custom citation format based on custom tag in .bib-file

Question

first off: I will very much try to do this myself. I'll probably fail epicly but at least I will have tried :)

If you look into my post history, you will notice I am (forced to) create my own APA-style. My university is very strict on this and points will be deducted if you miss against their citation-laws... During a draft-meeting of my current paper, I was pointed to such a failure.

I would like to use this book in my paper. As you can see, the APA-style is mentioned so this should be a breeze...

However, this book was created in 1947, but it is an edition of a text from back in 1626. Therefor, we have to use the special-invented-university-format:

EDITORS (ed.) (YEAR). AUTHOR. TITLE. (EDITION). PLACE: PUBLISHER.

Meertens, P.J.,N.B. Tenhaef & A. Komter-Kuipers (ed.) (1942). Adrianus Valerius. Nederlandtsche gedenck-clanck. Amsterdam: wereldbibliotheek.

It gets even better :( - If you point to a chapter (The life of Adrianus), written by one of the EDITORS (Meertens), that should also become an entry in the bibliography:

AUTHOR_OF_CHAPTER (YEAR). 'TITLE_OF_CHAPTER'. In: WORK_ABOVE

Meertens, P.J. (1942). 'The Life of Adrianus'. In: Meertens, P.J.,N.B. Tenhaef & A. Komter-Kuipers (ed.) (1942). Adrianus Valerius. Nederlandtsche gedenck-clanck. Amsterdam: wereldbibliotheek.

This! however, should not be confused by a book with multiple writers. Notice (the total lack of) difference :/

The correct citation for this book is

AUTHORS (YEAR). TITLE. (EDITION). PLACE: PUBLISHER.

Absillis, K., Jaspers, J., & Van Hoof, S. (2000). De manke usurpator : over verkavelingsvlaams. Gent: Academia press.

Jaspers, J. (2000). 'Some chapter'. In: Absillis, K., Jaspers, J., & Van Hoof, S. (red.). (2000). De manke usurpator : over verkavelingsvlaams. Gent: Academia press.

first: the simple questions

• 3de ed. should become (3e dr.) << that e is superscript.
• 'title' should have single quotes, not double ones - found it (not reflected in the screenshot above the MWE)

now: the main question = about the last two entries of the bibliography.

How can I have biblatex differentiate between these two different type of @books? Can I program a macro in such way that it checks for

• This book has an author and a (or multiple) editors => must be type 1, format accordingly
• This book has only authors => must be type 2, format accordingly
• This book has only editoros => zotero turns this into an @collection, so this falls out of the scope of this question because this is about @books.

the working example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{refs.bib}
@book{ValeriusNederlandtschegedenckclanck1942,
    langid = {dutch},
    location = {{Amsterdam}},
    title = {Nederlandtsche gedenck-clanck},
    pagetotal = {287},
    publisher = {{Wereldbibliotheek}},
    date = {1942},
    author = {Valerius, Adrianus},
    editor = {Meertens, Pieter Jacobus and Tenhaeff, Nicolaas Bernardus and Komter-Kuipers, Aafke}
}

@incollection{MeertensAdriaenValeriusleven1942,
    langid = {dutch},
    location = {{Amsterdam}},
    title = {Adriaen Valerius' leven en werken},
    booktitle = {Nederlandtsche gedenck-clanck},
    publisher = {{Wereldbibliotheek}},
    date = {1942},
    pages = {V-XXII},
    author = {Meertens, Pieter Jacobus},
    editor = {Meertens, Pieter Jacobus and Tenhaeff, Nicolaas Bernardus and Komter-Kuipers, Aafke}
}

@book{Usurpator-book-1,
    location = {{Gent}},
    title = {De Manke Usurpator},
    isbn = {978-90-382-2005-5},
    pagetotal = {1234},
    publisher = {{Academia press}},
    date = {2012},
    author = {Absillis, Kevin},
    edition = {1}
}

@book{Usurpator-book-2,
    location = {{Gent}},
    title = {De Manke Usurpator},
    isbn = {978-90-382-2005-5},
    pagetotal = {1234},
    publisher = {{Academia press}},
    date = {2012},
    author = {Absillis, Kevin and Jaspers, Jürgen},
    edition = {2}
}

@book{Usurpator-book-3,
    location = {{Gent}},
    title = {De Manke Usurpator},
    isbn = {978-90-382-2005-5},
    pagetotal = {1234},
    publisher = {{Academia press}},
    date = {2012},
    author = {Absillis, Kevin and Jaspers, Jürgen and Van Hoof, Sarah},
    edition = {3}
}

