BibTeX Bibliography Style File (BST) for Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (EAAI)

The Elsevier journal Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence suggests that authors use the elsart-harv.bst BibTeX bibliography style (BST) file to match its Harvard-style author-year reference format. However, elsart-harv.bst does not match the conventions used in EAAI proofs. In particular,

• EAAI proofs use "Thesis" (instead of "thesis")
• EAAI proofs surround the volume of an "in proceedings" entry with commas (instead of periods)
• EAAI proofs use "vol." (instead of "Vol.")
• EAAI proofs don't put any space between abbreviated parts of author names (but they do keep the hyphens in hyphenated abbreviations)

So I modified elsart-harv.bst to match EAAI conventions. My modified form is:

• elsart-harv-EAAI.bst

To use it, just download it, place it in the same directory as your compuscript, and change your

\bibliographystyle{elsart-harv}

line to

\bibliographystyle{elsart-harv-EAAI}

Of course, elsart-harv-EAAI.bst is still natbib compatible.

[ NOTE: More-advanced users may prefer my elsart-harv-EAAI.patch. ]

Fixing natbib: Adding tie between author and citation

Something that bugs me about natbib is that \citet puts a formal SPACE between the authors and the citation list, and so LaTeX like...

. . . as discussed by \citet{SK86}.

that shows up near the end of a typeset line can turn into

as discussed by Stephens and Krebs
[1].

Not only does this put a number at the beginning of a line, which is a typography no-no when you aren't starting a numerical item in a list, but it separates the citation list from its neighbors. If natbib would just us a TIE (~ in TeX) instead, then the "Krebs" in the example above would never get separated from the "[1]."

The best solution is to fix natbib so that this character is configurable. That would really help when using superscript references because you could get rid of the character all together (right now superscripts get a space before them, and that looks a little silly (especially when superscripts show up on the next line!)). However, that could take a while to get fixed (CTAN isn't quite SourceForge)... So I put together the following fix, which should work OK for \citet, \citet*, \Citet, and \Citet* regardless of how many optional arguments (0, 1, or 2) are present.

(note: the \makeatletter and \makeatother commands are not needed if these lines are put into a .sty file or in a natbib.cfg file (in the same directory as your TeX document source).

% Unfortunately, natbib does not TIE textual 
% references to their citations. So authors 
% sometimes get separated from citations when 
% they come at the end of the line. The following 
% lines attempt to fix this problem.
%
% The lines below do the equivalent of . . .
%
%       \renewcommand\citet[1]%
%           {\citeauthor{#1}~\citep{#1}}
%
% but they handle the star and capitalization and 
% optional argument cases too.
%
% (the \makeatletter and \makeatother are not needed if 
%  these lines are put into a .sty file or in a natbib.cfg
%  file)
\makeatletter
%
%%% These lines test for star and number of arguments 
%%% and call the workhorses below
%
% Test for star (mid-sentence and start-sentence forms)
\def\citet{\@ifstar{\citetstar}{\citetnostar}}
\def\Citet{\@ifstar{\Citetstar}{\Citetnostar}}
%
% No star found. Now test for argument count.
\def\citetnostar%
    {\@ifnextchar[{\squarecitet}{\simplecitet}}
\def\squarecitet[#1]%
    {\@ifnextchar[{\twocitet[#1]}{\onecitet[#1]}}
\def\Citetnostar%
    {\@ifnextchar[{\squareCitet}{\simpleCitet}}
\def\squareCitet[#1]%
    {\@ifnextchar[{\twoCitet[#1]}{\oneCitet[#1]}}
%
% Star found. Now test for argument count.
\def\citetstar%
    {\@ifnextchar[{\squarecitetstar}{\simplecitetstar}}
\def\squarecitetstar[#1]%
    {\@ifnextchar[{\twocitetstar[#1]}{\onecitetstar[#1]}}
\def\Citetstar%
    {\@ifnextchar[{\squareCitetstar}{\simpleCitetstar}}
\def\squareCitetstar[#1]%
    {\@ifnextchar[{\twoCitetstar[#1]}{\oneCitetstar[#1]}}
%
\makeatother
%
%%% The following actually do the \cite work
%
% The \citet cases (no arg, one arg, and two args)
\def\simplecitet#1%
    {\citeauthor{#1}~\citep{#1}}
\def\onecitet[#1]#2%
    {\citeauthor{#2}~\citep[#1]{#2}}
\def\twocitet[#1][#2]#3%
    {\citeauthor{#3}~\citep[#1][#2]{#3}}
%
% The \citet* cases (no arg, one arg, and two args)
\def\simplecitetstar#1%
    {\citeauthor*{#1}~\citep{#1}}
\def\onecitetstar[#1]#2%
    {\citeauthor*{#2}~\citep[#1]{#2}}
\def\twocitetstar[#1][#2]#3%
    {\citeauthor*{#3}~\citep[#1][#2]{#3}}
%
% The \Citet cases (no arg, one arg, and two args)
\def\simpleCitet#1%
    {\Citeauthor{#1}~\citep{#1}}
\def\oneCitet[#1]#2%
    {\Citeauthor{#2}~\citep[#1]{#2}}
\def\twoCitet[#1][#2]#3%
    {\Citeauthor{#3}~\citep[#1][#2]{#3}}
%
% The \Citet* cases (no arg, one arg, and two args)
\def\simpleCitetstar#1%
    {\Citeauthor*{#1}~\citep{#1}}
\def\oneCitetstar[#1]#2%
    {\Citeauthor*{#2}~\citep[#1]{#2}}
\def\twoCitetstar[#1][#2]#3%
    {\Citeauthor*{#3}~\citep[#1][#2]{#3}}

