# Random capitalization of journal article titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Reference Reports\ **Created:** [September 28, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://hub.refrunner.com/t/random-capitalization-of-journal-article-titles/176 "2026-09-28T22:50:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rew](https://cdn.hub.refrunner.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rew](https://hub.refrunner.com/u/rew)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://hub.refrunner.com/t/random-capitalization-of-journal-article-titles/176/1 "2026-09-28T22:50:09Z")
Standard article title capitalization is to capitalize only proper names and beginning of sentence. Sometimes, RefRunner capitalizes every (major) word: Wilson, D.S., and McCrory, P.A., 2022, A Late Cenozoic Kinematic Model for Fault Motion Within Greater Cascadia: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, v. 23, p. Article e2022GC010442, doi: [10.1029/2022gc010442](https://doi.org/10.1029/2022gc010442). It is not consistent. most of the time is does not do this. Editing this is a pain. ---
**Author:** ![rew](https://cdn.hub.refrunner.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rew](https://hub.refrunner.com/u/rew)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 2:30am UTC](https://hub.refrunner.com/t/random-capitalization-of-journal-article-titles/176/7 "2026-09-30T02:30:19Z")
OK, thanks. I cant find that setting on my page. FYI: Here is a Geological Society of America reference format (Title in sentence case, paper is in a volume with its Title in leading caps): Sun, W.D., and McDonough, W., 1989, Chemical and isotopic systematics of oceanic basalts: Implications for mantle composition and processes, in Saunders, A.D., and Norry, M.J., eds., Magmatism in the Ocean Basins: Geological Society, London, Special Publication 42, p. 313–345, [https://doi.org/10.1144/GSL.SP.1989.042.01.19](https://doi.org/10.1144/GSL.SP.1989.042.01.19). Here is RefRunner output of a couple of references from my ms.: ![image.png](https://s3.pfaffmanager.com/sites/citationhub/original/1X/0f0cf29a6465aeeb6dda243923a89482245227af.jpeg) (I uploaded a second reference set that had already been through RefRunner as a test of formatting.) The formatting does not match GSA Bulletin. The proper names in the titles are sometimes converted to lower case, so I would select keep original. Half of the hyperlinks were not active in the original. I want to make them active, but most hyperlinks are dead in the download (I get some working links if I select copy). If I select the proposed changes, the capitalization is wrong, and the hyperlink format is wrong. I’m going to let the Journal work out the formatting problems, but it would be nice to have working hyperlinks in the proper format for each reference that has one (several do not). Cheers, ---
**Author:** ![pfaffman](https://cdn.hub.refrunner.com/user_avatar/hub.refrunner.com/pfaffman/32/7_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://hub.refrunner.com/u/pfaffman)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 7:08am UTC](https://hub.refrunner.com/t/random-capitalization-of-journal-article-titles/176/8 "2026-09-30T07:08:03Z")
Thanks for the report, @rew! The short story is that this is now fixed. The longer story is that RefRunner had been maintaining a list of styles that needed to be sentence cased. Now it sentence-cases everything and for styles that do **not** want to be sentence cased, the formatting library (CSL) handles the case change. Sentence casing is actually pretty hard since it’s hard to tell just what is a proper name that should be capitalized. Even maintaining a set of cities would be unwieldy and still capitalize things that shouldn’t be (I used to use my mobile phone in Mobile; you might take a bath in Bath, and it would be nice to be in Nice). I did a bunch of work on capitalization yesterday, but it’s not deployed yet, as I need to test a bit more first. I’ll see about making links hot, but that’s up to the formatting system, I’m afraid. And it’s likely to bit things worse for the publisher. ---
**Author:** ![pfaffman](https://cdn.hub.refrunner.com/user_avatar/hub.refrunner.com/pfaffman/32/7_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://hub.refrunner.com/u/pfaffman)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 3:11pm UTC](https://hub.refrunner.com/t/random-capitalization-of-journal-article-titles/176/9 "2026-09-30T15:11:00Z")
> [@rew](#): > > OK, thanks. I cant find that setting on my page. First of all, you shouldn’t need to find the setting anymore, since now it leaves the title casing up to the formatting library, but if you click the avatar, you get ![image](https://s3.pfaffmanager.com/sites/citationhub/original/1X/8eb1031bcaabf0e940a4ccb8fc14fa41aabf5ce1.png) and settings, if you scroll down, has something like this: ![image](https://s3.pfaffmanager.com/sites/citationhub/original/1X/a32dfbcf9252145501bceefc5c3ce8d81464cef6.png) > [@rew](#): > > Here is a Geological Society of America reference format (Title in sentence case, paper is in a volume with its Title in leading caps): Now gives you this: ![image](https://s3.pfaffmanager.com/sites/citationhub/original/1X/3ab380e527f20db39e80613f23a68e3850611c83.png) Clicking the copy icon under the editor on the right gives you the right reference (with the DOI as a link) Sun, S. -s., and McDonough, W.F., 1989, Chemical and isotopic systematics of oceanic basalts: Implications for mantle composition and processes: Geological Society, London, Special Publications, v. 42, p. 313–345, doi: [10.1144/GSL.SP.1989.042.01.19](https://doi.org/10.1144/GSL.SP.1989.042.01.19). It’s mostly impossible to figure out what’s a proper noun, so what RefRunner does if your title matches the metadata, is to copy your version, so at least RefRunner won’t throw away your work! I looked at your last session with 204 references, and it looks like RefRunner did a pretty good job. I do see that it failed to link this DOI: Beck, M.E., 1984, Has the Washington-Oregon Coast Range moved northward? Geology, v. 12, p. 737–740, doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1984)12\<737:htwcrm\>2.0.co;2.—it’s got those `<>` in it, which confuses the code that tries to link it. This is a bug, though most publishers are not so unreasonable as to include such in their DOIs! I’ll see what I can do to fix that. That affects about 5 in your list. > [@rew](#): > > Half of the hyperlinks were not active in the original. I want to make them active, but most hyperlinks are dead in the download (I get some working links if I select copy). Here’s the answer on that. All of the references that RefRunner formats have working links, but the ones that it’s using your reference instead of the one it’s formatted are left un-linked. It tries to give you a hint: ![image](https://s3.pfaffmanager.com/sites/citationhub/original/1X/fa2e89537d7e7b81e2db722644907e26269a06a2.png) If you’ll select the RefRunner version: ![image](https://s3.pfaffmanager.com/sites/citationhub/original/1X/dc5df2cf0374f7281a71439745cae00dd7a30eed.png) They get properly formatted with the live links: ![image](https://s3.pfaffmanager.com/sites/citationhub/original/1X/64b18e5eac9f658d8c07e58af0a36bf0b4cccf9d.png) I’ll try to get the DOI-with-angle-brackets issue solved soon, but I think I’ve solved most of your issues, so I’m marking this one solved. Thanks again for your report and patience. I’ve switched this back to a public post so I can brag about fixing these bugs!