BibLaTeX: How to do to combine APA, numeric citations and German language options? (\apashortdash error)

biblatex

I am writing a text in German and I would like to use an APA-style bibliography with numeric citations in the text. (I know, biblatex-apa is not to be messed with, but both APA and numerics are explicitely required for the assignment.) Using the english option for babel, that works exactly as expected. As soon as I change to ngerman though, I get the known "\apashortdash undefined" error and TexMaker refuses to compile.
What can I do to combine APA, numeric citations and German?

Here is my MWE:

@Inbook{redei2008fish,
title="FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization)",
bookTitle="Encyclopedia of Genetics, Genomics, Proteomics and Informatics",
year="2008",
publisher="Springer Netherlands",
address="Dordrecht",
pages="689--689",
doi="10.1007/978-1-4020-6754-9_6006"
}

@article{volpi2008fish,
  title={FISH glossary: an overview of the fluorescence in situ hybridization technique},
  author={Volpi, Emanuela V and Bridger, Joanna M},
  journal={Biotechniques},
  volume={45},
  number={4},
  pages={385--409},
  year={2008},
  publisher={Future Science}
}



\documentclass{scrartcl} 

\usepackage[ngerman]{babel} 
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} 
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} 

\usepackage[
    bibstyle=apa,
    citestyle=numeric-comp,
    backend=biber
    ]{biblatex}
    
\makeatletter
\RequireBibliographyStyle{numeric}
\makeatother

\addbibresource{fishbib.bib}

\usepackage[german=guillemets]{csquotes}
\usepackage[breaklinks=true]{hyperref}
    
\begin{document}
Beispieltext mit Bezug auf Text 1 \cite{redei2008fish}.
Beispieltext mit Bezug auf Text 2 \cite{volpi2008fish}.

\printbibliography

\end{document}

Best Answer

biblatex-apa is supposed to be used both as citation and bibliography style at the same time (i.e. style=apa,). No care has been taken to allow you to use the citation and bibliography style separately or independently of each other. This means that the bibliography and citation styles may define or redefine macros in a way that assumes the other file is loaded as well.

Specifically your example never loads the citation style apa.cbx, which defines the command \apashortdash that is redefined by the localisation files. You can avoid this error by providing \apashortdash.

There is absolutely no guarantee that everything will look as you want, but the example compiles without error for me.

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[german=guillemets]{csquotes}
\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  bibstyle=apa,
  citestyle=numeric-comp,
]{biblatex}
\usepackage[breaklinks=true]{hyperref}

\makeatletter
\RequireBibliographyStyle{numeric}
\makeatother

\providecommand{\apashortdash}{-}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
Beispieltext mit Bezug auf Text 1 \cite{sigfridsson}.
Beispieltext mit Bezug auf Text 2 \cite{worman}.

\printbibliography
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Mimic BibTeX “apalike” with BibLaTeX – (biblatex-apa broken?)

I've been able to answer my own question using various hacks I found on tex.sx. As @PLK pointed out, there appears to be a compatibility issue with polyglossia and Biblatex, but among all the styles I tried this issue is only visible with the APA style. So I am using authoryear-comp instead that suits the requirements I stated. This might be useful for anyone wanting a simple, apalike style, particularly when using Mendeley.

Citations: cite: year in parentheses or citep: Author-Year separated by coma) -> \let\citealp\cite \let\cite\textcite
If using hyperlink, creating link for the full citation and not just the year. -> Answer from @Audrey, see MWE below.
Use of et al. when more than 2 authors. -> maxcitenames=2
Bibliography: Only initials for first/middle name. -> giveninits=true, uniquename=init
Last name, First name -> \DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{family-given}
Never use et al. -> maxbibnames=99
Only show year, even when month is specified -> \AtEveryBibitem{% \clearfield{month}{}% \clearlist{language}{}% } (also omits the language field)
Never show URL (retrieved from...) -> url=false, doi=false, isbn=false, eprint=false
Issue in parentheses, next to volume -> see MWE below.

