Sometimes, academic journal are published in a double issues. It results, in the .bib file, a reference with a field 'number' which is not set to '2' or '3', for instance, but set to '2-3'.
Here is what biblatex+biber gives :
SURNAME Name, "A Nice Title", Annual Review of Something 10 (2-3 1996).
Here is what I want to get :
SURNAME Name, "A Nice Title", Annual Review of Something. 10.2-3 (1996).
I precise that everything works well when the field 'number' of my .bib file is set with a value specifically numeric.
What's happening ?
[EDIT]
We've discussed on this issue on the github of the Zotero plugin called Better bibtex (here). A first step in answer is that such a functionning is normal. Indeed, the biblatex manual says (section 2.2.2) :
issue field (literal)
The issue of a journal. This field is intended for journals whose individual issues are identified by a designation such as ‘Spring’ or ‘Summer’ rather than the month or a number. Since the placement of issue is similar to month and number, this field may also be useful with double issues and other special cases. See also month, number, and § 2.3.9.
[...]
number: field (integer)
The number of a journal or the volume/number of a book in a series. See also issue as well as §§2.3.7 and 2.3.9. With @patent entries, this is the number or record token of a patent or patent request. It is expected to be an integer, not necessarily in arabic numerals since biber will automatically from roman numerals or arabic letter to integers internally for sorting purposes.
So it appears that Biblatex requires a integer value in the field number
. If necessary, it recommends to avoid this limitation in using the field issue
.
The problem remains that double issues do not render properly in this way.
Here is an example :
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{french}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{Bob1996,
title = {A {{Very Nice Title}}},
volume = {10},
number = {2},
journaltitle = {Annual Review of Nothing},
date = {1996},
author = {Bob, Bob}
}
@article{John1996,
title = {A {{Nice Title}}},
volume = {10},
issue = {2-3},
journaltitle = {Annual Review of Something},
date = {1996},
author = {John, John}
}
\end{filecontents}
\usepackage[
backend=biber,citestyle=verbose,bibstyle=verbose,]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\begin{document}
Here is something\autocite{Bob1996} very interesting\autocite{John1996}.
\printbibliography
\end{document}
What gives (with xelatex+biber) :
Bob, Bob. “A Very Nice Title”. In : Annual Review of Nothing 10.2 (1996).
John, John. “A Nice Title”. In : Annual Review of Something 10 (2-3 1996).
biblatex
styles test if the field is a number before they put a 'vol.', 'no.' or 'edition' into the format. But there are several different tests a style could use\ifinteger
,\ifnumeral
,\ifnumerals
, or their\iffield...
versions (depending on the context). The styles also vary where they do these tests: In the field format (usually this is the best place) or in a different bibmacro (there may be cases where this is cleverer solution).biblatex
style you use. Show us an MWE/MWEB (see links in my first comment). While thebiblatex
documentation and Biber want an integer in thenumber
field, you can get away not using an integer there in certain cases.issue
is certainly a worse choice for input such as2-3
.