Even if this problem gets fixed within natbib, it still might serve as a good example of how to deal with TWO or more optional arguments in macros...

UPDATE: For author-year citations (i.e., "Harvard style citations"), you must replace the \citep with \citeyearpar. That is, replace the final section of the code above with this section:

%%% The following actually do the \cite work
%
% The \citet cases (no arg, one arg, and two args)
\def\simplecitet#1%
    {\citeauthor{#1}~\citeyearpar{#1}}
\def\onecitet[#1]#2%
    {\citeauthor{#2}~\citeyearpar[#1]{#2}}
\def\twocitet[#1][#2]#3%
    {\citeauthor{#3}~\citeyearpar[#1][#2]{#3}}
%
% The \citet* cases (no arg, one arg, and two args)
\def\simplecitetstar#1%
    {\citeauthor*{#1}~\citeyearpar{#1}}
\def\onecitetstar[#1]#2%
    {\citeauthor*{#2}~\citeyearpar[#1]{#2}}
\def\twocitetstar[#1][#2]#3%
    {\citeauthor*{#3}~\citeyearpar[#1][#2]{#3}}
%
% The \Citet cases (no arg, one arg, and two args)
\def\simpleCitet#1%
    {\Citeauthor{#1}~\citeyearpar{#1}}
\def\oneCitet[#1]#2%
    {\Citeauthor{#2}~\citeyearpar[#1]{#2}}
\def\twoCitet[#1][#2]#3%
    {\Citeauthor{#3}~\citeyearpar[#1][#2]{#3}}
%
% The \Citet* cases (no arg, one arg, and two args)
\def\simpleCitetstar#1%
    {\Citeauthor*{#1}~\citeyearpar{#1}}
\def\oneCitetstar[#1]#2%
    {\Citeauthor*{#2}~\citeyearpar[#1]{#2}}
\def\twoCitetstar[#1][#2]#3%
    {\Citeauthor*{#3}~\citeyearpar[#1][#2]{#3}}

Those lines seem to work for me.

American Naturalist BibTeX BST style file

The American Naturalist, a University of Chicago Press - Journals Division journal, specifies that AASTeX should be used to typeset submissions; however, it does not provide any BibTeX BST bibliography style file. That means that authors still have to manually manage their reference list rather than using BibTeX and a central BIB bibliography database.

