Change bibliography formatting with biblatex

Question

I am trying to change my current citation to desired citation with biblatex package. I tried to do this using apacite and asked a similar question but got stuck.

Current Citation:

Abernethy, M. A., Kuang, Y. F., & Qin, B. (2015). The influence of ceo power on compensation contract design. The Accounting Review, 90(4), 1265-1306. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2308/accr-50971

Desired Citation:

Abernethy, M. A., Y. F. Kuang, and B. Qin. 2015. The influence of ceo power on compensation contract design. The Accounting Review 90 (4): 1265-1306, https://doi.org/10.2308/accr-50971

Changes needed

After first name, all names to begin with initials and then surname
Remove the words 'Retrieved from'
Color and Underline the url
Remove comma after Journal's name
Remove parentheses for year
Put colon(:) after issue number
Remove final period and put a comma in its place

\begin{filecontents}{tempfile.bib}
    @article{abernethy2015influence,
        title={The influence of CEO power on compensation contract design},
        author={Abernethy, Margaret A and Kuang, Yu Flora and Qin, Bo},
        journal={The Accounting Review},
        volume={90},
        number={4},
        pages={1265--1306},
        year={2015},
        publisher={American Accounting Association},
        url = {https://doi.org/10.2308/accr-50971}, 
    }
\end{filecontents}

\documentclass[letterpaper, 12pt]{article}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}

\usepackage[backend=biber,style=apa]{biblatex}
\usepackage{doi}
\renewcommand{\doitext}{}

\addbibresource{tempfile.bib}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article]{volume}{\apanum{#1}}%volume deitalicize

\usepackage{doi}
\renewcommand{\doitext}{}

\begin{document}

    \cite{abernethy2015influence}

    \printbibliography

\end{document}

biblatex-apa is one of the more complex biblatex styles. Its express purpose is to implement the bibliography and citation acquirements of the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual as closely as possible. That means that it has to jump through quite some hoops to get there. If a choice has to be made between being faithful to APA and being easy to customise, naturally the former is more important. I guess what I'm saying in so many words is: biblatex-apa can be really hard to modify. Use it only if you need APA style (or only very few, very small modifications). ... — moewe, Apr 28 '20 at 06:10
... The bibliography style you describe seems sufficiently dissimilar from biblatex-apa that it appears to be more promising to start from a different style altogether. — moewe, Apr 28 '20 at 06:11

xyz · Answer 1 · 2020-04-28T04:32:14.103

The following codes will work to get some part of what you want. This mainly copies from file apa.bbx with slight changes. You can copy the apa.bbx and modify it to get what you want.

\DeclareDelimFormat[bib,biblist]{finalnamedelim:apa:family-given}{%
  \ifthenelse{\value{listcount}>\maxprtauth}
    {}
    {\addspace and\space}}

\renewbibmacro*{url+urldate}{%
     \ifthenelse{\(\iffieldundef{url}\AND\iffieldundef{abstracturl}\AND\iffieldundef{abstractloc}\)\OR\NOT\iffieldundef{doi}}
       {}
       {\ifthenelse{\iffieldundef{abstracturl}\AND\iffieldundef{abstractloc}}
         {}
         {\printtext{\bibcpstring{abstract}}\addspace}%
          \setunit*{\addspace}%
          \printfield{urldescription}%
          \setunit*{\addcolon\addspace}%
          \iffieldundef{url}{}{\printfield{url}\renewcommand*{\finentrypunct}{\relax}}%
          \iffieldundef{abstractloc}{}{\printfield{abstractloc}\renewcommand*{\finentrypunct}{\relax}}%
          \iffieldundef{abstracturl}{}{\printfield{abstracturl}\renewcommand*{\finentrypunct}{\relax}}}}

This mainly copy from file apa.bbx with slight changes.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 28 '20 at 06:27

As mentioned in the comments, I think that the style you want is sufficiently different from biblatex-apa that it is a good idea to base your style on a different, more customisable style than biblatex-apa. biblatex-apa was specifically designed to implement the complex APA style requirements and is not intended to be arbitrarily customisable.

Usually one of the standard styles is a better base for a customised style. Here I chose a style from my biblatex-ext bundle, because it has some features that make our life a bit easier here.

Some relevant links

Of course it is not possible to design a complete style from just one example of an @article bibliography entry, but this should get you started.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[backend=biber,
  style=ext-authoryear-comp,
  giveninits=true, uniquename=init,
  articlein=false]{biblatex}
\usepackage{hyperref}

\DeclareDelimFormat[bib]{nameyeardelim}{\newunitpunct}
\DeclareFieldFormat{biblabeldate}{#1}

\DeclareFieldFormat
  [article,inbook,incollection,inproceedings,patent,thesis,unpublished]
  {title}{#1}

\renewcommand*{\volnumdelim}{\addnbspace}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article,periodical]{number}{\mkbibparens{#1}}

\renewcommand*{\bibpagespunct}{\addcolon\space}

\DeclareFieldFormat{pages}{#1}

\renewbibmacro*{doi+eprint+url}{%
  \setunit{\addcomma\space}\newblock
  \ifboolexpr{togl {bbx:doi} and not test {\iffieldxref{doi}}}
    {\printfield{doi}}
    {}%
  \setunit{\addcomma\space}\newblock
  \ifboolexpr{togl {bbx:eprint} and not test {\iffieldxref{eprint}}}
    {\usebibmacro{eprint}}
    {}%
  \setunit{\addcomma\space}\newblock
  \ifboolexpr{togl {bbx:url} and not test {\iffieldxref{url}}}
    {\usebibmacro{url+urldate}}
    {}}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{abernethy2015influence,
  title   = {The Influence of {CEO} Power on Compensation Contract Design},
  author  = {Abernethy, Margaret A. and Kuang, Yu Flora and Qin, Bo},
  journal = {The Accounting Review},
  volume  = {90},
  number  = {4},
  pages   = {1265-1306},
  year    = {2015},
  doi     = {10.2308/accr-50971}, 
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
  Lorem \autocite{abernethy2015influence}

  \printbibliography
\end{document}

Change bibliography formatting with biblatex

2 Answers2