[Tex/LaTex] How to differentiate between translated and reprinted work with APA style

apa-stylebiblatexbibliographiesbibtexciting

This question is an upgrade to this (already answered) question.

I am using biblatex-apa with biber as backend.

According to the APA style a "translated" work should be treated differently from a "reprinted" work. A "translated" work will simply indicate the translator and at the end the original date of publication (...Somepress. (Original work published 1923)), without indicating any other additional information about the source work on which the translation is based. Similarly to a "republished" or "reprinted book". On the contrary a "reprinted chapter" will need to indicate the original title of the book, pages the chapter/article was originally published at, author/editor of the original book, year of original publication, city and publisher.

I have then added two fields to my bibliography to store information on reference to original work reprintedfrom (in case the chapter/article was already printed) and original publication pages origpages.

I am then looking for a macro that will tell the difference between a translated, republished or reprinted book and a republished chapter/article.

In the first case should print

Buber, M. (1937). I and thou (R. G. Smith, Trans.). Edinburgh: T. & T.
Clark. (Original work published 1923)

with in-text parenthetical citations: (Buber, 1923/1937);

while in the second

Cohen, J. (1997). Deliberation and democratic legitimacy. In J. Bohman
& W. Rehg (Eds.), Deliberative democracy: Essays on reason and
politics (pp. 67–91). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Reprinted from The
Good polity: Normative analysis of the state, pp. 17-34, by A. P.
Hamlin & P. Pettit, Eds., 1989, Oxford: Blackwell)

with in-text parenthetical citations: (Cohen, 1989/1997).

This answer offers a macro to add fields to the bibliography for specific bib items and add them at the end of reference:

Cohen, J. (1997). Deliberation and democratic legitimacy. In J. Bohman
& W. Rehg (Eds.), Deliberative democracy: Essays on reason and
politics (pp. 67–91). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Reprinted from The
Good polity: Normative analysis of the state, by A. P.
Hamlin & P. Pettit, Eds., 1989, Oxford: Blackwell) (Original work published 1989)

Problem is it won't add the number of pages for the original work and won't remove (Original work published 1989) that now is redundant in the complete citation.

I am interested to know if it is possible to tweak these macros to obtain the different citation styles as described above.

Please consider the following

\RequirePackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{mybib.bib}
@book{test1,
    address = {Edinburgh},
    title = {I and thou},
    publisher = {T. \& {T}. {Clark}},
    author = {Buber, Martin},
    translator = {Smith, Ronald Gregor},
    year = {1937},
    origdate = {1923}
}
@incollection{test2,
    address = {Cambridge, {MA}},
    title = {Deliberation and democratic legitimacy},
    booktitle = {Deliberative democracy: {Essays} on reason and politics},
    publisher = {MIT {Press}},
    author = {Cohen, Joshua},
    editor = {Bohman, James and Rehg, William},
    year = {1997},
    origdate = {1989},
    reprintedfrom = {test3},
    origpages = {17--34},
    pages = {67--91}
}
@book{test3,
    address = {Oxford},
    title = {The {Good} polity: {Normative} analysis of the state},
    shorttitle = {The {Good} polity},
    publisher = {Blackwell},
    editor = {Hamlin, Alan P. and Pettit, Philip},
    year = {1989}
}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}


% Set the values for the bibliography
\usepackage[
    style=apa,
    backend=biber,
    isbn=false,
    url=false,
    doi=false,
    eprint=false,
    hyperref=true,
    backref=false,
    firstinits=false,
]{biblatex}

% Recommended by biblatex
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{xpatch}

% Set language
\usepackage[british]{babel}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{british}{british-apa}

\addbibresource{mybib.bib}

\begin{document}

\cite{test1} 

\cite{test2}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

This is the output

enter image description here

while I am trying to get

enter image description here

Best Answer

You might want to try this slightly modified mapping command

\DeclareSourcemap{
  \maps[datatype=bibtex]{
    \map{
      \step[fieldsource=reprintedfrom, fieldtarget=related, final]
      \step[fieldset=relatedtype, fieldvalue={reprintfrom}]
    }
  }
}

It will turn the non-standard reprintedfrom={something} into related={something} and relatedtype={reprintfrom}.

