Inconsistency with period at the end of bib entry with original date

Question

LaTeX apparently treats the same case with two different outputs. When a bib entry has origdate according to the APA style, the string (Original work published xxx) should be appended at the end of the bib entry preceded by a period (.), separating it from the previous field (i.e., the publisher). Still, LaTeX does not always append the period after the publisher and before (Original... . The output from the following MWE produces only one correct result, i.e. the second, while the first and the last entries are missing the period.

\RequirePackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{mybib.bib}
@book{test1,
    address = {Edinburgh},
    title = {I and thou},
    publisher = {T. \& {T}. {Clark}},
    author = {Buber, Martin},
    translator = {Smith, Ronald Gregor},
    year = {1937},
    origdate = {1923}
}
@book{test2,
    address = {Boston, {MA}},
    title = {The theory of communicative action. {Reason} and the rationalization of society},
    volume = {1},
    publisher = {Beacon {Press}},
    author = {Habermas, Jürgen},
    translator = {{McCarthy}, Thomas},
    year = {1984},
    origdate = {1981}
}
@incollection{test3,
    address = {Cambridge, {MA}},
    title = {Deliberation and democratic legitimacy},
    booktitle = {Deliberative democracy: {Essays} on reason and politics},
    publisher = {MIT {Press}},
    author = {Cohen, Joshua},
    editor = {Bohman, James and Rehg, William},
    year = {1997},
    origdate = {1989},
    pages = {67--91}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[
    style=apa,
    backend=biber,
    isbn=false,
    url=false,
    doi=false,
    eprint=false,
    hyperref=true,
    backref=false,
    firstinits=false,
]{biblatex}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{xpatch}

\usepackage[british]{babel}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{british}{british-apa}

\addbibresource{mybib.bib}

\begin{document}

\cite{test1}
\cite{test2}
\cite{test3}

\printbibliography
\end{document} 

Answer 1

The difference here is caused by slightly different bibliography drivers for the book entry type and the incollection entry type. In the driver for the book type, there is the following code fragment:

  ...
  \usebibmacro{location+publisher}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{doi+eprint+url}%
  \setunit*{\addspace}\newblock
  \usebibmacro{origyear}%
  ...

whereas in the incollection driver there is just:

  ...
  \usebibmacro{location+publisher}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{origyear}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{doi+eprint+url}%
  ...

This is different in two ways: the doi is printed after the original year in the incollection and before the original year in the book entry. Furthermore, in the book driver, an explicit space is added instead of using \newunit (which defaults to a period and a space.)

It's not clear to me whether this is by design or not (after all, the APA works in mysterious ways.) Temporarily you can fix it by redefining the driver for the book entry to remove the offending space.

Philip Kime (the author of biblatex-apa) is active on the site, so he may have some further comments.

\RequirePackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{mybib.bib}
@book{test1,
    address = {Edinburgh},
    title = {I and thou},
    publisher = {T. \& {T}. {Clark}},
    author = {Buber, Martin},
    translator = {Smith, Ronald Gregor},
    year = {1937},
    origdate = {1923}
}
@book{test2,
    address = {Boston, {MA}},
    title = {The theory of communicative action. {Reason} and the rationalization of society},
    volume = {1},
    publisher = {Beacon {Press}},
    author = {Habermas, Jürgen},
    translator = {{McCarthy}, Thomas},
    year = {1984},
    origdate = {1981}
}
@incollection{test3,
    address = {Cambridge, {MA}},
    title = {Deliberation and democratic legitimacy},
    booktitle = {Deliberative democracy: {Essays} on reason and politics},
    publisher = {MIT {Press}},
    author = {Cohen, Joshua},
    editor = {Bohman, James and Rehg, William},
    year = {1997},
    origdate = {1989},
    pages = {67--91}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[
    style=apa,
    backend=biber,
    isbn=false,
    url=false,
    doi=false,
    eprint=false,
    hyperref=true,
    backref=false,
    firstinits=false,
]{biblatex}
\DeclareBibliographyDriver{book}{%
  \usebibmacro{bibindex}%
  \usebibmacro{begentry}%
  \usebibmacro{author/editor}%
  \setunit{\labelnamepunct}\newblock
  \usebibmacro{maintitle+title}%
  \setunit{\addspace}\newblock
  \usebibmacro{book:editor+trans}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \printfield{series}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \printfield{note}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{location+publisher}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{doi+eprint+url}%
% \setunit*{\addspace}\newblock % This line replaced with the following one
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{origyear}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \printfield{addendum}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \iftoggle{bbx:related}
    {\usebibmacro{related:init}%
     \usebibmacro{related}}
    {}%
  \usebibmacro{apa:pageref}%
  \usebibmacro{apa:finpunct}%
  \usebibmacro{finentry}}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{xpatch}

\usepackage[british]{babel}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{british}{british-apa}

\addbibresource{origdate.bib}

\begin{document}

\cite{test1}
\cite{test2}
\cite{test3}

\printbibliography
\end{document}