The BST: I've tried to remedy this by creating amnatnat.bst, a natbib-compatible BibTeX Bibliography STyle (BST) file for the American Naturalist.

As far as I can tell, this BST will generate a properly formatted BBL file that should not require modifications. Note that American Naturalist requires authors to upload their BBL files and NOT their BIB files (i.e., they don't have the ability to run BibTeX on the server).

ONE CAVEAT: If you have titles that contain colons in them, you will have to manually (either in the BIB or the BBL) change the case of the letter following the colon. For example, if "Some Title: Subtitle" is the title, change the "S" in "Subtitle" to "s". A feature/bug of BibTeX is that its sentence case keeps letters following colons capitalized. This does not match the sentence case definition used by many journals, which considers the words after a colon being at the middle of a sentence rather than the start of a new sentence. As far as I know right now, there is no easy way to change the BST file to do this automatically for you.

FYI: This BST file was generated using amnatnat.dbj (for more details, see amnatnat_full.dbj) and amnatnat.patch.

Two small bugs in merlin.mbs

UPDATE: I've posted a patch file as well as a patched merlin.mbs that fixes this problem. If you prefer the patch option, execute

patch < merlin-fix-nm-rvvc.patch

in the same directory as your old merlin.mbs file. Be sure you're using the 4.20 (2007/04/24) version of merlin.mbs to start with (search through the file for the ProvidesFile line.

I just sent this to Patrick W. Daly. I think I've found two small bugs in merlin.mbs (from custom-bib), the master bibliography style used to generate many common BST files. They both involve adding an nm-rvvc near some existing nm-rvv lines.

I am referring to the 4.20 version of merlin.mbs. I think this is the latest version of the MBS file.

% \ProvidesFile{merlin.mbs}[2007/04/24 4.20 (PWD, AO, DPC)]

The bugs:

• In FUNCTION {sort.format.names} (lines 8394--8401)

  %<*!nm-init&!nm-rev&!nm-rev1&!nm-rv&!nm-rvx&!nm-rvcx&!nm-rvv>
  %<!vonx>      "{vv{ } }{ll{ }}{  ff{ }}{  jj{ }}"
  %<vonx>      "{ll{ }}{  ff{ }}{  jj{ }}"
  %</!nm-init&!nm-rev&!nm-rev1&!nm-rv&!nm-rvx&!nm-rvcx&!nm-rvv>
  %<*nm-init|nm-rev|nm-rev1|nm-rv|nm-rvx|nm-rvcx|nm-rvv>
  %<!vonx>      "{vv{ } }{ll{ }}{  f{ }}{  jj{ }}"
  %<vonx>      "{ll{ }}{  f{ }}{  jj{ }}"
  %</nm-init|nm-rev|nm-rev1|nm-rv|nm-rvx|nm-rvcx|nm-rvv>

  I think this should be:

  %<*!nm-init&!nm-rev&!nm-rev1&!nm-rv&!nm-rvx&!nm-rvcx&!nm-rvv&!nm-rvvc>
  %<!vonx>      "{vv{ } }{ll{ }}{  ff{ }}{  jj{ }}"
  %<vonx>      "{ll{ }}{  ff{ }}{  jj{ }}"
  %</!nm-init&!nm-rev&!nm-rev1&!nm-rv&!nm-rvx&!nm-rvcx&!nm-rvv&!nm-rvvc>
  %<*nm-init|nm-rev|nm-rev1|nm-rv|nm-rvx|nm-rvcx|nm-rvv|nm-rvvc>
  %<!vonx>      "{vv{ } }{ll{ }}{  f{ }}{  jj{ }}"
  %<vonx>      "{ll{ }}{  f{ }}{  jj{ }}"
  %</nm-init|nm-rev|nm-rev1|nm-rv|nm-rvx|nm-rvcx|nm-rvv|nm-rvvc>