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@book{test1,
    address = {Edinburgh},
    title = {I and thou},
    publisher = {T. \& {T}. {Clark}},
    author = {Buber, Martin},
    translator = {Smith, Ronald Gregor},
    year = {1937},
    origdate = {1923}
}
@incollection{test2,
    address = {Cambridge, {MA}},
    title = {Deliberation and democratic legitimacy},
    booktitle = {Deliberative democracy: {Essays} on reason and politics},
    publisher = {MIT {Press}},
    author = {Cohen, Joshua},
    editor = {Bohman, James and Rehg, William},
    year = {1997},
    origdate = {1989},
    reprintedfrom = {test3},
    pages = {67--91},
}
@book{test3,
    address = {Oxford},
    title = {The {Good} polity: {Normative} analysis of the state},
    shorttitle = {The {Good} polity},
    publisher = {Blackwell},
    editor = {Hamlin, Alan P. and Pettit, Philip},
    year = {1989},
    pages = {17--34},% that's better than origpages in test2
}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}


% Set the values for the bibliography
\usepackage[
    style=apa,
    backend=biber,
    isbn=false,
    url=false,
    doi=false,
    eprint=false,
    hyperref=true,
    backref=false,
    firstinits=false,
]{biblatex}

% Recommended by biblatex
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{xpatch}

% Set language
\usepackage[british]{babel}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{british}{british-apa}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\renewbibmacro*{related:reprintfrom}[1]{%
  \entrydata*{#1}{%
    \printtext{\mkbibemph{\printfield[apacase]{title}}}%
    \setunit{\bibpagespunct}%
    \printfield{pages}%
    \setunit{\addcomma\addspace}%
    \bibstring{byauthor}\addspace
    \printnames[apanames][-\value{listtotal}]{editor}%
    \ifnameundef{editor}
      {}
      {\addcomma\addspace
       \usebibmacro{apaeditorstrg}{editor}}
    \printnames[apanames][-\value{listtotal}]{author}%
    \setunit{\addcomma\addspace}%
    \usebibmacro{date}%
    \setunit{\addcomma\addspace}%
    \usebibmacro{location+publisher}%
    \newunit\newblock
    \usebibmacro{related}}}


\DefineBibliographyStrings{british}{
  reprintfrom = {Reprinted from}
}

\DeclareSourcemap{
  \maps[datatype=bibtex]{
    \map{
      \step[fieldsource=reprintedfrom, fieldtarget=related, final]
      \step[fieldset=relatedtype, fieldvalue={reprintfrom}]
    }
  }
}

\renewbibmacro*{origyear}{%
  \ifboolexpr{not test {\iffieldundef{labelyear}} and not test {\iffieldsequal{labelyear}{origyear}} and not test {\iffieldequalstr{relatedtype}{reprintfrom}}}
    {\printfield{origyear}}
    {}}

\begin{document}
  \cite{test1}
  \cite{test2}

  \printbibliography
\end{document}

A problem though is origpages; the best solution is to add the contents of origpages as pages to the related entry as done above.

But if you cannot, for the life of you, live with changing your bibsource, this redefinition of related:reprintfrom might be for you.

\DeclareFieldFormat{origpages}{\mkpageprefix[bookpagination]{#1}}

\renewbibmacro*{related:reprintfrom}[1]{%
  \entrydata*{#1}{%
    \printtext{\mkbibemph{\printfield[apacase]{title}}}}%
  \setunit{\bibpagespunct}%
  \printfield{origpages}%
  \entrydata*{#1}{%
    \setunit{\addcomma\addspace}%
    \bibstring{byauthor}\addspace
    \printnames[apanames][-\value{listtotal}]{editor}%
    \ifnameundef{editor}
      {}
      {\addcomma\addspace
       \usebibmacro{apaeditorstrg}{editor}}
    \printnames[apanames][-\value{listtotal}]{author}%
    \setunit{\addcomma\addspace}%
    \usebibmacro{date}%
    \setunit{\addcomma\addspace}%
    \usebibmacro{location+publisher}%
    \newunit\newblock
    \usebibmacro{related}}}

