[Tex/LaTex] bibtex: citing authors with same surname

natbibsorting

I'm working on a document where I need to cite work by two separate authors with the same surname but different first names (Stefan Müller and Gereon Müller). I've followed the instructions in this other question, and mostly everything goes fine: if I type as \citet{gmueller98} shows, I get "as G. Müller (1998) shows" in the main text and then "Müller, Gereon. 1998. [rest of bib entry]" in the bibliography, and similarly for \citet{smueller03}. The only thing that doesn't work is that, in the bibliography, both Müllers are alphabetized between Collins and Engel. See MWE below.

.tex file

\documentclass{article}
\DeclareRobustCommand{\disambiguate}[3]{#2~#3}

\usepackage{natbib}

\begin{document}

\citet{gmueller98} mentions some of the data discussed in \citet{smueller03}. See also \citet{collins02} and \citet{engel70}.

\DeclareRobustCommand{\disambiguate}[3]{#1}
\bibliographystyle{spr-chicago}
\bibliography{mwe}

\end{document}

.bib file

@incollection{collins02,
Author = {Collins, Christopher},
Title = {{Eliminating labels}},
Booktitle = {{Derivation and explanation in the minimalist program}},
Editor = {Epstein, Samuel and Seely, Daniel},
Publisher = {Blackwell},
Address = {Oxford},
Pages = {42--64},
Year = {2002}}

@book{engel70,
Author = {Engel, Ulrich},
Title = {{Regeln zur Wortstellung}},
Publisher = {Institut f\"ur deutsche Sprache},
Address = {Mannheim},
Year = {1970}}

@book{gmueller98,
Author = {\disambiguate{M\"uller, Gereon}{G.}{M\"uller}},
Title = {{Incomplete category fronting}},
Publisher = {Kluwer},
Address = {Dordrecht},
Year = {1998}}

@article{smueller03,
Author = {\disambiguate{M\"uller, Stefan}{S.}{M\"uller}},
Title = {{Mehrfache Vorfeldbesetzung}},
Journal = {Deutsche Sprache},
Volume = {31},
Number = {1},
Pages = {29--62},
Year = {2003}}

Output:Output

Best Answer

You need an extra level of brackets around the \disambiguate... in the author field:

Author = {{\disambiguate{M\"uller, Gereon}{G.}{M\"uller}}},

This makes bibtex think \disambiguate is some sort of accent and so ignores it for sorting purposes. Compare with the discussion of \noopsort in the bibtex documentation "Using BibTeX".

Sample output

By the way I prefer etoolboxs mechanism for dealing with robust commands, as it provides a way to renew them.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\newrobustcmd{\disambiguate}[3]{#2~#3}

\usepackage{natbib}

\begin{document}

\citet{gmueller98} mentions some of the data discussed in
\citet{smueller03}. See also \citet{collins02} and \citet{engel70}.

\renewrobustcmd{\disambiguate}[3]{#1}
\bibliographystyle{spr-chicago}
\bibliography{mwe}

\end{document}

mwe.bib:

@incollection{collins02,
Author = {Collins, Christopher},
Title = {{Eliminating labels}},
Booktitle = {{Derivation and explanation in the minimalist program}},
Editor = {Epstein, Samuel and Seely, Daniel},
Publisher = {Blackwell},
Address = {Oxford},
Pages = {42--64},
Year = {2002}}

@book{engel70,
Author = {Engel, Ulrich},
Title = {{Regeln zur Wortstellung}},
Publisher = {Institut f\"ur deutsche Sprache},
Address = {Mannheim},
Year = {1970}}

@book{gmueller98,
Author = {{\disambiguate{M\"uller, Gereon}{G.}{M\"uller}}},
Title = {{Incomplete category fronting}},
Publisher = {Kluwer},
Address = {Dordrecht},
Year = {1998}}

@Article{smueller03,
  author =   {{\disambiguate{M\"uller, Stefan}{S.}{M\"uller}}},
  title =    {{Mehrfache Vorfeldbesetzung}},
  journal =  {Deutsche Sprache},
  volume =   31,
  number =   1,
  pages =    {29--62},
  year =     2003
}
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