  Otherwise, I think this would cause problems sorting when authors might share last names and first initial.
• In FUNCTION {format.names.ed} (lines 4908--4929)

  %<*nm-rvv>
        "{f{.}.}" format.name$ duplicate$ empty$ 'skip$
          { tie.or.space.prefix bib.fname.font swap$ * }
        if$
        s nameptr
        "{vv~}{ll}" format.name$ bib.name.font *
        s nameptr
        "{jj}" format.name$ duplicate$ empty$ 'skip$
          { bib.fname.font " " swap$ * }
        if$
  %</nm-rvv>
  %<*!nm-rvv>
        "{ff}" format.name$ duplicate$ empty$ 'skip$
          { tie.or.space.prefix bib.fname.font swap$ * }
        if$
        s nameptr
        "{vv~}{ll}" format.name$ bib.name.font *
        s nameptr
        "{jj}" format.name$ duplicate$ empty$ 'skip$
          { bib.fname.font ", " swap$ * }
        if$
  %</!nm-rvv>

  I think this should be:

  %<*nm-rvv|nm-rvvc>
        "{f{.}.}" format.name$ duplicate$ empty$ 'skip$
          { tie.or.space.prefix bib.fname.font swap$ * }
        if$
        s nameptr
        "{vv~}{ll}" format.name$ bib.name.font *
        s nameptr
        "{jj}" format.name$ duplicate$ empty$ 'skip$
          { bib.fname.font " " swap$ * }
        if$
  %</nm-rvv|nm-rvvc>
  %<*!nm-rvv&!nm-rvvc>
        "{ff}" format.name$ duplicate$ empty$ 'skip$
          { tie.or.space.prefix bib.fname.font swap$ * }
        if$
        s nameptr
        "{vv~}{ll}" format.name$ bib.name.font *
        s nameptr
        "{jj}" format.name$ duplicate$ empty$ 'skip$
          { bib.fname.font ", " swap$ * }
        if$
  %</!nm-rvv&!nm-rvvc>

  That actually looks like it will give a formatting error on output!

So hopefully those'll get fixed, right? Am I missing something? Am I wrong?

A reflection on (Springer) bibliographies (junior-part commas)...

In my previous post about Springer journal typesetting, I present the BiBTeX bibliography style files spmpsci.bst and spmpscinat.bst that were mostly generated by the docstrip driver files spmpsci.dbj and spmpscinat.dbj, respectively. I say mostly because I discovered that the original bibliography style files distributed by Springer were generated by docstrip but then manually hacked to remove the comma before the junior part (e.g., "Joe Public, Jr.") of the author and editor names.

You see, there is no way to use docstrip drivers based on merlin.mbs (from custom-bib) to have commas between author names and yet no commas before junior parts. Springer actually used the merlin.mbs option nm-rvv to get rid of commas and then hacked in between-author commas. I used the nm-rvvc option to include between-author commas and then hacked out the junior-part commas. The result is the same.

I have no problem listing author names without junior parts. As I mention in a Google groups thread, on page 3 of The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, it is stated that the "Jr." after a last name should not have a comma before it (e.g., William Strunk Jr.). A number of journals agree with this, including The Journal of Mathematical Biology (i.e., a Springer journal using the Springer spmpscinat BiBTeX bibliography style).

At first I completely agreed with Springer and thought that merlin.mbs needed to be updated so that it had a junior part comma option. However, I gave it more thought and now I think that Springer should cease and desist. For one, this makes it difficult to regenerate the BST file from the DBJ driver options. The BST file distributed by Springer doesn't even mention that some manual editing has gone on, so anyone trying to generate their BST file will probably miss this hack. Second, while I think that authors who insert commas in their names need to stop this practice, if an author chooses to make his or her professional name comma-delimited, then journals should respect that author's wishes. Finally, if the BST junior-part comma is left in, commas can still be omitted by surrounding the junior (e.g., "Jr.") and the last name (e.g., "Smith") with curly braces (e.g., "{Smith Jr.}") in the BIB file. I haven't tested this, but I think that if this is done the Jr. becomes part of the BiBTeX last name (e.g., "{ll}") and thus there will be no comma before the junior in the resulting bibliography.