You will have to tell biblatex/Biber to recognise origpages though. This can be done via

\begin{filecontents*}{biblatex-dm.cfg}
\DeclareDatamodelFields[type=field,datatype=range]{origpages}
\DeclareDatamodelEntryfields{origpages}
\end{filecontents*}

Another MWE

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{biblatex-dm.cfg}
\DeclareDatamodelFields[type=field,datatype=range]{origpages}
\DeclareDatamodelEntryfields{origpages}
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@book{test1,
    address = {Edinburgh},
    title = {I and thou},
    publisher = {T. \& {T}. {Clark}},
    author = {Buber, Martin},
    translator = {Smith, Ronald Gregor},
    year = {1937},
    origdate = {1923}
}
@incollection{test2,
    address = {Cambridge, {MA}},
    title = {Deliberation and democratic legitimacy},
    booktitle = {Deliberative democracy: {Essays} on reason and politics},
    publisher = {MIT {Press}},
    author = {Cohen, Joshua},
    editor = {Bohman, James and Rehg, William},
    year = {1997},
    origdate = {1989},
    reprintedfrom = {test3},
    %related = {test3},
    %relatedtype={reprintfrom},
    origpages = {17--34},
    pages = {67--91}
}
@book{test3,
    address = {Oxford},
    title = {The {Good} polity: {Normative} analysis of the state},
    shorttitle = {The {Good} polity},
    publisher = {Blackwell},
    editor = {Hamlin, Alan P. and Pettit, Philip},
    year = {1989}
}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}


% Set the values for the bibliography
\usepackage[
    style=apa,
    backend=biber,
    isbn=false,
    url=false,
    doi=false,
    eprint=false,
    hyperref=true,
    backref=false,
    firstinits=false,
]{biblatex}

% Recommended by biblatex
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{xpatch}

% Set language
\usepackage[british]{babel}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{british}{british-apa}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\DeclareFieldFormat{origpages}{\mkpageprefix[bookpagination]{#1}}

\renewbibmacro*{related:reprintfrom}[1]{%
  \entrydata*{#1}{%
    \printtext{\mkbibemph{\printfield[apacase]{title}}}}%
    \setunit{\bibpagespunct}%
    \printfield{origpages}%
  \entrydata*{#1}{%
    \setunit{\addcomma\addspace}%
    \bibstring{byauthor}\addspace
    \printnames[apanames][-\value{listtotal}]{editor}%
    \ifnameundef{editor}
      {}
      {\addcomma\addspace
       \usebibmacro{apaeditorstrg}{editor}}
    \printnames[apanames][-\value{listtotal}]{author}%
    \setunit{\addcomma\addspace}%
    \usebibmacro{date}%
    \setunit{\addcomma\addspace}%
    \usebibmacro{location+publisher}%
    \newunit\newblock
    \usebibmacro{related}}}


\DefineBibliographyStrings{british}{
  reprintfrom = {Reprinted from}
}

\DeclareSourcemap{
  \maps[datatype=bibtex]{
    \map{
      \step[fieldsource=reprintedfrom, fieldtarget=related, final]
      \step[fieldset=relatedtype, fieldvalue={reprintfrom}]
    }
  }
}

\renewbibmacro*{origyear}{%
  \ifboolexpr{not test {\iffieldundef{labelyear}} and not test {\iffieldsequal{labelyear}{origyear}} and not test {\iffieldequalstr{relatedtype}{reprintfrom}}}
    {\printfield{origyear}}
    {}}

\begin{document}
  \cite{test1} 
  \cite{test2}

  \printbibliography
\end{document}

To get rid of the origyear information at the end of a reprint, we modify the macro to include a test for reprinted entries (it checks if relatedtype is set to reprintfrom; the mapping takes care of that); the information is skipped if it is a reprint.

