Maybe not simpler, but different …
<$vars authorlist="Maarten R. Dobbelaere and Pieter P. Plehiers and Ruben Van de Vijver and Christian V. Stevens and Kevin M. Van Geem"
replace1=" and "
replace2=",([^,]*)$"
>
<$vars first={{{ [<authorlist>search-replace:g:regexp<replace1>,[, ]search-replace:g:regexp<replace2>,[, and $1]]}}}
>
<<first>>
</$vars>
</$vars>
@pmario
I use this one https://guides.library.uq.edu.au/referencing/apa6 but there are others like
https://apastyle.apa.org/
Hi Mark,
Your solution is shorter! while uses sophisticated regexp 
Small and smart!
Thank you!
That’s true, the hard part is to show the author name as surname Initials , e.g. Nguyen, T., Carnevale, J. J., Scholer, A. A., Miele, D. B., & Fujita, K.
Assume a name like Ruben Van de Vijver where the last three words are surname! 
Of course some bibtex generator uses Ruben {Van de Vijver}
So I gave up!
Your solution will not look right if there is only one author, I think.
I check the number of authors! if greater than 1, then I use the solution!
\define show-authors-in-references()
<!-- display authors as comma separated list, removes "and" -->
\whitespace trim
<$vars number-authors={{{[{!!bibtex-author}split[ and ]count[]]}}}>
<$list filter="[<number-authors>compare:number:gt[1]]" emptyMessage="""<$view field="bibtex-author"/>""" variable=null>
<$vars authorlist={{!!bibtex-author}}>
<$vars first={{{ [<authorlist>split[ and ]butlast[]join[, ]] }}} last={{{ [<authorlist>split[ and ]last[]] }}}>
<$text text={{{ [<first>addsuffix[, and ]addsuffix<last>] }}}/>
</$vars>
</$vars>
</$list>
</$vars>
\end
The regexp solution takes care of that case automatically.
Ah, I did not know this!
So, your solution is shortest in this context!
Mark what do you propose for the hard part below?
I don’t suppose we can assume no middle names?
This requires human knowledge. You would need a pre-process that analyzes standard known special forms (e.g. Van de xxxxxxx} and maybe converts them all into something like Van#de#xxxxxxx. After that you can run your process to convert first and middle names into initials. At the end you would convert “#” into spaces.
I chose “#” because I know of no name with that symbol. I did know someone with an apostrophe in her name, so punctuation can sometimes be part of names.
There are some references with no middle name!
Normally these bibtex entries are downloaded from online databases like
many authors have no middle name!
I heard there were people stimulating their brains electrically with home-made equipment.
Tested and worked great!
I replaced my solution with yours and acknowledged your invaluable help in Refnotes plugin!
What do you think, if we process the {surname with space}? It seems bibtex uses {...} to indicate this is a multi words surname or a name which contains spaces!
If the source author list is already formatted for you, that should make things easier. But you’ll have to use some extra escaping in regexp because { } are used in regexp.
Thank you!
Yes, the multi words surname are wrapped into {}.
I will go through and will let you know the result!
If you can separate each author into a list, as tiddler titles, even if you do not create matching tiddlers, then store this as the list of authors. In the above examples you would initially replace “and” or “&” with a comma, then delimit on “,”. Keep that list, you can reorder with the list-links-dragable macro. Now it is trivial to give your self a macro to list the authors with the comma ", " except for the second last " & " and last “.”.
This expectation is appropriate in English for any list especially when “inline”. Such a macro can then be reused in other cases, the order and number of authors can change…
I can write the display/punctuation macro if you want, I possibly will anyway. You @Mohammad just need to turn the authors into a real list of items without English punctuation.
This follows my approach to extract reusable components from and solution to satisfy more cases. “Abstract and Instantiate”.
Pass this macro list-sentence the input-list or set <<input-list>> and it will do what you ask.
list-sentence.json (1.0 KB)
\define list-sentence(input-list and:" and ")
<$set name=input-list value="$input-list$" emptyValue=<<input-list>> >
<$set name=items filter="""[enlist<input-list>count[]]""">
<$set name=and-position filter="""[<items>subtract[1]]""">
<$list filter="[enlist<input-list>]" counter=position variable=item>
<<item>><$text text={{{ [<position>match<and-position>then[$and$]] ~[<position>match<items>then[ ]] ~[[, ]] }}}/>
</$list>
</$set></$set></$set>
\end
<<list-sentence "a b c [[fred blogs]]">>
author-list (field) ="<$text text={{!!author-list}}/>"
;Output of list-sentence
<$macrocall $name=list-sentence input-list={{!!author-list}} and=" & "/>
;List links draggable example on author-list field.
<$macrocall $name=list-links-draggable tiddler=<<currentTiddler>> field=author-list >>
Note
Hi @TW_Tones
Thank you for the snippet!
The application here is to read a bibtex entry and show it in the reference list!