Customizing the biblatex nature style for “misc” publication type

Question

I am a recent convert to biblatex, but not so proficient that I understand the ins and outs of a BBX file. For a submission to a Nature Publishing Group journal (Scientific Data), I am using the nature style developed by the benevolent and almighty Joseph Wright. It works great for regular citations.

The trouble is that our the most convenient way to format our data citations was to use the "misc" publication type, and that the way it comes out with the "nature" biblatex style is not what the journal wants.

Here is a MWE:

\documentclass{article}
    \usepackage[style=nature,date=year,backend=biber,natbib=true,doi=false,defernumbers=true]{biblatex}
    \usepackage{filecontents}
    \begin{filecontents}{datacite.bib}

@misc{bagnato2005,
    Author = {Bagnato, S.},
    Institution = {World Data Center for Paleoclimatology},
    Title = {{World Data Center for Paleoclimatology}},
    Url = {https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/1916},
    Year = {2005}}

@misc{barclay1999,
    Author = {Barclay, D. and Wiles, G.},
    Doi = {10.1191/095968399672825976},
    Institution = {World Data Center for Paleoclimatology},
    Title = {{World Data Center for Paleoclimatology}},
    Url = {https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/14274},
    Year = {1999}}

\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{datacite.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}

\noindent In this paper we have old school references \autocite{companion,worman,piccato,aristotle:physics} and some data citations \autocite{bagnato2005,barclay1999}.

\printbibliography[title={References},nottype=misc,resetnumbers=true]
\printbibliography[title={Data Citations},type=misc,resetnumbers=true]

\end{document}

Producing this output:

You can see that for data citations, the year is not in parenthesis, and not the last field - unlike for the regular citations. The journal wants both to share those attributes.

Before I start mucking around with nature.bbx and break everything, can anyone recommend a minimally invasive way to produce the required behavior? Thanks very much in advance.

Answer 1

A simple solution is to use the online entry type and the urldate field instead of year:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} %
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} %
\usepackage[style=nature,date=year,backend=biber,natbib=true,doi=false,defernumbers=true]{biblatex}
    \usepackage{filecontents}
    \begin{filecontents}{datacite.bib}

@online{bagnato2005,
    Author = {Bagnato, S.},
    Institution = {World Data Center for Paleoclimatology},
    Title = {{World Data Center for Paleoclimatology}},
    Url = {https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/1916},
    Urldate = {2005}}

@online{barclay1999,
    Author = {Barclay, D. and Wiles, G.},
    Doi = {10.1191/095968399672825976},
    Institution = {World Data Center for Paleoclimatology},
    Title = {{World Data Center for Paleoclimatology}},
    Url = {https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/14274},
    Urldate = {1999}}

\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{datacite.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
\noindent In this paper we have old school references \autocite{companion,worman,piccato,aristotle:physics} and some data citations \autocite{bagnato2005,barclay1999}.

\printbibliography[title={References},nottype=online,resetnumbers=true]
\printbibliography[title={Data Citations},type=online,resetnumbers=true]

\end{document}