\renewbibmacro*{origyear}{%
  \ifboolexpr{not test {\iffieldundef{labelyear}} and not test {\iffieldsequal{labelyear}{origyear}} and not test {\iffieldequalstr{relatedtype}{reprintfrom}}}
    {\printfield{origyear}}
    {}}

Both MWEs yield

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] German APA reference: origyear field is incomplete (needs reprinttitle)

For the original question, the modification required is:

\renewbibmacro*{title}{%
  \ifthenelse{\iffieldundef{title}\AND\iffieldundef{subtitle}}
    {}
    {\printtext[title]{%
        \printfield[apacase]{title}%
        \setunit{\subtitlepunct}%
        \printfield[apacase]{subtitle}}%
     \setunit{\addspace}%
     \printfield{titleaddon}%
     \iffieldequalstr{entrytype}{book}%
       {\setunit{\addspace}\usebibmacro{bookaddinfo}}%
       {}%
     \ifthenelse{%
       \ifnameundef{author}\AND%
       \(\ifnameundef{editor}\AND\NOT\boolean{bbx:editorinauthpos}\)\AND%
       \ifnameundef{producer}\AND%
       \ifnameundef{director}\AND%
       \ifnameundef{writer}}
        {\newunit\newblock
         \usebibmacro{labelyear+extrayear}}
        {}}}

\DeclareFieldFormat{origyear}{%
 \mkbibparenss{\bibcpstring{origyear}~\thefield{origyear}%
 \iffieldundef{origtitle}
   {}%
   {\addcolon\addspace\printfield{origtitle}}}%
 }

\newbibmacro*{origyear}{%
  \ifthenelse{
      \NOT\iffieldundef{labelyear}
      \AND\NOT\iffieldsequal{labelyear}{origyear}
    \OR
      \NOT\iffieldsequal{title}{origtitle}}
    {\printfield{origyear}}
    {}%
}

\DefineBibliographyStrings{german}{%
   origyear = {Original erschienen}
}

This can be inserted in the preamble of your document.

For the extended version one has either to introduce new fields (this can be done,by modifying the data model, or by using the BibLaTeX facilities for related).

EDIT 1 and EDIT 2 To accommodate the case where the author of the original publication is different the first step is to modify the data model, this can be done with:

\begin{filecontents}{biblatex-dm.cfg}
\DeclareDatamodelFields[type=list, datatype=name,skipout=false]{origauthor}
\DeclareDatamodelEntryfields{origauthor}  
\end{filecontents}

This generates a file called biblatex-dm.cfg in the current directory with the instruction about how to extend BibLaTeX data model.

Notice that BibLaTeX provides a titleaddon field and this could be used to the extra information for the title ("Die Liebe" in the OP).

Eventually, one could add a field titletranslation for the selfmade translation, i.e., one can include the following two lines in the datamodel file.

\DeclareDatamodelField[type=field, datatype=literal,skipout=false]{titletranslation}
\DeclareDatamodelEntryfields{titletranslation}

Another possibility is to use an "unused" field, for example, reprinttitle. In what follow I'm going to use this option.

The next step is to modify the appropriate bibmacros. In this case, title and origyear for the formatting of the title (and related information about the original publication)

\renewbibmacro*{title}{%
  \ifthenelse{\iffieldundef{title}\AND\iffieldundef{subtitle}}
    {}
    {\printtext[title]{%
        \printfield[apacase]{title}%
        \setunit{\subtitlepunct}%
        \printfield[apacase]{subtitle}}%
     \setunit{\addspace}%
     \printfield{titleaddon}%
     \setunit{\addspace}%
     \printfield{reprinttitle}%
     \iffieldequalstr{entrytype}{book}%
       {\setunit{\addspace}\usebibmacro{bookaddinfo}}%
       {}%
     \ifthenelse{%
       \ifnameundef{author}\AND%
       \(\ifnameundef{editor}\AND\NOT\boolean{bbx:editorinauthpos}\)\AND%
       \ifnameundef{producer}\AND%
       \ifnameundef{director}\AND%
       \ifnameundef{writer}}
        {\newunit\newblock
         \usebibmacro{labelyear+extrayear}}
        {}}}

