[Tex/LaTex] Reference section and citation call-out formatting, revtex4 document class

bibliographiesrevtex

doing my 1st revtex article, used an example template to get going, but the format I want for my References section eludes me. I have:

\documentclass[twocolumn,prb]{revtex4}   % prb is Physics Review B
\usepackage{amsmath}    % need for subequations
\usepackage{graphicx}   % need for figures
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage[pdftex]{hyperref}

At the end I have:

\section{Conclusion}

 There are articles that would be missed if only one or two databases/sources were searched

\appendix   
\section*{References}
\begin{thebibliography}{31}
\bibitem{1}
D Baye and P-H Heenen,
J. Phys. A:Math. Gen., \textbf{19} , 2041-2059 (1986).

\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}

I suspect from the comments, I have not got the right commands for the References section , and will probably might fix the issues below. ('prb' is Physics Review B) Please suggest some basic changes I might make for a better bibliography? I inherited what I have at the moment.

1) How do I make the 'REFERENCES' title start on a new line, AFTER the centred line that revtext puts.
Update: I had added more material, the article expanded onto a new page – and the References title was now in the correct place.

2) How can I get the bibitem numbering to be formatted like in square brackets, normal character format? (The prb standards I found say they should be in square brackets.)

Best Answer

1) How do I make the 'REFERENCES' title start on a new line, AFTER the centred line?

You don't. As you've noticed, revtex4 style inserts a short horizontal rule immediately ahead of the bibliography and does not provide a separate header (such as "REFERENCES"). If you need to use the revtex4 document class, do not modify this very basic and distinctive document layout feature.

2) How can I get the bibitem numbering to be formatted like in square brackets, normal character format? (The prb standards I found say they should be in square brackets)

The revtex4 document class automatically loads the natbib package. Thus, inserting the instruction

\setcitestyle{numbers,square}

in the preamble will give you non-superscript numbers encased in square brackets.

That said, you should seriously reconsider whether you really have to change the citation call-out style. On page 110 of the user guide of revtex4 class, under section 28.4.2, "prb", one finds:

PRB requires superscript citations.

Thus, if you provide the prb option to the \documentclass instruction, you should almost certainly not change the citation call-out style to plain-numbers-encased-in-brackets.

enter image description here

\documentclass[twocolumn,prb]{revtex4}   % prb is Physics Review B
\usepackage{amsmath}    % need for subequations
\usepackage{graphicx}   % need for figures
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{hyperref}   % no need to provide 'pdftex' option

\setcitestyle{numbers,square} % do reconsider whether this is necessary or advisable

\begin{document}

\section{Conclusion}

There are articles that would be missed if only one or two databases\slash sources were searched.\cite{1}

%%\appendix   
%%\section*{References}

\begin{thebibliography}{1}

\bibitem{1}
D Baye and P-H Heenen,
J.\ Phys. A:Math.\ Gen., \textbf{19}, 2041--2059 (1986).

\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}
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