[Tex/LaTex] Difference between biblatex [style=chicago] and biblatex-chicago packages

biblatexchicago-style

I would like to know the difference between \usepackage[authordate,backend=biber]{biblatex-chicago} and \usepackage[style=chicago-authordate,backend=biber]{biblatex}?

Best Answer

Quoting from section 5.5.1 of the biblatex-chicago manual (a full reading of this section is recommended):

[...] With early versions of biblatex-chicago, the standard way of loading the package was via a call to biblatex, e.g.:
\usepackage[style=chicago-authordate,strict,backend=bibtex8,%
babel=other,bibencoding=inputenc]{biblatex}
Now, the default way to load the style, and one that will in the vast majority of standard cases produce the same results as the old invocation, will look like this:
\usepackage[authordate,strict,backend=bibtex8,babel=other,%
bibencoding=inputenc]{biblatex-chicago}
If you read through biblatex-chicago.sty, you’ll see that it sets a number of biblatex options aimed at following the Chicago specification, as well as setting a few formatting variables intended as reasonable defaults [...]. Some parts of this specification, however, are plainly more “suggested” than “required,” and indeed many publishers, while adopting the main skeleton of the Chicago style in citations, nonetheless maintain their own house styles to which the defaults I have provided do not conform.

If you only need to change one or two parameters, this can easily be done by putting different options in the call to biblatex-chicago or redefining other formatting variables in the preamble, thereby overriding the package defaults. If, however, you wish more substantially to alter the output of the package[...], then you may want to revert to the old style of invocation above. You’ll lose all the definitions in biblatex-chicago.sty[...]

What you will not lose is the ability to call the package options annotation, strict, short, and noibid [...], in case these continue to be useful to you when constructing your own modifications. There’s very little code, therefore, actually in biblatex-chicago.sty[...]

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Get biblatex-chicago working

The following minimal example works for me. Note that biblatex-chicago now requires the use of biber as opposed to bibtex if you are using author-date style or if your .bib file is UTF-8 encoded.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[nopar]{lipsum} % for dummy text
\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage[babel]{csquotes}
\usepackage[notes,natbib,isbn=false,backend=biber]{biblatex-chicago}  
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{Saussure1995,
    Author = {Ferdinand de Saussure},
    Origyear = {1916},
    Publisher = {Payot},
    Title = {Cours de Linguistique G{\'e}n{\'e}rale},
    Year = {1995}}

@book{Labov1972,
    Address = {Philadelphia},
    Author = {William Labov},
    Publisher = {University of Pennsylvania Press},
    Title = {Sociolinguistic Patterns},
    Year = {1972}}

\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\begin{document}


\lipsum[1]\autocite{Saussure1995}

\lipsum[2]\autocite{Labov1972}


\end{document}

Here are some extra considerations on using biblatex:

Make sure your TeX distribution is completely up-to-date. biblatex, biber, and the bibliography styles that depend on them are being actively developed, and small changes might have big effects.
biblatex is increasingly becoming dependent on biber as a backend (as opposed to bibtex) and although some packages work with both, you may want to consider using biber if you are using biblatex at all.
biblatex generates a lot of auxiliary files with various extensions that your editing environment may not be aware of. It is also sensitive to corrupted or incomplete aux files, so it's a good idea to manually delete them if you are encountering problems. This is especially true if you are trying to switch between using biber and using bibtex on the same file.
The basic command for using biber is:
```
biber <file>.bcf
```
You may need to adjust your editing environment preferences to use it from within the editor.

[Tex/LaTex] How to get BibLaTeX-chicago use title case capitalization

Any automatic solution will have a hard time beating a human well-versed in the Chicago Manual of Style's headline-style capitalization rules. So you're probably better off formatting titles in your source file manually. Whenever the document language or bibliography format calls for sentence-style capitalization, it is relatively easy to apply with biblatex's \MakeSentenceCase macro.

That said you could write a new macro, say \MakeHeadlineCase, and apply it in the title formatting directives. Another approach is to use biber's sourcemap option. It supports regular expressions and modifies fields before biblatex even sees them, which means the solution is entirely style-independent.

A rough approximation to headline-style capitalization is implemented in the following source mapping. It uses the XML syntax of the biber configuration file biber.conf. You can also specify source mappings in the document preamble with biblatex's \DeclareSourcemap command.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<config>
<sourcemap>
  <maps datatype="bibtex" map_overwrite="1">
  <map>
    <map_step map_field_source="TITLE"
              map_match="(^|\s)(\w+\S*w*)" map_replace="$1\u\L$2"/>
    <map_step map_field_source="TITLE"
              map_match="\-(\w+)" map_replace="\-\u\L$1"/>
    <map_step map_field_source="TITLE"
              map_match="(\s+|\-)(A(|n|nd|s|t)|F(or|rom)|I(n|s)|O(f|n|r)|T(he|o)|With)\b"
              map_replace="$1\L$2"/>
    <map_step map_field_source="TITLE"
              map_match="([:;]\s+)([a-z])" map_replace="$1\u$2"/>
  </map>
  </maps>
</sourcemap>
</config>

The first two steps capitalize words at the beginning of the string (^), after whitespace (\s) or following a hyphen (\-). The third map down-cases selected words after whitespace or a hyphen. The last map capitalizes words following a colon or semi-colon ([:;]).

Here's a self-contained example.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{biber.conf}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<config>
<sourcemap>
  <maps datatype="bibtex" map_overwrite="1">
  <map>
    <map_step map_field_source="TITLE"
              map_match="(^|\s)(\w+\S*w*)" map_replace="$1\u\L$2"/>
    <map_step map_field_source="TITLE"
              map_match="\-(\w+)" map_replace="\-\u\L$1"/>
    <map_step map_field_source="TITLE"
              map_match="(\s+|\-)(A(|n|nd|s|t)|B(ut|y)|F(or|rom)|I(n|s)|O(f|n|r)|T(he|o)|With)\b"
              map_replace="$1\L$2"/>
    <map_step map_field_source="TITLE"
              map_match="([:;]\s+)([a-z])" map_replace="$1\u$2"/>
  </map>
  </maps>
</sourcemap>
</config>
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@BOOK{Smith2003,
  title = {This is an off-the-hook book title, but it doesn't have a subtitle},
  publisher = {Penguin},
  year = {2003},
  author = {Smith, James},
  address = {London}}
@ARTICLE{Doe1970,
  author = {H{\"a}user, {\O}rnulf},
  title = {{\O}rnulf H{\"a}user's letter to the editor: an $\alpha$-to-$\omega$
           summary of $\epsilon$--improvement},
  journal = {Great Journal},
  year = {1970},
  volume = {40},
  pages = {207-234}}
\end{filecontents*}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

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Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Get biblatex-chicago working

[Tex/LaTex] How to get BibLaTeX-chicago use title case capitalization

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