with BibLaTeX. The sorting of the bibliography entries is functional. BUT the author-field is separated automatically to first- and surname, although there is no extra separation in my .bib file. You can see it, when you are activate the firstinit option of the BibLaTeX package or in the picture below.

I found an answer, where I have to put an extra pair of {} braces around the authors name. But that's not a practical solution because my .bib file is generated and updated by Zotero. Given extra {} braces to the name in Zotero are causing an error while compiling.

I would appreciate your help! Combining different bibstyle and citeystyle, like it's mentioned here, doesn't solve the problem.

Here is an example of my code:

\documentclass{scrreprt}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage[
    backend=biber,
    citestyle=numeric,
    sorting=anyvt,  
    labelnumber=true,
    %firstinits=true,
    block=nbpar,            
]{biblatex}

\usepackage{filecontents}
% % % % Beispiele Literatur
\begin{filecontents}{sources.bib}
@online{hessischeverwaltungBegriffeETRS,
    title = {Begriffe - ETRS},
    url = {http://sapos.hvbg.hessen.de/term.php#ETRS89},
    urldate = {2019-03-02},
    author = {Hessische Verwaltung für Bodenmanagement und Geoinformation}
}

@online{lglnOpenDataPortale,
    title = {Open Data Portale | Geodatenportal Niedersachsen},
    url = {http://www.geodaten.niedersachsen.de/startseite/gdini/open_data_portale/open-data-136000.html},
    urldate = {2019-02-23},
    author = {Landesamt für Geoinformation und Landesvermessung Niedersachsen (LGLN)}
}

@online{openknowledgefoundationOpenDatabaseLicense2009,
    title = {Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0},
    url = {https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/},
    urldate = {2019-03-05},
    date = {2009-06-25},
    author = {Open Knowledge Foundation}
}
\end{filecontents}


\bibliography{sources.bib}

\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
\autocite{lglnOpenDataPortale,hessischeverwaltungBegriffeETRS,openknowledgefoundationOpenDatabaseLicense2009}.


\printbibliography
\end{minipage}

\end{document}

This is the result – wrong order depending on the first letter.

This would be the right order, I managed this with that extra pair of {} braces.

Answer 1

As you found out and gusbrs commented, BibTeX and Biber expect corporate authors (or rather corporate authors whose name consists of more than one word) to be wrapped in an extra pair of curly braces. See also Using a 'corporate author' in the "author" field of a bibliographic entry (spelling out the name in full).

So you need the author "Hessische Verwaltung für Bodenmanagement und Geoinformation" to be exported as

author = {{Hessische Verwaltung für Bodenmanagement und Geoinformation}},

to avoid Biber or BibTeX trying to parse the name into family and given name parts and making undesirable sorting or giveninits decisions based on that.

---

Zotero should do that for you automatically as long as you input the name in a way that Zotero understands. Its name fields have two modes: one-field mode and two-field mode. See also https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/item_types_and_fields (search for 'author') and https://www.zotero.org/support/getting_stuff_into_your_library (search for 'names'). In two-field mode Zotero splits the name into family/last and given/first name name parts that are entered separately in two subfields. One-field mode allows you to enter the full name as one unit directly. People's names should normally be given in two-field mode, corporate authors in one-field mode.

In two field-mode the name is split into two components: family/last name and given/first name. The parts are separated by a comma and are input separately.

You can click on the little field symbol next to the plus and minus to switch to the other field mode

In one-field mode the input consist of only one field.

Corporate authors should be entered in one-field/full-name mode without additional braces (see also David Purton's comment). The exporter automatically adds the necessary braces to ensure that the full name is not split into parts.

The entry will then be exported correctly. In this example the .bib file has

author = {Sigfridsson, Emma and Ryde, Ulf
          and {Hessische Verwaltung für Bodenmanagement und Geoinformation}},

as expected.

The switch button next to the name can serve as a handy indicator to tell you in which input mode you are. Just remember that the icon switches to the other mode, so if you see the two-field icon you are in one-field mode and vice versa.

This is also discussed in many threads at the Zotero support forum, for example https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/3275/entering-corporate-authors and https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/19721/bibtex-export-for-corporate-authors-single-name-only