Re: bibliography with certain canonical reference

    Hi Julian,

    As I mentioned previously, getting a form such as |GS §22| to appear
    as the bibliographic citation while still keeping a proper APA-style
    record required looking more closely at the grammar of |shorthand|.

    What became clear quite quickly is that |shorthand| does not play
    the role one might intuitively expect. In particular, ConTeXt’s
    |alternative=short| is not simply a way of saying “use the
    bibliographic shorthand I have supplied”; it belongs to a different,
    internally generated short-form mechanism.

    The interesting point, however, is that ConTeXt’s bibliography
    machinery leaves us rather more room to manoeuvre than the APA
    interface alone might suggest. In particular, |\definebtx|, together
    with the associated BTX setup mechanism, makes it possible to define
    a citation form that reads the stored bibliographic data directly
    and combines the |shorthand| value with the locator supplied in the
    citation.

    I am sending you the MWE together with its |.bib| file. I hope it
    corresponds closely enough to the precise case you described: the
    bibliographic entry keeps |Second Vatican Council| as the author,
    |GS| is stored separately as the shorthand, and the in-text form can
    be rendered as |GS §22|.

    I would still regard this as something that deserves further testing
    rather than as the final word on the matter. In particular, the
    mechanism should be tested with several distinct documents and
    several different shorthand/locator combinations, not only with a
    single occurrence of /Gaudium et Spes/. If it proves robust, it
    would be useful to document the behaviour and the limits of the
    method properly on the ConTeXt Garden wiki.

    And, of course, if someone finds a simpler or more elegant way of
    doing the same thing within the existing BTX machinery, that would
    be excellent — and very much worth documenting there as well. Then,
    as Hans would put it, we might suddenly feel the joy of discovering
    the simple solution we had been looking for all along.

    Best, JP



Le 19/08/2026 à 09:57, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context a écrit :
>
> Hi Julian,
>
> I have now got a working solution for your Vatican-document case while 
> keeping the bibliographic record properly in APA form.
>
> The idea is to keep the full institutional author in the |.bib| file 
> and add a separate field:
>
> shorthand = {GS},
>
> ConTeXt preserves that field even though the current APA specification 
> does not use it itself, and it can be accessed directly with 
> |\btxdirect{shorthand}|.
>
> A small wrapper then gives:
>
> \ConventionalCite{vat21965gs}{§22}
>
> which produces:
>
> (GS §22)
>
> while the normal APA citation still gives:
>
> (Second Vatican Council, 1965)
>
> and the bibliography remains unchanged in APA form.
>
> I have compiled and tested this successfully. I am attaching the 
> complete |.tex| test file (and the .bib) so that you can try it 
> directly. The next step, if useful, would be to see whether this can 
> be turned into a proper BTX citation alternative instead of using the 
> small wrapper command.
>
> JP
>
>
> Le 19/08/2026 à 09:46, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context a écrit :
>>
>> Hi Julian,
>>
>> I think I have now identified the difficulty more precisely. In 
>> ConTeXt’s current APA implementation, citations are essentially built 
>> around the author–date model, and the bibliographic categories do not 
>> naturally provide a field for a conventional siglum such as |GS|. 
>> This is why |righttext| does not replace the core citation: it is 
>> simply appended to it.
>>
>> The key |alternative=short| is also somewhat misleading in this 
>> context. It does not mean “use a free bibliographic abbreviation such 
>> as GS”; rather, it refers to ConTeXt’s own internally generated 
>> short-form mechanism. So it is important to clarify exactly what this 
>> |short| does — and what it does not do.
>>
>> Technically, ConTeXt does preserve an additional BibTeX field such as 
>> |shorthand={GS}|, and I have verified that it can be read back 
>> directly. The difficulty is that the current APA specification does 
>> not recognize |shorthand| as a normal field for a |book| entry, so 
>> the standard APA citation machinery ignores it. Moreover, 
>> |alternative=short| does not mean “use my siglum”; it invokes an 
>> internally generated short form. The problem, therefore, is not 
>> storing |GS|, but finding a clean way to make APA use that stored 
>> value as the citation form.
>>
>> With SBL, this difficulty is much less artificial, because the style 
>> is specifically designed for scholarly references in which one can 
>> more naturally distinguish between the full bibliographic record, the 
>> conventional abbreviation of a work or document, and the internal 
>> locator. This is precisely one of the aspects I am currently 
>> documenting for ConTeXt.
>>
>> I am nevertheless looking for an elegant solution that stays within 
>> APA for your particular case. The encouraging point is that ConTeXt 
>> already knows how to preserve and retrieve |shorthand={GS}|; what 
>> remains is to integrate that value cleanly into a reusable citation 
>> form, without misusing the |author| field or hard-coding |GS| in the 
>> document.
>>
>> JP
>>
>>
>> Le 19/08/2026 à 05:43, jbf a écrit :
>>>
>>> I was able to add a shortauthor = {GS} in the .bibfile and tried 
>>> alternative=short in \cite. Together with the appropriate righttext 
>>> it results in (<empty>, GS §22) so almost there, in a way, if we 
>>> could avoid that <empty>, but maybe we can't.
>>>
>>> Julian
>>>
>>> On 17/8/26 20:26, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Julian,
>>>>
>>>> Thanks — that is very useful, and I think we are now essentially there.
>>>>
>>>> Since |righttext| is appended literally after the author, could you 
>>>> try including the comma there as well?
>>>>
>>>> (\cite
>>>> [alternative=author,
>>>> righttext={{, ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
>>>> [main::aristotle2009ethics])
>>>>
>>>> If it behaves as your previous test suggests, this should give:
>>>>
>>>> (Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE/2009)
>>>>
>>>> That would be a pleasantly simple solution: |alternative=author| 
>>>> supplies the author, while |righttext| supplies the 
>>>> historical/edition dating information without requiring any change 
>>>> to the bibliography data or the APA rendering itself.
>>>>
>>>> It would also be worth checking afterwards whether the outer 
>>>> parentheses can be handled by the citation machinery itself, but I 
>>>> would first confirm this minimal form.
>>>>
>>>> JP
>>>>
>>>> * Aristotle might add one complication: if character is formed by 
>>>> repeated action, those repeated actions cannot themselves be 
>>>> normatively neutral. A just /hexis/ (ἕξις) requires the practice of 
>>>> just actions, which in turn requires some prior account of what 
>>>> counts as just. This is one reason why the /Nicomachean Ethics/ 
>>>> leads so naturally into the /Politics/: the formation of character 
>>>> depends on laws, education, and ultimately on the ordering of the 
>>>> political community.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Le 17/08/2026 à 11:16, jbf a écrit :
>>>>>
>>>>> Before retiring for the night I have quickly checked out your 
>>>>> suggestion (and don't worry about the change of date to 2009, 
>>>>> since this is the real date I need to deal with):
>>>>>
>>>>> [alternative=author,
>>>>>
>>>>> righttext={{ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
>>>>>
>>>>> [main::aristotle2009ethics]
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> produces:
>>>>>
>>>>> Aristotle ca. 350 BCE/2009
>>>>>
>>>>> Nearly there, so to get parentheses around it and 
>>>>> produce (Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE/2009), this is how I treated the 
>>>>> entire paragraph where the citation appears:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Aristotle understood that character is formed through repeated 
>>>>> action. We become just or unjust, courageous or cowardly, 
>>>>> temperate or self-indulgent through what we repeatedly choose and 
>>>>> practise (\cite
>>>>>
>>>>> [alternative=author,
>>>>>
>>>>> righttext={{ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
>>>>>
>>>>> [main::aristotle2009ethics]). Actions become habits, habits shape 
>>>>> character, and character influences what becomes easier or harder 
>>>>> to perceive and choose. Human beings remain capable of change, but 
>>>>> freedom gradually acquires a history.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Julian
>>>>> On 17/8/26 17:35, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> No problem at all, Julian — take your time. Translation work has 
>>>>>> a way of absorbing the whole day!
>>>>>> I’ll be interested to hear what you get from the test when you 
>>>>>> have a chance to try it.
>>>>>> Have a good evening.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> JP
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Le 17/08/2026 à 09:07, jbf a écrit :
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Caught up in other work right now JP (translation), and already 
>>>>>>> evening here, so it might be tomorrow before I can get back to 
>>>>>>> this. I'll let you know how it goes.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Julian
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>>>>>> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> maillist :[email protected] /https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
>>>>>> webpage  :https://www.pragma-ade.nl /https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
>>>>>> archive  :https://github.com/contextgarden/context
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>>>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>>>>>
>>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>>>>> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
>>>>>
>>>>> maillist :[email protected] /https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
>>>>> webpage  :https://www.pragma-ade.nl /https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
>>>>> archive  :https://github.com/contextgarden/context
>>>>> wiki     :https://wiki.contextgarden.net
>>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>>>>
>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>>>> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
>>>>
>>>> maillist :[email protected] /https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
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>>>> archive  :https://github.com/contextgarden/context
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>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>>>
>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>>> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
>>>
>>> maillist :[email protected] /https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
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>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>>
>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
>>
>> maillist :[email protected] /https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
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>> archive  :https://github.com/contextgarden/context
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>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
>
> maillist :[email protected] /https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
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> ___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : [email protected] / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
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___________________________________________________________________________________

