Biblatex---suppress shorthand introduction

Question

I'm writing a class paper with some shorthands that are so common I don't need any introduction to them in the first note.

biblatex-chicago has two ways to customize the shorthand intro, but I don't see a way to omit it for a particular entry.

There are two features listed to alter the entry, which by default is "(hereafter cited as shorthand)":

• shorthandintro: (4.1 in the biblatex-chicago manual) Adding this to a bib entry replaces the default intro. When left blank, though, the default still appears. That is, shorthandintro = {}, has no effect.
• shorthandpunct: (4.4.2 in the biblatex-chicago manual) This is an option that can be set for a whole document or for an entry, but I can't figure out the syntax for an individual entry. It controls the leading punctuation:

  The default is \addspace, but if this isn’t correct for your needs, especially if you change the shorthandintro or don't want the whole phrase inside parentheses, then you can change it in the preamble or in individual entries.

I've tried shorthand = none,, shorthand = {none},, and a few other things, but it doesn't work.

Is there a way to use these options to omit the shorthand introduction? I don't want to suppress the shorthand field and its other functionalities, just this introduction that appears at the first full citation.

Answer 1

Biber removes empty fields, so

shorthandintro = {},

will have the same effect as not giving any shorthandintro field at all. And if no shorthandintro field is present, biblatex-chicago uses the normal method to introduce the shorthand.

Here is a copy of cms:shorthandintro, the bibmacro responsible for introdcuing the shorthand, that makes the value none for shorthandintro special and suppresses the shorthand introduction in that case.

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

\usepackage[notes, backend=biber]{biblatex-chicago}

\renewbibmacro*{cms:shorthandintro}{% For changing the citedas phrase
  \iffieldundef{shorthand}%
    {}%
    {\iffieldundef{shorthandintro}%
       {\ifthenelse{\ifentrytype{jurisdiction}\OR\ifentrytype{legal}\OR%
          \ifentrytype{legislation}}%
          {\printtext[brackets]{%
             \bibstring{hereinafter}\addspace%
             \printfield{shorthand}}}%
          {\printtext[parens]{%
            \bibstring{citedas}\addspace%
            \printfield{shorthand}}}}%
       {\iffieldequalstr{shorthandintro}{none}
          {}
          {\printfield{shorthandintro}}}}}


\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@manual{realcms,
  shorthand      = {CMS},
  shorthandintro = {none},
  title          = {The {Chicago} Manual of Style},
  date           = 2003,
  subtitle       = {The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers},
  edition        = 15,
  publisher      = {University of Chicago Press},
  location       = {Chicago, Ill.},
  isbn           = {0-226-10403-6},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
Lorem\autocite{realcms}
ipsum\autocite{kant:kpv}
dolor\autocite{sigfridsson}
sit\autocite{kant:kpv}
amet\autocite{sigfridsson}
consectur\autocite{realcms}.
\printbibliography
\end{document}

---

There are several other alternatives if you don't like this method.

If you use the execute field to just empty the definition of cms:shorthandintro you'll need no additional code in your preamble whatsoever

@manual{realcms,
  shorthand      = {CMS},
  execute        = {\renewbibmacro*{cms:shorthandintro}{}},
  title          = {The {Chicago} Manual of Style},
  date           = 2003,
  subtitle       = {The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers},
  edition        = 15,
  publisher      = {University of Chicago Press},
  location       = {Chicago, Ill.},
  isbn           = {0-226-10403-6},
}

It would also be possible to implement an entry-level option to suppress the shorthand intro. But methods like that will be extremely similar to the shorthandintro = {none}, shown above.