Hi Julian,
I have now got a working solution for your Vatican-document case while
keeping the bibliographic record properly in APA form.
The idea is to keep the full institutional author in the |.bib| file and
add a separate field:
shorthand = {GS},
ConTeXt preserves that field even though the current APA specification
does not use it itself, and it can be accessed directly with
|\btxdirect{shorthand}|.
A small wrapper then gives:
\ConventionalCite{vat21965gs}{§22}
which produces:
(GS §22)
while the normal APA citation still gives:
(Second Vatican Council, 1965)
and the bibliography remains unchanged in APA form.
I have compiled and tested this successfully. I am attaching the
complete |.tex| test file (and the .bib) so that you can try it
directly. The next step, if useful, would be to see whether this can be
turned into a proper BTX citation alternative instead of using the small
wrapper command.
JP
Le 19/08/2026 à 09:46, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context a écrit :
Hi Julian,
I think I have now identified the difficulty more precisely. In
ConTeXt’s current APA implementation, citations are essentially built
around the author–date model, and the bibliographic categories do not
naturally provide a field for a conventional siglum such as |GS|. This
is why |righttext| does not replace the core citation: it is simply
appended to it.
The key |alternative=short| is also somewhat misleading in this
context. It does not mean “use a free bibliographic abbreviation such
as GS”; rather, it refers to ConTeXt’s own internally generated
short-form mechanism. So it is important to clarify exactly what this
|short| does — and what it does not do.
Technically, ConTeXt does preserve an additional BibTeX field such as
|shorthand={GS}|, and I have verified that it can be read back
directly. The difficulty is that the current APA specification does
not recognize |shorthand| as a normal field for a |book| entry, so the
standard APA citation machinery ignores it. Moreover,
|alternative=short| does not mean “use my siglum”; it invokes an
internally generated short form. The problem, therefore, is not
storing |GS|, but finding a clean way to make APA use that stored
value as the citation form.
With SBL, this difficulty is much less artificial, because the style
is specifically designed for scholarly references in which one can
more naturally distinguish between the full bibliographic record, the
conventional abbreviation of a work or document, and the internal
locator. This is precisely one of the aspects I am currently
documenting for ConTeXt.
I am nevertheless looking for an elegant solution that stays within
APA for your particular case. The encouraging point is that ConTeXt
already knows how to preserve and retrieve |shorthand={GS}|; what
remains is to integrate that value cleanly into a reusable citation
form, without misusing the |author| field or hard-coding |GS| in the
document.
JP
Le 19/08/2026 à 05:43, jbf a écrit :
I was able to add a shortauthor = {GS} in the .bibfile and tried
alternative=short in \cite. Together with the appropriate righttext
it results in (<empty>, GS §22) so almost there, in a way, if we
could avoid that <empty>, but maybe we can't.
Julian
On 17/8/26 20:26, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context wrote:
Julian,
Thanks — that is very useful, and I think we are now essentially there.
Since |righttext| is appended literally after the author, could you
try including the comma there as well?
(\cite
[alternative=author,
righttext={{, ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
[main::aristotle2009ethics])
If it behaves as your previous test suggests, this should give:
(Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE/2009)
That would be a pleasantly simple solution: |alternative=author|
supplies the author, while |righttext| supplies the
historical/edition dating information without requiring any change
to the bibliography data or the APA rendering itself.
It would also be worth checking afterwards whether the outer
parentheses can be handled by the citation machinery itself, but I
would first confirm this minimal form.
JP
* Aristotle might add one complication: if character is formed by
repeated action, those repeated actions cannot themselves be
normatively neutral. A just /hexis/ (ἕξις) requires the practice of
just actions, which in turn requires some prior account of what
counts as just. This is one reason why the /Nicomachean Ethics/
leads so naturally into the /Politics/: the formation of character
depends on laws, education, and ultimately on the ordering of the
political community.
Le 17/08/2026 à 11:16, jbf a écrit :
Before retiring for the night I have quickly checked out your
suggestion (and don't worry about the change of date to 2009, since
this is the real date I need to deal with):
[alternative=author,
righttext={{ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
[main::aristotle2009ethics]
produces:
Aristotle ca. 350 BCE/2009
Nearly there, so to get parentheses around it and
produce (Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE/2009), this is how I treated the
entire paragraph where the citation appears:
Aristotle understood that character is formed through repeated
action. We become just or unjust, courageous or cowardly, temperate
or self-indulgent through what we repeatedly choose and practise (\cite
[alternative=author,
righttext={{ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
[main::aristotle2009ethics]). Actions become habits, habits shape
character, and character influences what becomes easier or harder
to perceive and choose. Human beings remain capable of change, but
freedom gradually acquires a history.
Julian
On 17/8/26 17:35, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context wrote:
No problem at all, Julian — take your time. Translation work has a
way of absorbing the whole day!
I’ll be interested to hear what you get from the test when you
have a chance to try it.
Have a good evening.
JP
Le 17/08/2026 à 09:07, jbf a écrit :
Caught up in other work right now JP (translation), and already
evening here, so it might be tomorrow before I can get back to
this. I'll let you know how it goes.
Julian
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\usebtxdataset
[main]
[julian-vatican-short-tests-v6.bib]
\usebtxdefinitions[apa]
% ------------------------------------------------------------
% Conventional citation
%
% #1 = bibliographic tag
% #2 = internal locator
%
% The siglum itself is stored in the bibliographic data
% as shorthand={...}.
% ------------------------------------------------------------
\define[2]\ConventionalCite
{\begingroup
\def\currentbtxdataset{main}%
\setbtxentry[#1]%
(\btxdirect{shorthand}\space#2)%
\endgroup}
\starttext
\subject{Normal APA citation}
\cite
[alternative=authoryear]
[main::vat21965gs]
\blank[2*big]
\subject{Conventional citation}
\ConventionalCite{vat21965gs}{§22}
\blank[big]
A second citation of the same document:
\blank[small]
\ConventionalCite{vat21965gs}{§26}
\blank[2*big]
\subject{Bibliography}
\placelistofpublications
[method=dataset,
dataset=main]
\stoptext
@book{vat21965gs,
author = {{Second Vatican Council}},
title = {Gaudium et Spes},
subtitle = {Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World},
year = {1965},
publisher = {Libreria Editrice Vaticana},
shorthand = {GS},
}
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