First of all I want to recommend the documentation of biblatex.
Next to the documenation the file biblatex.def
is very useful for every user. There you can find every default definition of userdefined commands.
You are looking for the command \multicitedelim
. The default setting in version 1.7 is a semicolon:
\newcommand*{\multicitedelim}{\addsemicolon\space}
The style numeric
redefines the multicitedelim in the file numeric.cbx
.
\renewcommand*{\multicitedelim}{\addcomma\space}
To set the default setting simple use:
\renewcommand*{\multicitedelim}{\addsemicolon\space}
If you just want to have a full citation in footnotes, you can go with \footfullcite
, but if you also want to exclude entries cited in footnotes from the bibliography, it is probably more convenient to define a new command that does both of these things at the same time.
We first set up a category called skipbibliography
.
\DeclareBibliographyCategory{skipbibliography}
Then we define \myfootcite
to add the cited entry to the skipbibliography
category and cite it in the \footfullcite
manner (this command is just \footfullcite
from biblatex.def
, ll. 2115-2121, with the \addtocategory{skipbibliography}{\thefield{entrykey}}%
line added)
\DeclareCiteCommand{\myfootcite}[\mkbibfootnote]
{\usebibmacro{prenote}}
{\addtocategory{skipbibliography}{\thefield{entrykey}}%
\usedriver
{\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{default}}
{\thefield{entrytype}}}
{\multicitedelim}
{\usebibmacro{postnote}}
If you now want to print the bibliography, use
\printbibliography[notcategory=skipbibliography]
to exclude entries of the skipbibliography
category.
If you want to use a numeric
citation style, you will want to use the defernumbers
option to make sure that the entries appearing in the bibliography are numbered consecutively (without the option, the skipped entries would also be "counted", which would lead to jumps in the numbering since they are excluded from the bibliography).
MWE
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=numeric, defernumbers]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
\DeclareBibliographyCategory{skipbibliography}
\DeclareCiteCommand{\myfootcite}[\mkbibfootnote]
{\usebibmacro{prenote}}
{\addtocategory{skipbibliography}{\thefield{entrykey}}%
\usedriver
{\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{default}}
{\thefield{entrytype}}}
{\multicitedelim}
{\usebibmacro{postnote}}
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum \cite{cicero} dolor\myfootcite{wilde} sit amet.
\printbibliography[notcategory=skipbibliography]
\end{document}
Best Answer
I think your style guidelines are making a huge mistake when they want you to cite without page references. Page references are extremely useful.
It is not always possible to persuade those in charge to come to their senses, so here is a solution to suppress all postnotes in citations. It should work for most citation styles.