I just downloaded the sample manuscript of elsevier on the dedicated Elsevier's Latex Instructions webpage and when I run of the following commands:
pdflatex elsarticle-template && biber elsarticle-template
or
pdflatex elsarticle-template && biber elsarticle-template && pdflatex elsarticle-template
or
(three commands sequentially)
pdflatex elsarticle-template
biber elsarticle-template
pdflatex elsarticle-template
or
(with .tex
extension
pdflatex elsarticle-template.tex
biber elsarticle-template
pdflatex elsarticle-template.tex
I get the following error message:
ERROR MESSAGE N°1
INFO - This is Biber 2.16
INFO - Logfile is 'elsarticle-template.blg'
ERROR - Cannot find 'elsarticle-template.bcf'!
INFO - ERRORS: 1
There is no import of biblatex written in the template of elsevier. I tried to import manually by writing \usepackage[ backend=bibtex ]{biblatex}
inside the preamble of the document elsarticle-template.tex
but got the error message
ERROR MESSAGE N°2
! Package biblatex Error: Incompatible package 'natbib'.
See the biblatex package documentation for explanation.
Type H <return> for immediate help.
...
l.202 \blx@packageincompatibility
Elsevier seems to use the 'natbib' package.
How can I compile the document from the command line?
Best Answer
The standard citation/bibliography method of the
elsarticle
class is based onnatbib
and the classical BibTeX approach. This approach is completely incompatible withbiblatex
and also with thebiblatex
-only Biber backend.You cannot compile the normal
elsarticle
template with Biber. You need to run BibTeX on your file instead.If you want to submit your paper to Elsevier, do not load
biblatex
in your document. Use the standard BibTeX-based approach of selecting a style with\bibliographystyle
and indicating the.bib
file with\bibliography
as outlined in the template file. (In theory it is possible to havebiblatex
work with theelsarticle
document class as demonstrated in biblatex instead of natbib in elsarticle, how?, but this is explicitly not what Elsevier recommend for publication. They explicitly say to use BibTeX.)So as far as bibliography and citations are concerned, in your document you only need one of the style selections shown below,
\citep
and\citet
as desired and\bibliography{<bib file name without extension>}
compile this file, if called
elsarticle-template.tex
, withThe difference between
natbib
andbiblatex
and Biber and BibTeX is nicely explained in bibtex vs. biber and biblatex vs. natbib.