I'm sure Springer would tell me that they just want the bibliography entries to be consistent. However, names are messy things to mess with. Plus, modern-day BST files really should be specified entirely by a set of standard docstrip options (i.e., docstrip options and an MBS file). If non-standard options are really needed, a new MBS file should be distributed and the BST file should be spcified by options for that new MBS file. Would that be so hard to do for a publisher?

So that's my thought... Hey, publishers! Leave them BST files alone!

Preamble for Journal of Mathematical Biology

Update 5: The updated svglov2.clo and svglov3.clo are not needed if the preamble is used below (i.e., if the \RequirePackage{fix-cm} line is added before the documentclass line.

Update 4: See the section that redefines \autoref. Changed definition to support starred commands that are unlinked.

Update 3: See the section starting with the comment "%% Level 1 Subsections". It forces subsections to show up like sections in the PDF bookmarks; this is a (strange) JMB convention. In the comment I make some suggestions for improvements.

Update 2: See the small commented section "%%%% Table Support". If the LaTeX code is uncommented there, there is no need for the \noalign{\smallskip} stuff around \hline horizontal table rules. It uses the tabls package to do this.

Update 1: I've mirrored this content on my web page.

I'd like to combine some of the previous posts. I've been trying to fix and modernize some of the Springer LaTeX support files for the Journal of Mathematical Biology (JMB). I've come up with these...

• svglov2.clo - document class option for svjour2.cls. I used fix-cm to get rid of some of the warnings about not being able to scale the Computer Modern fonts. This is not needed if the preamble below is used (i.e., with the fix-cm line before the documentclass line).


• svglov3.clo - document class option for svjour3.cls. I used fix-cm to get rid of some of the warnings about not being able to scale the Computer Modern fonts. This is not needed if the preamble below is used (i.e., with the fix-cm line before the documentclass line).


• spmpsci.bst - BiBTeX bibliography style file for JMB. The original version of this did not reverse the first and last name of the editors as required; I fixed that.


• spmpscinat.bst - natbib compatible BiBTeX bibliography style file for JMB. Be sure to include natbib with numbers and sort&compress options.

I recommend using a preamble like this one...

%%%% Journal of Mathematical Biology (JMB) setup

% Allow Computer Modern fonts to be scaled (must be before svjour3)
\RequirePackage{fix-cm}

% Use running heads
\documentclass[runningheads]{svjour3}

% The journal's name
\journalname{Journal of Mathematical Biology}

% use Times fonts
\usepackage{mathptmx}

% flush right qed marks (Halmos square), 
% e.g., at end of proof
\smartqed

% Use natbib for \citet, \citep, etc.
% (JMB: numbered citations that are sorted 
%       and compressed)
\usepackage[numbers,sort&compress]{natbib}
%\bibliographystyle{spmpsci}
\bibliographystyle{spmpscinat}

%%%% Some useful packages

% Allow for smarter labeling of enumerations 
% and itemizations (consider using enumitem instead)
\usepackage{paralist}

% Provides \labelformat, which changes how \ref 
% references look
\usepackage{varioref}

% Mathematical symbols, etc.
\usepackage{amssymb,amsfonts,amsmath}

%%%% Table Support

% UNCOMMENT THE FOLLOWING LINES TO GET RID OF
% \noalign{\smallskip} STUFF AROUND \hline's IN
% TABLES
%
% % The following three lines remove the need for 
% % the \noalign{\smallskip} around the \hline's 
% % in the _Journal of Mathematical Biology_ LaTeX
% % template
% \usepackage{tabls}
% \addtolength\extrarulesep{\smallskipamount}
% \addtolength\extrarulesep{1pt}

%%%% Graphics and Figure Support

% Use subfig for subfigures
\usepackage[nearskip=-3pt,captionskip=4pt,
            listofformat=subsimple,
            labelformat=simple]{subfig}

