Q. I am editing an article that includes the following citation:
Lactantii Firmiani, Epitome Divinarum Institutionum ad Pentadium Fratrem, ed. J. Davisius (Cantabrigia, 1718).
The author of the book is actually Lactantius Firmianus, and his book is entitled Epitome Divinarum Institutionum ad Pentadium Fratrem. But the edition cited is entitled Lactantii Firmiani Epitome Divinarum Institutionum ad Pentadium Fratrem. So should I change it to Lactantii Firmiani Epitome Divinarum Institutionum ad Pentadium Fratrem (all italics, no comma) and not put in the author’s undeclined name (although that might be confusing when text references have it undeclined)? Or should I change it to Lactantius Firmianus, Epitome Divinarum Institutionum ad Pentadium Fratrem (leaving Lactantii Firmiani out of the title, since it’s not part of the original title)? Or should I write Lactantius Firmianus, Lactantii Firmiani Epitome Divinarum Institutionum ad Pentadium Fratrem? Furthermore, should I cite the editor as J. Davisius (as printed in the book) or J. Davis (which was his real name)? Aaaarrrgh!!!!
Q. When can we use apud in a note?
Q. I searched high and low but could not find how to cite computer programs according to the CMOS. It’s a rather complicated thing, it seems to me, with programs published by many anonymous people on the net, ever-changing versions (do these need a date?), and even very obscure and obsolete programs running on long-forgotten operating systems. I’d love to know the rules!
Q. I’ve always thought that when you use any as a pronoun it should be treated as singular. But in the following sentences, “Do they all match? Is any missing?” using is feels awkward. Does any in this case refer to they in the previous sentence?
Q. I am end-noting and fact-checking a book manuscript. I know that after providing a full citation for each quote, I can abbreviate the citation in subsequent endnotes. My question is: does every quote from the same interview need an endnote? There are several quotes in a row, some occupying only a couple of lines. It seems giving each an endnote is a bit redundant, not to mention tedious. May I say something like this in the note: “12. This and subsequent citations: Mike Jones (president, ABC company), in discussion with the author, January 1, 2012”?
Q. In the author-date reference system, in a text citation, should a nonbreaking space be used between the author and the date and before the page number or other locator if present? If ordinary spaces are used, the citation could break at either, causing the next line to start with a number, which seems undesirable.
Q. My joining your site was prompted by entry 8.40, “Centuries and Decades,” of your 14th edition. Your sample decades were 1800–1809 and 1910–19, and those examples make no sense to me. Decades must have ten years; decades can’t skip years; decades can span neither millennia nor centuries as you have them doing in your examples; e.g., 1800 is the last year of the 18th century, not the first year of the 19th century, and the second decade of the 20th century is 1911–20, not 1910–19. I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot, but isn’t precision an essential ingredient in all writing before style considerations? Also, should writing style be based on popular culture rather than logic? I’m troubled by this entry in your manual and I’d appreciate your letting me know how you justify it.
Q. We are producing our first e-publication. If we were printing the book, the notes would have gone at the end of the publication, but technology is dictating that we divide up the notes and place them at the end of each section. If a work is first cited in the chapter 1 notes and then pops up again in chapter 4, can I use a shortened citation in the chapter 4 notes or must I repeat the information in full?
Q. I’m a production editor working on a novel and can’t figure out the best way to present the epigraph source. The epigraph is “What I am is what I am,” and the author wants the source to be “Lauryn Hill, ‘A Rose Is Still a Rose.’” But in reality, the lyric is from the song “What I Am” by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians; Lauryn Hill sang that line in Aretha Franklin’s song “A Rose Is Still a Rose.” My first instinct is to just credit the epigraph as Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, but the book is urban fiction, and so referencing Lauryn Hill is important for the author. And I don’t want to make it too complicated, since this is a novel and the epigraph should evoke a feeling in the reader, not make them ponder the finer points of music sampling. Any suggestions?
Q. Can you call out a figure from a subsequent section? For example, can you make a first reference to figures 3.9 through 3.12 in section 2.4? My stance is that you can’t make a first-reference callout from the future, only from the current or a previous section. Calling out subsequent sections and appendixes (but not tables and figures) seems somehow different and not subject to this rule, which I might well have unknowingly made up.