There are also some other tweaks in the MWE below, such as using "cited" instead of "cit." for backrefs, removing "in:" for articles, increasing vertical space for bib items.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{%
    colorlinks=true, 
    citecolor=blue} 

\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage[variant=british]{english}

\usepackage{csquotes}

\PassOptionsToPackage{
        natbib=true,
        style=authoryear-comp,
        hyperref=true,
        backend=biber,
        maxbibnames=99,
        giveninits=true,
        uniquename=init,
        maxcitenames=2,
        parentracker=true,
        url=false,
        doi=false,
        isbn=false,
        eprint=false,
        backref=true,
            }   {biblatex}
\usepackage{biblatex}
\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{family-given} 

% remove "in:" from articles. Thanks to Herbert.
\renewbibmacro{in:}{%
  \ifentrytype{article}{}{%
  \printtext{\bibstring{in}\intitlepunct}}}

% mit "month" and "language" from Bibliography
\AtEveryBibitem{%
  \clearfield{month}{}%
  \clearlist{language}{}%
  }

% some natbib backwards compatibility 
\let\citealp\cite
\let\cite\textcite

% increase vertical space between bibliography items.
\setlength\bibitemsep{0.5ex}
\setlength\bibnamesep{1.2ex}

% Comma before and after journal volume. Thanks to lockstep.
\renewbibmacro*{volume+number+eid}{%
  \setunit*{\addcomma\space}% NEW
  \printfield{volume}%
  \printfield{number}%
  \printfield{eid}}
  \DeclareFieldFormat[article]{number}{(#1)}% number of a journal

% Citation Hyperlinks (not just years), thanks to Audrey.
\makeatletter
\renewbibmacro*{cite}{% Based on cite bib macro from authoryear-comp.cbx
  \iffieldundef{shorthand}
    {\ifthenelse{\ifnameundef{labelname}\OR\iffieldundef{labelyear}}
       {\printtext[bibhyperref]{% Include labelname in hyperlink
          \DeclareFieldAlias{bibhyperref}{default}% Prevent nested hyperlinks
          \usebibmacro{cite:label}%
          \setunit{\addspace}%
          \usebibmacro{cite:labelyear+extrayear}}%
          \usebibmacro{cite:reinit}}
       {\iffieldequals{namehash}{\cbx@lasthash}
          {\ifthenelse{\iffieldequals{labelyear}{\cbx@lastyear}\AND
                       \(\value{multicitecount}=0\OR\iffieldundef{postnote}\)}
             {\setunit{\addcomma}%
              \usebibmacro{cite:extrayear}}
             {\setunit{\compcitedelim}%
              \usebibmacro{cite:labelyear+extrayear}%
              \savefield{labelyear}{\cbx@lastyear}}}
          {\printtext[bibhyperref]{% Include labelname in hyperlink
             \DeclareFieldAlias{bibhyperref}{default}% Prevent nested hyperlinks
             \printnames{labelname}%
             \setunit{\nameyeardelim}%
             \usebibmacro{cite:labelyear+extrayear}}%
             \savefield{namehash}{\cbx@lasthash}%
             \savefield{labelyear}{\cbx@lastyear}}}}
    {\usebibmacro{cite:shorthand}%
     \usebibmacro{cite:reinit}}%
  \setunit{\multicitedelim}}

\renewbibmacro*{textcite}{% Based on textcite bib macro from authoryear-comp.cbx
  \iffieldequals{namehash}{\cbx@lasthash}
    {\iffieldundef{shorthand}
       {\ifthenelse{\iffieldequals{labelyear}{\cbx@lastyear}\AND
                    \(\value{multicitecount}=0\OR\iffieldundef{postnote}\)}
          {\setunit{\addcomma}%
           \usebibmacro{cite:extrayear}}
          {\setunit{\compcitedelim}%
           \usebibmacro{cite:labelyear+extrayear}%
           \savefield{labelyear}{\cbx@lastyear}}}
       {\setunit{\compcitedelim}%
        \usebibmacro{cite:shorthand}%
        \global\undef\cbx@lastyear}}
    {\ifnameundef{labelname}
       {\printtext[bibhyperref]{% Include labelname in hyperlink
          \DeclareFieldAlias{bibhyperref}{default}% Prevent nested hyperlinks
          \iffieldundef{shorthand}
            {\usebibmacro{cite:label}%
             \setunit{%
               \global\booltrue{cbx:parens}%
               \addspace\bibopenparen}%
             \ifnumequal{\value{citecount}}{1}
               {\usebibmacro{prenote}}
               {}%
             \usebibmacro{cite:labelyear+extrayear}}
            {\usebibmacro{cite:shorthand}}%
          \ifthenelse{\iffieldundef{postnote}\AND
                      \(\value{multicitetotal}=0\AND\value{citetotal}=1\)}
            {\bibcloseparen% Include closing parenthesis in hyperlink
             \global\boolfalse{cbx:parens}}
            {}}}
       {\printtext[bibhyperref]{% Include labelname in hyperlink
          \DeclareFieldAlias{bibhyperref}{default}% Prevent nested hyperlinks
          \printnames{labelname}%
          \setunit{%
            \global\booltrue{cbx:parens}%
            \addspace\bibopenparen}%
          \ifnumequal{\value{citecount}}{1}
            {\usebibmacro{prenote}}
            {}%
          \iffieldundef{shorthand}
            {\iffieldundef{labelyear}
               {\usebibmacro{cite:label}}
               {\usebibmacro{cite:labelyear+extrayear}}%
             \savefield{labelyear}{\cbx@lastyear}}
            {\usebibmacro{cite:shorthand}%
             \global\undef\cbx@lastyear}%
          \ifthenelse{\iffieldundef{postnote}\AND
                      \(\value{multicitetotal}=0\AND\value{citetotal}=1\)}
            {\bibcloseparen% Include closing parenthesis in hyperlink
             \global\boolfalse{cbx:parens}}
            {}}%
          \savefield{namehash}{\cbx@lasthash}}}%
  \setunit{%
    \ifbool{cbx:parens}
      {\bibcloseparen\global\boolfalse{cbx:parens}}
      {}%
    \multicitedelim}}