For originyear the first thing to do is to define the format. To this we check that originauthor is defined, and we set the punctuation accordingly:

\DeclareFieldFormat{origyear}{%
 \mkbibparens{\bibcpstring{origyear}~\thefield{origyear}%
 \ifnameundef{origauthor}
   {}
   {\addspace\bibstring{as}\addspace\printnames[FirstLast]{origauthor}}%
 \iffieldundef{origtitle}
   {}%
   {\ifnameundef{origauthor}
     {\setunit{\addcolon\addspace}}
     {\setunit{\addcomma\addspace}}%
     \printfield{origtitle}}}%
 }

Then we have to consider the cases when we have to output the information about the original publication (here the condition is that either the year, or the title, or the author(s) is different).

\renewbibmacro*{origyear}{%
  \ifthenelse{
      \NOT\iffieldsequal{labelyear}{origdateyear}
    \OR
      \NOT\iffieldsequal{title}{origtitle}
    \OR
      \NOT\ifnamesequal{author}{origauthor}
    }
    {\printfield{origyear}}
    {}%
}

Caveat A problem with the above solution is that not all bib entry types include instructions to format the information about the original publication using the above method. A more robust technique would be to use the facilities provided by BibLaTeX to handle related publications.

The last step is to use the appropriate value for the localisation strings origyear and as.

\NewBibliographyString{origyear,as}
\DefineBibliographyStrings{ngerman}{%
   origyear = {Original erschienen},
   as = {als}
} 

\DefineBibliographyStrings{american}{%
   as = {as} 
}

Finally, to change the rendering of names, we have to modify the formatting instructions for apaauthor

\DeclareNameFormat{FirstLast}{%
 \ifthenelse{\value{listcount}=\maxprtauth\AND\value{listcount}<\value{listtotal}}
    {\addcomma\addspace\ldots}
    {\ifthenelse{\value{listcount}>\maxprtauth\AND\value{listcount}<\value{listtotal}}
      {}
      {\iffirstinits
        {\usebibmacro{name:first-last}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}}
        {\usebibmacro{name:first-last}{#1}{#3}{#5}{#7}}}}
  \ifmorenames{\andothersdelim\bibstring{andothers}}{}}

[Tex/LaTex] Problem with biblatex apa style and uppercase umlauts

Update

A few things have changed since this answer was written.

tl;dr

With a current TeX system you only need one pair of curly braces to protect words starting with Ö from case changing. (Just like words with US-ASCII chars.)

Full answer

New versions of biblatex-apa use the language-sensitive \MakeSentenceCase* macro that tries to apply sentence casing only when it makes sense. \MakeSentenceCase* will only apply sentence casing if it detects that the current language is English (or another language declared with \DeclareCaseLangs). To detect the language, the macro takes into account the langid field of the .bib entry as well as the currently active language.

That means that in the example, where the main language is German, sentence casing is not applied.

\documentclass[ngerman]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[backend=biber, style=apa]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{elch,
  author    = {Anne Elch},
  title     = {Eine Theorie über Brontosaurusse},
  year      = {1972},
  publisher = {Monthy \& Co.},
  location  = {London},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
Lorem \autocite{elch}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

But even in English documents sentence casing can be 'turned off' for foreign-language sources for which it does not make sense if you specify the language in the langid field.

\documentclass[american]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[backend=biber, style=apa]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{elch,
  author    = {Anne Elch},
  title     = {Eine Theorie über Brontosaurusse},
  year      = {1972},
  publisher = {Monthy \& Co.},
  location  = {London},
  langid    = {ngerman},
}
@book{elk,
  author    = {Anne Elk},
  title     = {A Theory on {Brontosauruses}},
  year      = {1972},
  publisher = {Monthy \& Co.},
  location  = {London},
  langid    = {british},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
Lorem \autocite{elch,elk}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

If you absolutely don't want sentence casing for English titles, then you can disable it completely with \DeclareFieldFormat{apacase}{#1}.

