author name with periods produces Et al

Question

I want to cite this article:

@article{kc2010ppe,
author = {K.C., Samir and Barakat, B. and Goujon, A. and Skirbekk, V. and Sanderson, W. and Lutz, W.},
journal = {Demographic Research},
number = {55},
pages = {383--472},
posted-at = {2012-07-06 13:25:30},
priority = {2},
publisher = {Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany},
title = {{Projection of populations by level of educational attainment, age, and sex for 120 countries for 2005-2050}},
volume = {22},
year = {2010}
}

The lead authors name is Samir K.C. (surname is K.C.). I cannot figure out how to get the reference correctly in the text. I am using natbib through biblatex. My .tex file is something like:

\usepackage[natbib=true, backend=bibtex8, firstinits=true, style=authoryear-comp, dashed=false, isbn=false, maxcitenames=3]{biblatex}
...
more preamble and the rest of the paper...
...
Global population forecasts, such as \citet{kc2010ppe} or...

Which outputs...

Global population forecasts, such as K.C. Et al. (2010) or ...

Where as I want a lower case e...

Global population forecasts, such as K.C. et al. (2010) or ...

I suspect this behavior is something to do with the unconventional surname?

Answer 1

The problem can be circumvented by resetting the punctuation tracker

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{kc2010ppe,
author = {K.C.{\midsentence}, Samir and Barakat, B. and Goujon, A. and Skirbekk, V. and Sanderson, W. and Lutz, W.},
journal = {Demographic Research},
number = {55},
pages = {383--472},
posted-at = {2012-07-06 13:25:30},
priority = {2},
publisher = {Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany},
title = {Projection of populations by level of educational attainment, age, and sex for 120 countries for 2005-2050},
volume = {22},
year = {2010}
}
\end{filecontents}  
\usepackage{biblatex}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\begin{document}  
\citeauthor{kc2010ppe}
\end{document}

---

The biblatex team have agreed that this is a bug in the package, and it's fixed in the master sources. Thus the next release to CTAN should remove the issue entirely.

Answer 2

A shorter workaround is to write the author as K.C\adddot, Samir. Quoting section 4.7.3 of the manual:

\adddot

Adds a period unless it is preceded by any punctuation mark. The purpose of this command is inserting the dot after an abbreviation. Any dot inserted this way is recognized as such by the other punctuation commands. This command may also be used to turn a previously inserted literal period into an abbreviation dot.