[Tex/LaTex] How to get a custom citation type in BibTeX

apa-stylebibtexnatbib

I would like to cite a movie in a paper I'm preparing. The style is APA, so (according to this document) the citation in the text should be "(Mulcahy, 1986)" and the reference itself should appear as

Mulcahy, R. (Director). (1986) Highlander. Cannon Films.

I'm using BibDesk to manage my references, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of motion picture entry type. For now I can achieve the desired effect by entering it as a book, with Cannon Films as the publisher and {Mulcahy, R. (Director).} as the author. The citation in the text comes out as "(Mulcahy, R. (Director)., 1986)", but I can achieve the right appearance by entering "(Mulcahy \citeyear{MUL86})".

However, this is obviously a hack, and I'd like to know if there's a "right way" to do what I'm trying to do here.

Best Answer

The main BibTeX style files recognize a "catch-all" entry type called @misc. It would seem OK to use it for entries of type "movie".

If you use the bibliography style apalike, you'll get this output:

enter image description here

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\documentclass{article} 
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{mulcahy86,
 author  = "Mulcahy, R. {\relax (Director)}", % don't abbreviate "Director"...
 year    = 1986,
 title   = "Highlander",
 howpublished = "Cannon Films",
}
\end{filecontents*}
\bibliographystyle{apalike} % select your preferred bibliography style here
\usepackage{natbib}
\begin{document}
\citet{mulcahy86}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}

Alternatively, if you use the apa document class (which provides its own bibliography style), you'll get this:

enter image description here

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\documentclass{apa} 
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{mulcahy86,
 author  = "Mulcahy, Russell {\relax (Director)}",
 year    = 1986,
 title   = "Highlander",
 howpublished = "Cannon Films",
}
\end{filecontents*}
\usepackage{natbib}
\begin{document}
\citet{mulcahy86}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}
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