\documentclass[american]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[backend=biber, style=apa]{biblatex}
\DeclareFieldFormat{apacase}{#1}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{elch,
  author    = {Anne Elch},
  title     = {Eine Theorie über Brontosaurusse},
  year      = {1972},
  publisher = {Monthy \& Co.},
  location  = {London},
  langid    = {ngerman},
}
@book{elk,
  author    = {Anne Elk},
  title     = {A Theory on {Brontosauruses}},
  year      = {1972},
  publisher = {Monthy \& Co.},
  location  = {London},
  langid    = {british},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
Lorem \autocite{elch,elk}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

All of this means that the entry from the question should be input as

\documentclass[ngerman]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[backend=biber, style=apa]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@incollection{Brosse.1995,
  author    = {Brösse, Ulrich},
  title     = {Ökonomisches Verhalten als bester Weg zu einer nachhaltigen Umweltverbesserung},
  booktitle = {Ökonomie contra Ökologie?},
  year      = {1995},
  langid    = {german},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
Lorem \autocite{sigfridsson,Brosse.1995}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

(though in this instance the langid = {german}, could be dropped because the main document language is already ngerman).

If you do find yourself in a situation to have to protect a word starting with Ö in an English language title, for example

\documentclass[british]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[backend=biber, style=apa]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{elk,
  author    = {Änne Elk},
  title     = {The {Öresund}},
  year      = {1972},
  publisher = {Monthy \& Co.},
  location  = {London},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
Lorem \autocite{sigfridsson,elk}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

then a single pair of braces is enough if you are using an up-to-date TeX installation and your document is encoded in UTF-8 (the LaTeX standard encoding since April 2018) so that you use the new expl3 case changing code.

The old biblatex case changing code had some peculiarities with respect to non-ASCII characters and their protection. The new expl3 code is much more predictable.

Outdated answer

Some code shown below is obsolete. The hints given here are no longer useful for a current version of biblatex. This part of the answer is kept for historic interest, but should not be relevant for new documents.

If you are writing in German - or are not too fond of sentence case (in its English meaning, that is capitalisation of the first letter of the sentence, and only that) anyway - you might want to "turn off" the conversion by \DeclareFieldFormat{apacase}{#1} in the preamble.

If you just have the occasional German entry, or prefer English sentence case, save for very few exceptions, you can go down the road of protecting certain portions of the title from being converted.

For umlauts and curly braces "the more the merrier" seems to be the name of the game. You will need a total of three pairs of curly braces to protect a single \"O or Ö. It is, however, better to enclose the whole word (not just the first letter) in curly braces to allow LaTeX to achieve proper kerning (see pp. 181 sq. of the biblatex documentation), in that case two pairs will suffice.

In the following entry, the first two "Ökologie"s in the title will render as expected whereas the latter two will not; the subtitle field will be rendered correctly.

@book{umlaut,
  author = {Ulf Martin Laut},
  title = {Alle {{Ökologie}} ist {{\"Okologie}}, aber {Ökologie} ist {\"Okologie} wird nichts},
  subtitle = {Einzelne {Buchstaben} sind noch grässlicher: {{{\"O}}}kologie {{{Ö}}}kologie!},
  year = {1995}
}

The MWE

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[backend=biber,sorting=nyt,style=apa]{biblatex}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{ngerman}{ngerman-apa}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{umlaut,
  author = {Ulf Martin Laut},
  title = {Alle {{Ökologie}} ist {{\"Okologie}}, aber {Ökologie} ist {\"Okologie} wird nichts},
  subtitle = {Einzelne {Buchstaben} sind noch grässlicher: {{{\"O}}}kologie {{{Ö}}}kologie!},
  year = {1995}
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

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

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