I've read several posts and other webpages now on using \protect
in front of \cite
inside \caption
. They all advise using \protect
in this situation, and many go as far as to say that you must use it.
Now, I've been able to use \cite
inside \caption
without \protect
and still get no errors. For example, the following works fine:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
Hello
\caption{I cite this \cite[p. 41]{lang:cyc}.}
\end{figure}
\begin{thebibliography}{1}
\bibitem{lang:cyc}
S.~Lang.
\newblock {\em Cyclotomic fields {I} and {II}}, volume 121 of {\em Graduate Texts in Mathematics}.
\newblock Springer-Verlag, New York, second edition, 1990.
\newblock With an appendix by Karl Rubin.
\end{thebibliography}
\end{document}
I'm interested to know, therefore, whether \protect
is strictly necessary in this context. Could it be that it's sometimes not necessary (as in the above), but that it's best to use it anyway because you never know when some intricate circumstance might make it necessary?
Thanks for your help.
Best Answer
It shouldn't be necessary, because the kernel
\cite
command is robust. Also the main packages for managing bibliographies, such asnatbib
andbiblatex
have care to redefine\cite
in a robust fashion.Some packages, unfortunately don't, for example
apacite
(butnatbib
emulates it pretty well). In such a case,\protect
would become necessary.Adding
\protect
when not strictly necessary shouldn't be a problem, though.