I was poking around the Zotero site trying to see if there was a way to get a specific APA citation format [Author (date)] which is easy enough in LyX or LaTeX to work in a word processor such as AOO Writer or MS Word[1]. Well actually I was finding that Zotero inserts the citation in (Author, Date) format without allowing modifications as one can when inserting from a bibtex file and hoped to find a way to avoid having to go back and edit later if it could be done in a word processor.
I found a discussion of exactly that issue on a Zotero forum and came across a reference to the American Psychology Association blog that, as far as I can see, is almost exclusively devoted to advice on how to deal with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. As they say, “The APA Style Blog is the official companion to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition”. I know, from personal experience, that everyone from undergraduates to tenured professors obsess over proper referencing but a blog? Does anyone know of the existence of something like this for any other style manual? I don't have the slightest idea of how many APA Manual users use LyX or LaTeX but I think it's very nice that LyX offers it. Well that's partially just me being selfish but a lack of the APA6 document class would be a complete deal-breaker for anyone wanting to use LyX. Oh, and while poking along I ran over a note that the Manual was being translated into Arabic, Simple Chinese, Italian, Nepalese, Polish, Romanian, Portuguese, and Spanish among other languages. 1. The answer was no, Zotero does not do this but there is a reasonable work around: Just type the Author part and insert the reference with author suppressed.
