[Tex/LaTex] natbib with Vancouver bibliography style

bibliographiesbibtexexternal filesnatbib

I'm write a document of type tufte-handout, and wanted to use Vancouver reference style for bibliography, however I get the following error:

Package natbib Error: Bibliography not compatible with author-year citations.

This doesn't stop the document from generating, and references are also created fine, but they use plane bib style. How can I stop this error from occurring, and what does it actually mean? Is there a way to force Vancouver style?

EDIT: Added MVE. I should also mention I'm using BasicTeX.
Minimum working example:

\documentclass{tufte-handout}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1] \cite{Lucas:2006}

\bibliographystyle{vancouver}
\nobibliography{test-refs}

\end{document}

Content of bib file:

@inbook{Lucas:2006,
Author = {Adam Lucas},
Date-Added = {2016-03-01 22:05:32 +0000},
Date-Modified = {2016-03-01 22:05:32 +0000},
Number = {90-04-14649-0},
Pages = {65},
Publisher = {Brill Publishers},
Title = {Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and Medieval Milling Technology},
Year = {2006}}

Best Answer

It appears that the natbib package is being loaded with the option authoryear. In contrast, the vancouver bibliography style is designed to generate numeric-style rather than authoryear-style citation call-outs. To enable this behavior, it is necessary to override the default setting. This may be accomplished by issuing the instruction

\setcitestyle{numbers}

after the \documentclass instruction.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Bibliography style (vancouver)

Based on our discussion in the comments, you created a new .bst file using the custom-bib package. This .bst file then needs to be modified to be used with the jabbrv package.

It seems that the .bib files created by custom-bib package are a bit more sophisticated than the basic .bst files assumed by the package, and the modification suggested in the package web site doesn't work. Thanks to some discussion in chat with Joseph Wright, here's a modified function that works:

FUNCTION {format.journal}
{journal duplicate$ empty$
  'pop$
  {
    "\JournalTitle{" swap$ * "}" *
    emphasize
    output
  }
if$
}

This function is added to the .bst file and the following line in the {article} function of the .bst file

journal "journal" output.check

is changed to

format.journal "journal" output.check

Name the new .bst file jabbrv_thesis. I've put a copy here:

Modified .bst file

Now you can use the jabbrv package to do the abbreviations. To do this you use:

\usepackage[warnundef]{jabbrv}
\bibliographystyle{jabbrv_thesis}

If there are particular journal names that you don't want abbreviated (e.g. Nature) then you need to edit the jabbrv-ltwa-en.ldf file (located in the jabbrv folder) and comment out the \DefineJournalAbbreviation lines for those names. If there words that aren't abbreviated, but should be, (these will show up in the warnings) then you need to add lines like the following to your document.

\DefineJournalAbbreviation{<full name>}{<abbreviation>} % no final '.'

[Tex/LaTex] Customize bibliography style with natbib

Solved it. I'll leave this here in case anyone else needs a solution. This will make the citations as follows:

Case of 1 author: LAST name, FIRST name

Case of 2 authors: LAST name, FIRST name, and FIRST name LAST name

Case of 3 authors: LAST name, FIRST name, FIRST name LAST name, and FIRST name LAST name

(1) I decided to try an look at the plainnat.bst file but found I didn't have one. I dunno if it as built in or something but I decided to download it from here

(2) Save this file somewhere as something different so you don't overwrite the original plainnat.bst (wherever is is) and open it.

(3) Search for this block of code:

FUNCTION {format.names}
{ 's :=
  #1 'nameptr :=
  s num.names$ 'numnames :=
  numnames 'namesleft :=
    { namesleft #0 > }
    { s nameptr "{ff~}{vv~}{ll}{, jj}" format.name$ 't :=
      nameptr #1 >
        { namesleft #1 >
            { ", " * t * }
            { numnames #2 >
                { "," * }
                'skip$
              if$
              t "others" =
                { " et~al." * }
                { " and " * t * }
              if$
            }
          if$
        }
        't
      if$
      nameptr #1 + 'nameptr :=
      namesleft #1 - 'namesleft :=
    }
  while$
}

and replace it with:

FUNCTION {format.names}
{ 's :=
  #1 'nameptr :=
  s num.names$ 'numnames :=
  numnames 'namesleft :=
    { namesleft #0 > }
    { s nameptr "{ll,~}{ff}{vv~}{, jj}" format.name$ 't :=
      nameptr #1 >
        { namesleft #1 >
            { ", " * s nameptr "{ff~}{ll}{vv~}{, jj}" format.name$ * }
            { numnames #2 >
                { "," * }
                'skip$
              if$
              t "others" =
                { " et~al." * }
                { " and " * s nameptr "{ff~}{ll}{vv~}{, jj}" format.name$ *}
              if$
            }
          if$
        }
        't
      if$
      nameptr #1 + 'nameptr :=
      namesleft #1 - 'namesleft :=
    }
  while$
}

(4) Replace

\bibliographystyle{plainnat}

With whatever path and file name you need to find the file (wherever you saved it)

\bibliographystyle{/Users/joedanger/Documents/my_plainnat.bst}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Bibliography style (vancouver)

[Tex/LaTex] Customize bibliography style with natbib

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