@incollection{Usurpator-book-3-chapter,
    langid = {dutch},
    location = {{Gent}},
    title = {Some Chapter},
    booktitle = {De Manke Usurpator},
    publisher = {{Academia press}},
    date = {2012},
    pages = 123-145,
    author = {Absillis, Kevin},
    bookauthor = {Absillis, Kevin and Jaspers, Jürgen and Van Hoof, Sarah},
    edition = {3}
}

\end{filecontents*}

\usepackage[dutch]{babel}               % Nederlands
\usepackage[autostyle]{csquotes}        % Context sensitive quotation facilities

\usepackage[bibstyle=authoryear,citestyle=authoryear,giveninits=true,maxnames=3,doi=false,isbn=false,dashed=false,backend=biber]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{refs.bib}

\DeclareDelimFormat{finalnamedelim}{\addspace\&\space}    % Multiple authors? => &

    % Bold Author and Year

\DeclareFieldFormat{bold}{\mkbibbold{#1}}

\renewbibmacro*{author}{%
    \printtext[bold]{%
        \ifboolexpr{
            test \ifuseauthor
            and
            not test {\ifnameundef{author}}
        }
        {\usebibmacro{bbx:dashcheck}
            {\bibnamedash}
            {\usebibmacro{bbx:savehash}%
                \printnames{author}%
                \iffieldundef{authortype}
                {\setunit{\printdelim{nameyeardelim}}}
                {\setunit{\printdelim{authortypedelim}}}}%
            \iffieldundef{authortype}
            {}
            {\usebibmacro{authorstrg}%
                \setunit{\printdelim{nameyeardelim}}}}%
        {\global\undef\bbx@lasthash
            \usebibmacro{labeltitle}%
            \setunit*{\printdelim{nonameyeardelim}}}%
        \usebibmacro{date+extradate}}}
    
    
    \renewbibmacro{in:}{%
    \ifentrytype{article}
    {}
    {\printtext{\bibstring{in}\intitlepunct}}}


% article number must be between parenthesis

\renewbibmacro*{volume+number+eid}{%
    \printfield{volume}%
    %  \setunit*{\adddot}% DELETED
    \setunit*{\addnbspace}% NEW (optional); there's also \addnbthinspace
    \printfield{number}%
    \setunit{\addcomma\space}%
    \printfield{eid}}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article]{number}{\mkbibparens{#1}}

    % please don't put p. before pagenumbers

\DeclareFieldFormat[incollection]{pages}{#1}        
\DeclareFieldFormat[article]{pages}{#1}

\AtEveryBibitem{%
    \clearlist{language}%
    \clearfield{pagetotal}%
}

\begin{document}

\section{Valerius}

let me quote this old text by \citeauthor{ValeriusNederlandtschegedenckclanck1942} - which was edited by \citename{ValeriusNederlandtschegedenckclanck1942}{editor}

\citeauthor{MeertensAdriaenValeriusleven1942} wrote an introduction for that text, you know!

\section{Usurpator}

\begin{itemize}  
    \item \cite{Usurpator-book-1} 
    \item \cite{Usurpator-book-2} 
    \item \cite{Usurpator-book-3}
    \item \cite{Usurpator-book-3-chapter}
\end{itemize}

\setquotestyle{british} % easiest way for single quotes
\printbibliography 
\end{document}

Answer 1

While I still think that the desired style for @books with editors and authors is completely bizarre in almost all cases, there might be some cases where one would want to stress the editor or translator of a work over the actual author (translations of classical texts come to mind or heavily edited, commented and annotated works). In those cases one could use the option useauthor=false to move the author to after the title and promote the editor or translator to the primary spot (see butler_frankenstein_1998 in the example below taken from Which bibtex style lists book editor first?, and aristotle:physics taken from samcarter's answer to Citing a translator), the demoted author will then be mentioned after the title.

I understand that your ValeriusNederlandtschegedenckclanck1942 is a special case. The original work from 1626 by Valerius in itself was already borderline as to whether it was a @book and Valerius its author or a @collection and Valerius its editor. Adding more editors of a later edition into the mix does not make the situation simpler.

But I still think that placing the author/editor directly between the year and the title is weird even in this case and I don't think it makes sense to rewrite the style for what I regard as a half-baked ad-hoc requirement. Note how in the required output it is impossible to tell that "Adrianus Valerius" is the original author/editor, instead the name seems to be part of the title. That is what I would exploit: If the style guide formats the name exactly as the title, we can just add the name to the title field and be done with it.