@book{vat21965gs,
  author     = {{Second Vatican Council}},
  title      = {Gaudium et Spes},
  subtitle   = {Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World},
  year       = {1965},
  publisher  = {Libreria Editrice Vaticana},
  shorthand  = {GS},
}

\usebtxdataset
  [main]
  [julian-vatican-gs22-mwe.bib]

\usebtxdefinitions[apa]

% ------------------------------------------------------------
% Conventional siglum citation.
%
% The bibliographic record keeps the institutional author,
% while the in-text citation uses the conventional shorthand
% stored in the .bib file.
% ------------------------------------------------------------

\definebtx
  [apa:cite:shorthand]
  [apa:cite]
  [left={(},
   right={)}]

\startsetups btx:cite:shorthand
    \btxdirect{shorthand}%
    \ifx\currentbtxrighttext\empty\else
        \btxspace
        \currentbtxrighttext
    \fi
\stopsetups

\starttext

\subject{A conventional citation to \emph{Gaudium et Spes}}

The opening of paragraph 22 of \emph{Gaudium et Spes} provides a useful
example of a document that has both a full institutional bibliographic
identity and a conventional scholarly abbreviation.

The Council writes:

\startquotation
The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the
mystery of man take on light.
\stopquotation

This affirmation introduces the Christological anthropology developed
throughout the paragraph: Christ reveals humanity to itself and makes
its highest vocation intelligible.\footnote{See
\cite
  [alternative=shorthand,
   righttext={§22}]
  [main::vat21965gs].
The full bibliographic record is retained under the institutional author,
Second Vatican Council.}

The same source can therefore be cited conventionally in running text as
\cite
  [alternative=shorthand,
   righttext={§22}]
  [main::vat21965gs],
without replacing the institutional author by the abbreviation
\quotation{GS} in the bibliographic data.

For comparison, the ordinary APA author--date citation is
\cite
  [alternative=authoryear]
  [main::vat21965gs].

\blank[2*big]

\subject{Bibliography}

\placelistofpublications
  [method=dataset,
   dataset=main]

\stoptext