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I'm writing a thesis using biblatex with APA citation style, i.e. the citations show up in the text as "Lastname, 1997". Now, I'm also quoting technical standards which contain their publication date within the title, and are supposed to be cited as e.g.
"ISO 22476-2:2010-1"
without an added publication year. I can put the standard name/number into the author field, no problem. But so far I've only had the choice between adding the year, resulting in
"ISO 22476-2:2012-03, 2012";
or omitting the year in the .bib file, resulting in
"ISO 22476-2:2012-03, n.d.",
both of which are ugly. How can I turn off the year output for single bibliography items while keeping it around for others?

MWE (in German) as follows:

\documentclass[enabledeprecatedfontcommands,german,11pt,a4paper,twoside,openany,BCOR=8mm]{scrreprt}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage[natbib=true,style=authoryear,citestyle=apa]{biblatex}
\bibliography{thesis.bib}

\begin{document}
This is a quote from \cite{lastname1997}. The machine he used abides by the rules in \cite{DIN22476}.
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Here's the bib entries:

@Misc{DIN22476,
author = {{DIN EN ISO 22476-2:2012-03}},
title  = {Geotechnische Erkundung und Untersuchung - Felduntersuchungen - Teil 2: Rammsondierungen (ISO 22476-2:2005 + Amd 1:2011); Deutsche Fassung EN ISO 22476-2:2005 + A1:2011},
}

@Misc{lastname1997,
author      = {Firstname Lastname},
title       = {Relevant publication},
year        = {1997},
date        = {1997-10-28},
}
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  • 2
    Welcome to TeX.SE! Please show us two bib entrys, one for "Lastname, 1997" and one for "ISO ..." and show us a short compilable code how you call the bibliography ...
    – Mensch
    Sep 20, 2017 at 22:25
  • 2
    in case you need help to create a short compilable document, have a look at minimal working example with bibliography (MWEB) Sep 20, 2017 at 22:26
  • shorthand might be worth a look. But really an MWE would help us to help you.
    – moewe
    Sep 21, 2017 at 10:54
  • Newbie question, do I need to comment here in order to let you know I edited my question? Sep 22, 2017 at 9:30
  • Note that style=authoryear,citestyle=apa is not APA style. Do you need to follow APA by the book, or is style=authoryear alone OK? (Things get much easier if you don't use APA.)
    – moewe
    Sep 22, 2017 at 9:39

1 Answer 1

1

Citations of standards are not always easy. You could try

@misc{DIN22476,
  title     = {DIN EN ISO 22476-2:2012-03},
  shorthand = {DIN EN ISO 22476-2:2012-03},
  subtitle  = {Geotechnische Erkundung und Untersuchung - Felduntersuchungen - Teil 2: Rammsondierungen (ISO 22476-2:2005 + Amd 1:2011); Deutsche Fassung EN ISO 22476-2:2005 + A1:2011},
  year      = {2012},
}

Here the shorthand is used for citations.

MWE

\documentclass{scrreprt}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage[natbib=true,style=authoryear]{biblatex}

\usepackage{filecontents} 
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{DIN22476,
  title     = {DIN EN ISO 22476-2:2012-03},
  shorthand = {DIN EN ISO 22476-2:2012-03},
  subtitle  = {Geotechnische Erkundung und Untersuchung - Felduntersuchungen - Teil 2: Rammsondierungen (ISO 22476-2:2005 + Amd 1:2011); Deutsche Fassung EN ISO 22476-2:2005 + A1:2011},
  year      = {2012},
}

@misc{lastname1997,
  author = {Firstname Lastname},
  title  = {Relevant publication},
  date   = {1997-10-28},
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
This is a quote from \cite{lastname1997}. The machine he used abides by the rules in \cite{DIN22476}.

This is a quote from \cite{lastname1997}. The machine he used abides by the rules in \cite{DIN22476}.
\printbibliography
\end{document}
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  • Adding a shorthand bib entry works. Thank you very much! Note: replacing the author field with a title field leads to the citation and bibliography entry being set entirely in italics, in case you want to add that to your answer. Sep 22, 2017 at 11:11
  • I won't make it to look at the biblatex stuff this weekend. Helping out a friend to set up a conference. I'll look at it asap. I also have to (want to) rewrite the whole BibTeX section of the wikibook to get a replacement done. en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Creating_a_Bibliography Thoughts welcome. :-)
    – Johannes_B
    Sep 24, 2017 at 12:28
  • @Johannes_B No need to hurry. Re the wikibook, it all depends how much detail you want. While the 'general idea' of .bib files and .bsts is explained fairly briefly, the details and more advanced stuff (that people might actually run into very quickly) can make the whole page explode. Unfortunately, I lack the patience and didactic abilities to write good introductory texts.
    – moewe
    Sep 25, 2017 at 16:54
  • @moewe I think a wikibook page needs to give general advice, explain the details and refer to the manual. Just got the hang of it. Pauls biblatex tutorial is long and i think it should be mentioned. The paackage docu should blow ones mind.
    – Johannes_B
    Sep 25, 2017 at 18:03
  • very happy to see suggestions. Bib Management gets a few thousand clicks every day,
    – Johannes_B
    Sep 25, 2017 at 18:04

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