For this particular entry you also want to change the editor label from "red." to "ed.", that can be achieved with the editortype field. We can define a new 'editor type' specialed (you could have a look at dutch.lbx to see if one of the other types would be more appropriate) by defining the three bibstrings specialed (singular), specialeds (plural form) and byspecialed ("edited by ..." form) and giving them the desired values. You can then add the field editortype = {specialed}, to all works whose editors are to be "ed." instead of "red.".

---

Note that after reading https://www.academiapress.be/nl/producten/nederlandse-taal-en-letterkund/de-manke-usurpator I would class the Usurpatores as @collection and not @book. The requirements

Absillis, K., Jaspers, J., & Van Hoof, S. (2000). De manke usurpator : over verkavelingsvlaams. Gent: Academia press.

Jaspers, J. (2000). 'Some chapter'. In: Absillis, K., Jaspers, J., & Van Hoof, S. (red.). (2000). De manke usurpator : over verkavelingsvlaams. Gent: Academia press.

were a bit inconsistent in that regard. I would have expected Absillis, Jaspers & Van Hoof to be either "red" in both cases or not at all. Changing that between the complete work and a chapter seems terribly inconsistent.

---

In general you may benefit from using crossref more often.

For the most part the difference between @collection and @book is very small: About the only big difference is that @collection will simply ignore any author. Similarly @inbook and @incollection are very similar. Choosing the "right" type is then often more a question of semantics and having a "nice" database, rather than a question of different results in the output. If you apply changes for @collection and @incollection usually they can be mapped one-to-one to changes for @book and @inbook and usually it is a good idea to apply these changes there as well to avoid inconsistencies.

In the case you mentioned in the question I agree with Zotero's heuristic that it makes sense to classify a 'book' with editors and no authors as @collection. There may be the occasional exception, but as a rule of thumb it's pretty solid.

---

I would try the following

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[dutch]{babel}
\usepackage[autostyle]{csquotes}

\usepackage[style=authoryear, backend=biber,
  giveninits=true, uniquename=init, maxnames=3, dashed=false,
  doi=false, isbn=false]{biblatex}

\DeclareDelimFormat{finalnamedelim}{\addspace\&\space} 


\letbibmacro*{author:unwrapped}{author}
\renewbibmacro{author}{%
  \printtext[bold]{\usebibmacro{author:unwrapped}}}

\DeclareFieldFormat{editortype}{\mkbibparens{#1}}
\DeclareDelimFormat{editortypedelim}{\addspace}

\letbibmacro*{editor:unwrapped}{editor}
\renewbibmacro{editor}{%
  \printtext[bold]{\usebibmacro{editor:unwrapped}}%
  \ifuseeditor{\clearname{editor}}{}}

\letbibmacro*{editor+others:unwrapped}{editor+others}
\renewbibmacro{editor+others}{%
  \printtext[bold]{\usebibmacro{editor+others:unwrapped}}%
  \ifuseeditor{\clearname{editor}}{}}

\DeclareFieldAlias{translatortype}{editortype}
\DeclareDelimAlias{translatortypedelim}{editortypedelim}

\letbibmacro*{translator:unwrapped}{translator}
\renewbibmacro{translator}{%
  \printtext[bold]{\usebibmacro{translator:unwrapped}}%
  \ifusetranslator{\clearname{translator}}{}}

\letbibmacro*{translator+others:unwrapped}{translator+others}
\renewbibmacro{translator+others}{%
  \printtext[bold]{\usebibmacro{translator+others:unwrapped}}%
  \ifusetranslator{\clearname{translator}}{}}

\NewBibliographyString{specialed,specialeds,byspecialed}
\DefineBibliographyStrings{dutch}{
  specialed   = {ed\adddot},
  specialeds  = {ed\adddot},
  byspecialed = {geredigeerd door},% wat gaan we hier doen?
  edition     = {dr\adddot},
}

% maar: https://taaladvies.net/taal/advies/vraag/2/
% "De achtervoegsels -ste, -de en -e staan op dezelfde hoogte als het getal."
\DefineBibliographyExtras{dutch}{%
  \protected\def\mkbibordinal#1{\stripzeros{#1}\textsuperscript{e}}%
}
\DeclareFieldFormat{edition}{%
  \mkbibparens{%
    \ifinteger{#1}
      {\mkbibordedition{#1}\addnbthinspace\bibstring{edition}}
      {#1\isdot}}}

