[Tex/LaTex] author name formatting in plainnat

bibtexnatbib

I typed in the preamble

\usepackage[round]{natbib}
\usepackage{cite}
\newcommand{\bibfont}{times}

Then at the end

\bibliography{mybibfile}{}
\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
\nocite{*}

In bib file I wrote e.g.

@article{colizza08,
title = "Epidemic modeling in metapopulation systems with heterogeneous coupling pattern:       Theory and simulations",
journal = "Journal of Theoretical Biology",
volume = "251",
number = "",
pages = "450-467",
year = "2008",
url = "",
author = "Vittoria Colizza and Alessandro Vespignani",
}

In tex file I cite as \citep{colizza08}

I want to appear in paper as:

Colizza, V., Vespignani, A., 2008. Epidemic modeling in metapopulation
systems with heterogeneous coupling pattern: theory and
simulations. J.Theor.Biol. 251, 450–467.

while I get:

Vittoria Colizza and Alessandro Vespignani. Epidemic modeling in metapopulation systems
with heterogeneous coupling pattern: Theory and simulations. Journal of
Theoretical Biology, 251:450–467, 2008.

Even if I write
author = "Colizza,V. and Vespignani,A.",

I still get:

V. Colizza and A. Vespignani. Epidemic modeling in metapopulation systems

So how do I mak the author name appears in order: surname, first letter of 1st name, with the same output I want?

Best Answer

Here's how to achieve the desired author name format using biblatex. (The authoryear-comp style is a rough equivalent of natbib with author-year format plus cite.) For general information about customizing the bibliography format, see Guidelines for customizing biblatex styles.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[style=authoryear-comp,firstinits=true]{biblatex}

\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first}

\renewcommand*{\multinamedelim}{\addcomma\space}
\renewcommand*{\finalnamedelim}{\addcomma\space}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{colizza08,
title = "Epidemic modeling in metapopulation systems with heterogeneous coupling pattern:       Theory and simulations",
journal = "Journal of Theoretical Biology",
volume = "251",
number = "",
pages = "450-467",
year = "2008",
url = "",
author = "Vittoria Colizza and Alessandro Vespignani",
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\nocite{*}

\begin{document}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Remove issn/doi/url when using plainnat and natbib

I would not recommend modifying the *.bib file. You may need these fields one day (some journals ask to put DOI/ISSN, and URLs can be useful for your own reference). Instead, you should change the style file that regulates how bibliography is displayed.

Locate plainnat.bst file on your computer. Copy it to the directory with your *.tex files, rename it to something like plainnatnourl.bst and modify it such that it does not print URLs. You can then use

\bibliographystyle{plainnatnourl}

Modification should be rather simple. In case of abbrvnat.bst the only thing I had to do was to change

FUNCTION {format.url}
{ url empty$
    { "" }
    { <SOME CODE THAT FORMATS URL> }
  if$
}

FUNCTION {format.url}
{ url empty$
    { "" }
    { "" }
  if$
}

plainnat.bst should be similar.

[Tex/LaTex] bibliographystyle{plainnat} – citations and multicitations problem

As you've confirmed in a comment, implementing @egreg's suggestion and getting rid of the extra pair of curly braces around the author fields (and around the editor fields too, while you're at it) lets LaTeX and BibTeX generate the desired citation call-out format.

To address the second issue -- listing the authors' full names as "Surname, FirstName" rather than as "FirstName Surname" -- it's necessary to modify the bibliography style file slightly. Fortunately, the required modification is straightforward.

Start by finding the file plainnat.bst on your system. (If you have TeXLive or MikTeX, typing "kpsewhich plainnat.bst" at a command prompt should tell you where the file is located.) Make a copy of this file, and name the copy (say) revplainnat.bst.
Open revplainnat.bst in a text editor, and find the function format.names. (It starts on line 216 in my copy of the file.)
A few lines down from the start of the function, locate the instruction
```
    { s nameptr "{ff~}{vv~}{ll}{, jj}" format.name$ 't :=
```
Change this string to
```
    { s nameptr "{vv~}{ll}{, jj}{, ff}" format.name$ 't :=
```
You can probably guess what moving ff from the start to the end of the nameptr string does.
Save the file revplainnat.bst, either in the directory where your main tex file is located or in a directory that's searched by BibTeX. If you choose the second method, be sure to update the filename database of your TeX distribution.
Start using the new bibliography style by replacing \bibliographystyle{plainnat} with \bibliographystyle{revplainnat} and re-running LaTeX, BibTeX, and LaTeX twice more to fully propagate all changes.

Happy BibTeXing!

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{newtest.bib}
@misc{pub1,
  Author = {Silva, Peter}, 
  Year   = {2009},
}
@misc{pub2,
  Author = {Cash, John and Lucas, George and Noah, Steve }, 
  Year   = {2012},
}
\end{filecontents}

\usepackage[authoryear]{natbib}
\bibliographystyle{revplainnat}

\begin{document}
\cite{pub1}

\cite{pub2}

\bibliography{newtest}
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Remove issn/doi/url when using plainnat and natbib

[Tex/LaTex] bibliographystyle{plainnat} – citations and multicitations problem

Related Question