\makeatother

% Backrefs "cited" instead of "cit"
\DefineBibliographyStrings{english}{%
backrefpage={cited on p\adddot},
backrefpages={cited on pp\adddot}
}

\addbibresource{bib.bib}

\begin{document}
Finally, as written by \cite{Attanasio2010}, my Bibliography is cool \citep{Galindo2002}. Furthermore (see, for example, \citealp{Attanasio2010}) there are some cool tweaks.

\printbibliography

\end{document}

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Citing (author, journalabbr., year) needed

First thing to do is to add a field for the journal abbreviation to the article entrytype, journalabbr in the MWE. Therefore you need to declare a datamodel (an extra file; in the MWE I've used filecontents to simulate that) and you have to tell biblatex/biber to use it in the package options.

Then you have to modify the cite command, so it fits your needs. \citep from the authoryear-style (your citestyle) uses the \cite command. There you just have to add a switch, which checks if the field journalabbr is empty or not, and prints it out or not.

Last but not least you have to add the abbreviation fields to the entries.

MWE:

\begin{filecontents}{min.bib}
@article{boisson2003unexpected,
  title={Unexpected protein families including cell defense components feature in the N-myristoylome of a higher eukaryote},
  author={Boisson, B. and Giglione, Carmela and Meinnel, Thierry},
  journal={Journal of Biological Chemistry},
  journalabbr={JBC},
  year={2003},
  publisher={ASBMB}
}
\end{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{authorjabbryear.dbx}
\ProvidesFile{authorjabbryear.dbx}
\DeclareDatamodelFields[type=field,datatype=literal]{journalabbr}
\DeclareDatamodelEntryfields[article]{journalabbr}
\end{filecontents}

\documentclass[fontsize=11pt, paper=a4, ngerman, DIV=calc]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[scaled]{helvet}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault}
\usepackage{fixltx2e}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage[german=quotes]{csquotes}
\usepackage[style=authoryear-comp,sortcites=true,sorting=nyt,isbn=false,natbib=true, citestyle=authoryear,bibstyle=authoryear,backend=biber,maxnames=1,maxcitenames=1,
,datamodel=authorjabbryear%added!
] {biblatex}

\DefineBibliographyStrings{ngerman}{ andothers = {{et\,al\adddot}} }

\renewbibmacro*{cite}{%from authoryear.cbx
  \iffieldundef{shorthand}
    {\ifthenelse{\ifnameundef{labelname}\OR\iffieldundef{labelyear}}
       {\usebibmacro{cite:label}%
        \setunit{\addspace}}
       {\printnames{labelname}%
        \setunit{\nameyeardelim}}%
     \iffieldundef{journalabbr}{}{%
        \printfield{journalabbr}%
        \setunit{\nameyeardelim}%
        }%
     \usebibmacro{cite:labelyear+extrayear}}
    {\usebibmacro{cite:shorthand}}}

\addbibresource{min.bib}

\begin{document}

\citep{boisson2003unexpected} 

How it should look like: 

(Boisson et al., JBC, 2003)

\printbibliography

\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Mimic BibTeX “apalike” with BibLaTeX – (biblatex-apa broken?)

[Tex/LaTex] Citing (author, journalabbr., year) needed

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