\renewbibmacro{in:}{%
  \ifentrytype{article}
    {}
    {\printtext{\bibstring{in}\intitlepunct}}}

\renewbibmacro*{volume+number+eid}{%
  \printfield{volume}%
  %  \setunit*{\adddot}% DELETED
  \setunit*{\addnbspace}% NEW (optional); there's also \addnbthinspace
  \printfield{number}%
  \setunit{\addcomma\space}%
  \printfield{eid}}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article]{number}{\mkbibparens{#1}}

\DeclareFieldFormat{pages}{#1}        

\AtEveryBibitem{%
  \clearlist{language}%
  \clearfield{pagetotal}}

\DeclareQuoteStyle{dutch}
  {\textquoteleft}
  {\textquoteright}
  [0.05em]
  {\textquotedblleft}
  {\textquotedblright}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@collection{ValeriusNederlandtschegedenckclanck1942,
  langid    = {dutch},
  location  = {Amsterdam},
  title     = {Adrianus Valerius. Nederlandtsche gedenck-clanck},
  pagetotal = {287},
  publisher = {Wereldbibliotheek},
  date      = {1942},
  editor    = {Meertens, Pieter Jacobus and Tenhaeff, Nicolaas Bernardus and Komter-Kuipers, Aafke},
  editortype = {specialed},
}
@incollection{MeertensAdriaenValeriusleven1942,
  title     = {Adriaen Valerius' leven en werken},
  date      = {1942},
  pages     = {V-XXII},
  author    = {Meertens, Pieter Jacobus},
  crossref  = {ValeriusNederlandtschegedenckclanck1942},
}
@collection{Usurpator-book-1,
  location  = {Gent}, 
  title     = {De Manke Usurpator},
  isbn      = {978-90-382-2005-5},
  pagetotal = {1234},
  publisher = {{Academia press}},
  date      = {2012},
  editor    = {Absillis, Kevin},
  edition   = {1}
}
@collection{Usurpator-book-2,
  location  = {{Gent}},
  title     = {De Manke Usurpator},
  isbn      = {978-90-382-2005-5},
  pagetotal = {1234},
  publisher = {{Academia press}},
  date      = {2012},
  editor    = {Absillis, Kevin and Jaspers, Jürgen},
  edition   = {2}
}
@collection{Usurpator-book-3,
  location  = {Gent},
  title     = {De Manke Usurpator},
  isbn      = {978-90-382-2005-5},
  pagetotal = {1234},
  publisher = {{Academia press}},
  date      = {2012},
  editor    = {Absillis, Kevin and Jaspers, Jürgen and Van Hoof, Sarah},
  edition   = {3}
}
@incollection{Usurpator-book-3-chapter,
  title      = {Some Chapter},
  pages      = {123-145},
  author     = {Absillis, Kevin},
  crossref   = {Usurpator-book-3},
}
@book{butler_frankenstein_1998,
  address    = {Oxford and New York},
  series     = {Oxford world's classics},
  title      = {Frankenstein, or, {The} modern {Prometheus}},
  subtitle   = {the 1818 text},
  isbn       = {978-0-19-283366-2},
  publisher  = {Oxford University Press},
  author     = {Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft},
  editor     = {Butler, Marilyn},
  year       = {1998},
  options    = {useauthor=false},
}
@book{aristotle:physics,
  options    = {useauthor=false,usetranslator=true},
  author       = {Aristotle},
  title        = {Physics},
  date         = 1929,
  translator   = {Wicksteed, P. H. and Cornford, F. M.},
  publisher    = {G. P. Putnam},
  location     = {New York},
  keywords     = {primary},
  langid       = {english},
  langidopts   = {variant=american},
  shorttitle   = {Physics},
  annotation   = {A \texttt{book} entry with a \texttt{translator} field},
}
\end{filecontents*}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
\section{Valerius}

let me quote this old text by \citeauthor{ValeriusNederlandtschegedenckclanck1942} which was edited by \citename{ValeriusNederlandtschegedenckclanck1942}{editor}.

\citeauthor{MeertensAdriaenValeriusleven1942} wrote an introduction for that text, you know!

\section{Usurpator}
\begin{itemize}  
    \item \cite{Usurpator-book-1} 
    \item \cite{Usurpator-book-2} 
    \item \cite{Usurpator-book-3}
    \item \cite{Usurpator-book-3-chapter}
\end{itemize}

\section{Oter examples}
\cite{aristotle:physics,butler_frankenstein_1998}

\printbibliography 
\end{document}