"Strange" behavior of BibLaTeX with two references with many authors, with the same first author

Question

With this MWE:

\documentclass[11pt, openright, 
    ]{book}
\usepackage[style=authoryear-icomp, 
  maxcitenames=2, 
  mincitenames=1,
  maxbibnames=11, 
  backend=biber, hyperref=true, ibidtracker=context, pagetracker=page,
  uniquename=false]
    {biblatex}
% add bibliography database
\addbibresource{bibliography.bib}
\begin{document}
\textcite{acharya2013securitization}
\textcite{berger1994did}
\textcite{berger1995role}
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography

\end{document}

If the bibliography.bib file is:

@article{acharya2013securitization,
  title={Securitization without risk transfer},
  author={Acharya, Viral V. and Schnabl, Philipp and Suarez, Gustavo},
  journal={Journal of Financial economics},
  volume={107},
  number={3},
  pages={515--536},
  year={2013},
  publisher={Elsevier}
}
@article{berger1994did,
  title={Did risk-based capital allocate bank credit and cause a ``credit 
    crunch'' in the United States?},
  author={Berger, Allen N. and Udell, Gregory F.},
  journal={Journal of Money, credit and Banking},
  volume={26},
  number={3},
  pages={585--628},
  year={1994},
  publisher={JSTOR}
}
@article{berger1995role,
    title={The role of capital in financial institutions},
  author={Berger, Allen N. and Herring, Richard J. and Szeg{\"o}, Giorgio P.},
    journal={Journal of Banking \& Finance},
    volume={19},
    number={3},
    pages={393--430},
    year={1995},
    publisher={Elsevier}
}

I get a citation of berger1995role with two authors:

Whereas if I comment the berger1994did entry (and citation):

@article{acharya2013securitization,
  title={Securitization without risk transfer},
  author={Acharya, Viral V. and Schnabl, Philipp and Suarez, Gustavo},
  journal={Journal of Financial economics},
  volume={107},
  number={3},
  pages={515--536},
  year={2013},
  publisher={Elsevier}
}
%%%%@article{berger1994did,
%%%%  title={Did risk-based capital allocate bank credit and cause a ``credit 
%%%%    crunch'' in the United States?},
%%%%  author={Berger, Allen N. and Udell, Gregory F.},
%%%%  journal={Journal of Money, credit and Banking},
%%%%  volume={26},
%%%%  number={3},
%%%%  pages={585--628},
%%%%  year={1994},
%%%%  publisher={JSTOR}
%%%%}
@article{berger1995role,
    title={The role of capital in financial institutions},
  author={Berger, Allen N. and Herring, Richard J. and Szeg{\"o}, Giorgio P.},
    journal={Journal of Banking \& Finance},
    volume={19},
    number={3},
    pages={393--430},
    year={1995},
    publisher={Elsevier}
}

I get the citation of berger1995role I would like:

Is it a bug or a feature?

Isn't it wrong to add an author in berger1995role since the citation of berger1994did already prints two authors, and there is no possibility to confuse the "alii" of one citation with the other?

if you ignore the year, then "Berger et al." is not enough to identify the entry. — Ulrike Fischer, Aug 22 '21 at 21:40

Ulrike Fischer · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-23T09:45:22.613

2

biblatex tries to make the name lists unique. That means the year doesn't count.

And as name list "Berger et al" is not unambiguous and so the second name must be added, and it must be added for both entries as you can't know which entry the reader will see first.

You can naturally force biblatex to take the year into account, then it will use Berger et al for both, but for a reader it is easier to identify an entry if more information is in the name list.

The relevant option here is uniquelist. The default uniquelist=true, disambiguates all name lists as shown in the question. uniquelist=false, turns that off. uniquelist=minyear, only disambiguates name lists if they would be ambiguous if they have the same year.

edited Aug 23 '21 at 09:45

answered Aug 22 '21 at 21:47

Ulrike Fischer

327,261

1

Just to avoid people some searching: The relevant option here is uniquelist. The default uniquelist=true, disambiguates all name lists as shown in the question. uniquelist=false, turns that off. uniquelist=minyear, only disambiguates name lists if they would be ambiguous if they have the same year. – moewe Aug 23 '21 at 06:40
@moewe thanks, I added it to the answer. – Ulrike Fischer Aug 23 '21 at 09:45

"Strange" behavior of BibLaTeX with two references with many authors, with the same first author

1 Answers1