Citation should treat authors with the same given name and initials the same (even if one has given their name spelled out in the bib entry)

Question

Similar to this post, I would like to limit the author list in a citation to one + et al. (even if the author teams may be different). The proposed solution (uniquelist=false) essentially also works, but there is a problem when using it in combination with citestyle=authoryear-comp. If in the bibliography, the same (first) author once appears with their given name written out, and once only with their initials, they are not treated as the same author. So in a list of citations, even though citestyle=authoryear-comp, the citations will be separated. Here's an example:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[
    citestyle=authoryear-comp,
    maxcitenames=1,
    giveninits=true,
    uniquename=init,
    uniquelist=false,
    ibidtracker=context,
 % 
    bibstyle=authoryear,
    dashed=false, % dashed: substitute rep. author with ---
    date=year,
    sorting=nyt,
    minbibnames=3,
    hyperref=true,
    backref=true,
    citecounter=true,
    citetracker=true,
    natbib=true, % natbib compatibility mode (\citep and \citet still work)
    backend=biber, % Compile the bibliography with biber
]{biblatex}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage{hyperref}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{ABC01,
  author = {Author, A. and Buthor, B. and C},
  year = {2001},
  title = {Alpha},
}
@misc{ABC02,
  author = {Author, A. and Buthor, B. and Cuthor, C., and Duthor, D.},
  year = {2001},
  title = {Beta},
}
@misc{ADE01,
  author = {Author, Andrew and Duthor, D. and E},
  year = {2001},
  title = {And now for something completely different},
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

Some text \citep{ABC01, ABC02, ADE01}.

Some text \autocite{ADE01}.

\printbibliography

\end{document}

I tried to fix this behavior by following this post and setting giveninits=true and uniquename=init, but that did not solve the issue. How can I get biblatex to treat Author, A. and Author, Andrew as the same author?

Answer 1

Starting with biblatex v3.20 you can tell biblatex to only use initials for hashing, which would be enough here, or you can locally override the name hash with a unique "name ID".

If you want only initials to be used for hashing, go with

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  style=authoryear-comp,
  maxcitenames=1,
  giveninits=true,
  uniquename=init,
  uniquelist=false,
]{biblatex}

\usepackage{hyperref}

\DeclareNamehashTemplate{
  \namepart[hashscope=full]{family}
  \namepart[hashscope=init]{given}
  \namepart[hashscope=full]{prefix}
  \namepart[hashscope=full]{suffix}
}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{ABC01,
  author = {Author, A. and Buthor, B. and C},
  year   = {2001},
  title  = {Alpha},
}
@misc{ABC02,
  author = {Author, A. and Buthor, B. and Cuthor, C., and Duthor, D.},
  year   = {2001},
  title  = {Beta},
}
@misc{ADE01,
  author = {Author, Andrew and Duthor, D. and E},
  year   = {2001},
  title  = {And now for something completely different},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
Some text \autocite{ABC01, ABC02, ADE01}.

Some text \autocite{ADE01}.

\printbibliography
\end{document}

If you want to override hashing, go with

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  style=authoryear-comp,
  maxcitenames=1,
  giveninits=true,
  uniquename=init,
  uniquelist=false,
]{biblatex}

\usepackage{hyperref}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{ABC01,
  author = {id=A1, family=Author, given=A. and Buthor, B. and C},
  year   = {2001},
  title  = {Alpha},
}
@misc{ABC02,
  author = {id=A1, family=Author, given=A. and Buthor, B. and Cuthor, C. and Duthor, D.},
  year   = {2001},
  title  = {Beta},
}
@misc{ADE01,
  author = {id=A1, family=Author, given=Andrew and Duthor, D. and E},
  year   = {2001},
  title  = {And now for something completely different},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
Some text \autocite{ABC01, ABC02, ADE01}.

Some text \autocite{ADE01}.

\printbibliography
\end{document}

---

Old answer

You'd need a way to convince biblatex that Author, A. and Author, Andrew are the same person. A workaround is to give a shortauthor equal to Author, A. for those entries where the author is Author, Andrew.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[
  backend=biber, 
  style=authoryear-comp,
  maxcitenames=1,
  minbibnames=3,
  giveninits=true,
  uniquename=init,
  uniquelist=false,
  dashed=false
  date=year,
  backref=true,
  citecounter=true,
]{biblatex}

\usepackage{hyperref}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{ABC01,
  author = {Author, A. and Buthor, B. and C},
  year   = {2001},
  title  = {Alpha},
}
@misc{ABC02,
  author = {Author, A. and Buthor, B. and Cuthor, C., and Duthor, D.},
  year   = {2001},
  title  = {Beta},
}
@misc{ADE01,
  author      = {Author, Andrew and Duthor, D. and E},
  shortauthor = {Author, A. and Duthor, D. and E},
  year        = {2001},
  title       = {And now for something completely different},
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

Some text \parencite{ABC01, ABC02, ADE01}.

Some text \autocite{ADE01}.

\printbibliography

\end{document}