Nicolas & Bruce,

thank you for the suggestions.

> You can set `org-cite-basic-author-column-end' to a higher value.

This alone made no difference but ...

From Bruce:
> Eric - since you're using selectrum, any reason why not just use
> oc-bibtex-actions?

From Nicolas:
> You are using the `basic' back-end for insertion. You may want to use
> something else by setting `org-cite-insert-processor' to an appropriate
> value, e.g., `oc-bibtex-actions'.

I didn't know about oc-bibtex-actions; now I do!  So I did this, which
did not work immediately due to some errors; in particular,
=parsebib-parse= did not exist as I had an old version installed.

For the record, in the end, I needed to do the following:

  1. set =org-cite-basic-author-column= to a larger number
  2. install =embark=
  3. update and load =parsebib=
  4. load =oc-bibtex-actions=
  5. set =org-cite-insert-processor= to ='oc-bibtex-actions=

Now =org-cite-insert= works like a charm!  I had been planning on trying
out embark in due course; now I have no excuse to play with it sooner
than expected.

Thank you both.
--
: Eric S Fraga via Emacs 28.0.60, Org release_9.5-149-g781080
: Latest paper written in org: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.05096