BibLaTeX: How to insert parentheses around type field and remove dot before it using phdthesis entry

Question

Is there any method to print bibliography using biblatex+biber in that way

<some title> (PhD dissertation).

instead of default

<some title>. PhD thesis.

?

Answer 1

The parentheses can be easily added by redefining the field format for type. There are several ways to remove the preceding dot, the conceptually nicest solution would be to change the bibdriver. That in particular causes this answer to be style-dependent. As presented here it should work for all standard styles, but contributed styles may need different changes to their bib drivers. In the MWE below the bibdriver is changed with help of the xpatch package.

\documentclass[british]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[style=authoryear, backend=biber]{biblatex}

\DeclareFieldFormat[thesis]{type}{%
  \mkbibparens{\ifbibstring{#1}{\bibstring{#1}}{#1}}}

\usepackage{xpatch}
\xpatchbibdriver{thesis}
  {\newunit\newblock
   \printfield{type}}
  {\setunit{\addspace}\newblock
   \printfield{type}}
  {}{\typeout{Failed to patch @thesis driver}}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}


\begin{document}
\cite{geer}
\printbibliography
\end{document}