[Tex/LaTex] How to remove parentheses from year in Chicago style in natbib package

Question

I use natbib package and need to remove parentheses from year in Chicago style. Other questions in this site are not about natbib package. How should I do this? My codes are:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
  \usepackage[authoryear]{natbib}
  \begin{document}

      \bibliography{references}
      \bibliographystyle{chicago}
  \end{document}

Answer 1

• To remove the parentheses from the bibliography, save the chicago.bst file (found here) under different name (maybe 'chicago2.bst'). Look for the year formatting function (FUNCTION {output.year.check}) and replace it with the following:

  FUNCTION {output.year.check}
     { year empty$
     { "empty year in " cite$ * warning$ }
     { write$
        " " year * extra.label *
       month empty$
       { }
        { ", " * month * }
     if$
     mid.sentence 'output.state :=
    }
    if$
   }
  

  Now use this file as your style file: \bibliographystyle{chicago2}.

• To remove the parentheses from the citations, you can use \citealt or other alternative commands. Check out the reference sheet for natbib (page 2, Suppressed parentheses). A snapshot from the reference sheet is given below.