% Make sure subfigures have parentheses around 
% them everywhere
\renewcommand\thesubfigure{(\alph{subfigure})}

% Use graphicx for including graphics
\usepackage{graphicx}

% When picture environments are used, use 
% pict2e for better resolution and flexibility
\usepackage{pict2e}

%%%% Hyperlink and Autoreference Support

%% Level 1 Subsections
%
% JMB does this weird thing where all 
% subsection-level PDF bookmarks are displayed as 
% section-level bookmarks. Strangely, they do 
% *NOT* turn on the ``bookmarksnumbered'' hyperref 
% option. I think their articles would be MUCH more 
% readable with all level-1 bookmarks if they were 
% prefixed by their section number. I'm sure they'd 
% argue that since the sections are linked within 
% the document, this is not needed.
%
% (note: another option is to set tocdepth=2 and turn 
%        on the ``bookmarksopen'' hyperref option)
%
% Anyway, the following redefines \addcontents line 
% to setup the bookmarks like JMB articles. Must do 
% this after hyperref because it redefines 
% \addcontentsline. Therefore, just use an 
% AtBeginDocument.
%
\usepackage{ifthen}
\AtBeginDocument{%
\let\orgaddcontentsline\addcontentsline
\renewcommand{\addcontentsline}[3]{
    \ifthenelse{\equal{#1}{toc}}
        {\ifthenelse{\equal{#2}{subsection}}
            {\orgaddcontentsline{#1}{section}{#3}}
            {\orgaddcontentsline{#1}{#2}{#3}}}
        {\orgaddcontentsline{#1}{#2}{#3}}}}

% Include hyperref for link support
% Include hyperref for link support
%\usepackage[dvipdfmx,   % If need dvipdfmx
%\usepackage[dvips,      % If need dvips
\usepackage[%           % Fine in most cases
            pdfpagelabels,hypertexnames=true,
            plainpages=false,
            naturalnames=false]{hyperref}

% Configure the hyperlink color
\usepackage{color}
\definecolor{darkblue}{rgb}{0,0.1,0.5}
\hypersetup{colorlinks,
            linkcolor=darkblue,
            anchorcolor=darkblue,
            citecolor=darkblue}

% In the future, it would be nice to use the package
%
%    cleveref
%
% Right now, it breaks svjour3 and svjour2, so we just 
% have to use autoref and labelformat :(.

% Make sure \autoref puts parentheses around 
% equations and enumeration items (similar to \eqref)
% NOTE: This allows us to use \ref instead of \eqref
\labelformat{equation}{\textup{(#1)}}
\labelformat{enumi}{\textup{(#1)}}

% Make sure equations are numbered by section
\numberwithin{equation}{section}

%% We need to redefine \autoref. We should use 
%% abbreviations inside the sentence and full names 
%% at the beginning of sentences. Additionally,
%% need to handle the plural cases.

% \Autoref is for the beginning of the sentence
\let\orgautoref\autoref
\providecommand{\Autoref}
        {\def\equationautorefname{Equation}%
         \def\figureautorefname{Figure}%
         \def\subfigureautorefname{Figure}%
         \def\sectionautorefname{Section}%
         \def\subsectionautorefname{Section}%
         \def\subsubsectionautorefname{Section}%
         \def\Itemautorefname{Item}%
         \def\tableautorefname{Table}%
         \orgautoref}

% \Autorefs is plural for the beginning of the sentence
\providecommand{\Autorefs}
        {\def\equationautorefname{Equations}%
         \def\figureautorefname{Figures}%
         \def\subfigureautorefname{Figures}%
         \def\sectionautorefname{Sections}%
         \def\subsectionautorefname{Sections}%
         \def\subsubsectionautorefname{Sections}%
         \def\Itemautorefname{Items}%
         \def\tableautorefname{Tables}%
         \orgautoref}

