[Tex/LaTex] Show only year in citation

Question

Currently, I am using this bibliography style:

\bibliography{mybib}
\bibliographystyle{apalike}

To cite, I just use \cite{stone2010}. This citation looks something like this:

…some text[Stone, 2010]. Some more text.

Now, I would like to achieve the following: in some sentences, I already mention the name of the author(s). In that case, I would like for the citation to only contain the year and not the name of the author(s). Let me explain this with an example. Currently, I have this:

...this was developed by Stone et al.\cite{stone2000}.

…this was developed by Stone et al.[Stone et al., 2000]

What I would like to have is:

…this was developed by Stone et al. [2000].

How can I get this?

Answer 1

You should (a) load the natbib citation management package with the option square (to encase years in square brackets) and (b) use \citet to generate "textual" citations.

Actually, if the natbib package is loaded, \cite defaults to \citet; you'll thus get textual citation call-outs automatically if you keep using \cite. To generate "parenthetical" citation call-outs -- of the type "[Stone et al., 2000]" -- you'll need to type \citep{stone2000}.

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{mybib.bib}
@article{stone2000,
   author  = "Flint Stone and Alexandra Alright and Daniel Doubts",
   title   = "Thoughts",
   journal = "Circularity Today",
   year    = 2000,
   volume  = 1,
   number  = 2,
   pages   = "3-4",
}
\end{filecontents}

\documentclass{article}
\bibliographystyle{apalike}
\usepackage[square]{natbib}
\begin{document}
\dots\ this was developed by \citet{stone2000}.
\bibliography{mybib}
\end{document}