[Tex/LaTex] Remove numbering from `thebibliography` header

bibliographiesnumberingsectioning

So I realize I'm asking for trouble with this question because of its unknown document class, but…

I'm using my university's document class for my dissertation (a requirement), and thus it's not a standard class, such as article (it's pittetd).

I'm using the package natbib and the command thebibliography for my references, and I've been told I need to get rid of the section number (it reads "4.0 Bibliography" currently, but should read "Bibliography" only).

I've seen work-arounds that use \chapter* (or \section*) to suppress the numbering, but it doesn't work with this document class. It just ignores the asterisk, and the number remains. Two thoughts:

1) Is there a way to figure out the inner workings of the pittetd document class so as to find out how to suppress the numbering?

2) Should I use something other than thebibliography to be able to achieve this without having to worry about the document class? (Although I wouldn't want to use this option if it meant I had to go through my whole document and change the citation and reference styles.)

Best Answer

One way would is to save the definition of the environment thebibliography after loading natbib and let it be preceeded by the macro \@safebibliography as it normally has to be in pittetd class:

\usepackage{natbib}

\let\oldthebibliography\thebibliography
\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\thebibliography}{\@safebibliography\oldthebibliography}
\makeatother

MWE:

\documentclass[final]{pittetd}

\usepackage{natbib}

\let\oldthebibliography\thebibliography
\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\thebibliography}{\@safebibliography\oldthebibliography}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\nocite{*}

\begin{thebibliography}{2}
\providecommand{\natexlab}[1]{#1}
\providecommand{\url}[1]{\texttt{#1}}
\expandafter\ifx\csname urlstyle\endcsname\relax
  \providecommand{\doi}[1]{doi: #1}\else
  \providecommand{\doi}{doi: \begingroup \urlstyle{rm}\Url}\fi

\bibitem[Last(1900)]{art1}
First Last.
\newblock A fictitious long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long journal article.
\newblock \emph{Journal of nothingness}, 2:\penalty0 1--2, 1900.

\bibitem[Writer(2000)]{boo1}
Respectable Writer.
\newblock \emph{A silly book}.
\newblock PublishCo, Somewhere, 2000.

\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}

Output:

enter image description here

In this way the formatting of the bibliography is the right one.

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