% \autoref is used inside a sentence 
% (this is a renew of the standard)
\renewcommand{\autoref}
        {\def\equationautorefname{Eq.}%
         \def\figureautorefname{Fig.}%
         \def\subfigureautorefname{Fig.}%
         \def\sectionautorefname{Sect.}%
         \def\subsectionautorefname{Sect.}%
         \def\subsubsectionautorefname{Sect.}%
         \def\Itemautorefname{item}%
         \def\tableautorefname{Table}%
         \orgautoref}

% \autorefs is plural for inside a sentence
\providecommand{\autorefs}
        {\def\equationautorefname{Eqs.}%
         \def\figureautorefname{Figs.}%
         \def\subfigureautorefname{Figs.}%
         \def\sectionautorefname{Sects.}%
         \def\subsectionautorefname{Sects.}%
         \def\subsubsectionautorefname{Sects.}%
         \def\Itemautorefname{items}%
         \def\tableautorefname{Tables}%
         \orgautoref}

This lets you do cool things like... (hyperlinks depicted in blue)

\ref{eq:1}		produces		linked		"(1)"
\ref*{eq:1}		produces		unlinked		"(1)"
\autoref{eq:1}		produces		linked		"Eq. (1)"
\autoref*{eq:1}		produces		unlinked		"Eq. (1)"
\Autoref{eq:1}		produces		linked		"Equation (1)"
\autoref{sec:2}		produces		linked		"Sect. 2.1"
\Autoref{sec:2}		produces		linked		"Section 2.1"
\Autorefs{sec:1} and \ref{sec:2}		produces		linked		"Sections 1 and 2.1"
\autorefs{sec:1} and \ref{sec:2}		produces		linked		"Sects. 1 and 2.1"
\autoref{item:1}		produces		linked		"item (i)"
\autorefs{item:1} and \ref{item:2}		produces		linked		"items (i) and (ii)"
\citep{SK86}		produces		linked		"[61]"
\citep[p.~41]{SK86}		produces		linked		"[61, p. 41]"
\citep{Cha76,SK86}		produces		linked		"[14, 61]"
\citep[e.g.,][]{SK86,Cha76}		produces		linked		"[e.g., 14, 61]"
\citeauthor{SK86}		produces		linked		"Stephens and Krebs"
\citet{SK86}		produces		linked		"Stephens and Krebs [61]"

spmpscinat.bst: A natbib style file for Journal of Mathematical Biology (e.g., Springer journals)

UPDATE: I learned how to use custom-bib's makebst. I've updated the spmpscinat.bst file in a more proper way by using makebst. I also regenerated the spmpsci.bst file so it properly reverses editor names to match the JMB format. I will submit these to JMB and hopefully they'll use them. FYI, these were mostly generated from spmpscinat.dbj and spmpsci.dbj, respectively.

I was frustrated to find out that the Journal of Mathematical Biology (JMB) has been using some outdated LaTeX support files. In particular, they distribute a BiBTeX style file that has no support for natbib use (or anything similar, like apacite). This appears to be less of a problem with JMB and more of a problem with Springer in general (i.e., most of its journals). They actually expect people to type the names of the authors that they reference directly (either that or use references (e.g., [2]) as nouns, which is bad style even though it saves space)! Can you believe that?

Civilized people use a package like natbib to do something like \citet{SK86} on every textual citation, which will then generate "Stephens and Krebs (1986)" (in Harvard mode) or "Stephens and Krebs [61]" (in numerical mode). There are lots of good reasons to do this. For one, it prevents me from accidentally turning "Krebs" into "Krbes".

To deal with this, I took the abbrvnat.bst style file packaged with natbib and hacked its support into the spmpsci.bst file from Springer. The result is spmpscinat.bst, which seems to work as desired for most bibliography entries I have tried.

I don't have a lot of experience with working with BiBTeX support files, so I have a feeling that it would have been better to use custom-bib to generate a BiBTeX style file in the JMB format that would be compatible with natbib. I may do that later.

So basically, I reserve the right to update or changed spmpscinat.bst at any time and without any notice, so look out for updates.