IQSS / IQSS/dataverse

CSL citation builder treats organizational author names as personal names, producing garbled styled citations

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Original size: 10 Type: Bug
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Description

What steps does it take to reproduce the issue?

  • When does this issue occur?

When a dataset has an organizational author (i.e. a corporate/institutional name with no personal name component) entered in the authorName metadata field, and the styled citation is viewed or exported using the Chicago Author-Date style.

  • Which page(s) does it occurs on?
  • The dataset page when viewing the styled citation (Chicago Author-Date format)
  • Any metadata export that uses the CSL-based Chicago Author-Date citation rendering (e.g. citation export, dataset landing page citation block)

Steps to reproduce:

  • Create or edit a dataset
  • In the Author field, enter an organizational name that contains no comma — for example: Geological Survey of the Netherlands
  • Leave the Author Identifier and Affiliation fields empty or filled — does not affect the issue
  • Save and publish the dataset
  • View the Chicago Author-Date styled citation on the dataset landing page
  • What happens?
    The organizational author name is incorrectly split and inverted as if it were a personal name in "Family, Given" format. Because the name contains no comma, the CSL author builder falls back to splitting on whitespace, treating the first word as the given name and the remainder as the family name. The Chicago Author-Date CSL processor then applies personal name inversion rules, producing a broken citation:

Survey of the Netherlands., the ogical. 2026. "Test Dataset." Geological Survey of the Netherlands Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.83300/GDN/35DIED.

Instead of the correct:

Geological Survey of the Netherlands. 2026. "Test Dataset." Geological Survey of the Netherlands Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.83300/GDN/35DIED.

  • To whom does it occur (all users, curators, superusers)?

All users viewing or exporting the styled citation for any dataset where authorName contains an organizational name without a comma. This includes public visitors, curators, and superusers — anyone who views the citation.

  • What did you expect to happen?

Organizational author names (those not in "FamilyName, GivenName" format) should be passed to the CSL engine as a literal author value rather than as a split family/given pair. The CSL specification explicitly supports {"literal": "Geological Survey of the Netherlands"} for corporate/institutional authors, which instructs the citation processor to render the name as-is without inversion or abbreviation.

Which version of Dataverse are you using?

v6.9 (gdcc/dataverse:6.9-noble). The issue was introduced in v6.4 when CSL-based styled citation support was added. It is not present in the legacy citation code path used for the non-styled citation displayed directly on the dataset page

Any related open or closed issues to this bug report?

  • The CSL citation support was introduced in v6.4 as part of the styled citations feature. The authorName field by design accepts both personal names (FamilyName, GivenName) and organizational names (free text without comma), as documented in the field watermark text: "FamilyName, GivenName or OrganizationName". The CSL builder does not currently distinguish between the two forms.
  • No isOrganization flag or equivalent exists on the authorName field in the citation metadata block, meaning the only available heuristic is the presence or absence of a comma — which is what the CSL builder currently uses, but only partially correctly.

Screenshots:

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Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the CSL author builder used by styled Chicago Author-Date citations and reproduce the issue with an organizational author such as “Geological Survey of the Netherlands.” Trace how the authorName value is converted for the CSL engine; done means the citation renders the organizational name unchanged in the dataset page and metadata exports.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
58/100

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