[Tex/LaTex] BibTeX: How to get rid of a period after author initial

bibtex

I have problem with authors initials. I should have a period after a list of authors, but when there is an author, which has only an initial it looks like: "Smith, J.." There are two periods, one from initial and one from the end of the list of authors. How could I add a condition that if there is a period from initial there won't be any other from the end of the list? Many thanks.

Edit:

I have created bst file using bst generator online. However I changed a comma after the list of authors to a period (by replacing ", " with ". " in .bst). I haven't found any bst with period after the list. I now there exist "if" in the bst, I hoped it could solve the problem, but I don't know how to use it.

There is the bib entry:

@ARTICLE{historie_kniha,
   author = {Beekman, G.},
    title = "{I. O. Yarkovsky and the Discovery of 'his' Effect}",
  journal = {Journal for the History of Astronomy},
     year = 2006,
    month = feb,
   volume = 37,
    pages = {71-86},
   adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006JHA....37...71B},
  adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

Edit #2:
The bst file is there:
http://pastebin.com/Ar0S3a27

Best Answer

Thanks for posting the link to the .bst file. From an examination of the function format.names and some of the other main syntax blocks, it would appear that (i) the style file is programmed to expect that full first names, rather than just initials, are provided for all authors and (ii) a "dot" (.) is inserted between all blocks of the bib entry.

You have two options at this stage -- other than engaging in a major rewrite of parts of the .bst file:

  • change the entry's name field to author = "Beekman, George"
  • change the entry's name field to author = "Beekman, G" -- no trailing dot (because the style file will furnish the dot for you)

Personally, I would recommend you pursue the former option. While it's more work up front, there are two benefits as well: (a) you'll be in full compliance with the style of whatever journal is making you use the bibgen bibliography style, possibly earning you Brownie points with the journal editors :-), and (b) you'll only have to do this once. And, should you decide in the future to submit a paper to some other journal that also expects that full first names are provided for authors and editors, you'll be all-set.

For your reference, here's what the typeset entry looks like if the author's first name is entered as "George" (by the way, which language renders "February" as "únor"?):

enter image description here

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\documentclass{article}
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@ARTICLE{historie_kniha,
   author = {Beekman, George},
    title = "{I. O. Yarkovsky and the Discovery of `his' Effect}",
  journal = {Journal for the History of Astronomy},
     year = 2006,
    month = feb,
   volume = 37,
    pages = {71-86},
   adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006JHA....37...71B},
  adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}
\end{filecontents*}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\bibliographystyle{bibgen}
\begin{document}
\cite{historie_kniha}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}
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