Re: [Refdb-users] The case against <middlename>

[Markus H. <mar...@mh...>]

Bruce D'Arcus writes:
 >  From my understanding, it makes sense to remove middlename from risx, 
 > and change first and last to family and given, to allow for later 
 > internationalization (think xml:lang) and MODS.  This took my awhile to 

As I've pointed out occasionally, I'm not religious about element
names. Changing first and last to family and given might be more
intuitive, given that "first" and "last" do not appear in this order
in some cultures.

However, the discussion about middlename forgets one fact that we
can't simply ignore. While it might be desirable to drop middlename in
order to make the markup more culture-agnostic, the main purpose of
RefDB is to format bibliographies according to publisher's
specifications. If you don't like middle names or middle initials,
you'll have to file a motion with the publishers of scientific
journals to remove these. In the life sciences approx. 99% of all
journals use middle names or middle initials regardless of the
cultural background of the authors. I've mentioned it previously that
my friend Raman (who insists that this is his full name) appears as
C.S. Raman on his papers for the sole purpose of having two initials.
RefDB must support middle names if it wants to be useful in the life
sciences.

regards,
Markus

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
mar...@ca...
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