@misc bibtex entry is not citing correctly

Question

I'm using an @misc bibtex entry to cite a government website in my thesis. The Bibliography compiles fine, but within the text the citation is included twice. for example text text (cite, cite).

Any ideas would be appreciated.

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{natbib}

bibtex entry:

@misc{kinaSUR,
    author = {{Ministry for Primary Industries}},
    title = {{Kina sea urchin regions in NZ}},
    howpublished = {\url{http://fs.fish.govt.nz/Page.aspx?pk=7\&sc=SUR}},
    note = {Online; accessed 29 January 2014}

The double brackets for author ensure it typesets correctly, otherwise it tries to make it a first and last name and comes out a jumbled mess. It might be the problem but its the only way I could get the author to typeset correctly.

Suggestions appreciated. Thanks

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{natbib} 
\begin{document}
\bibliographystyle{otago} 
\bibliography{thesis}
\citep{kinaSUR}
\end{document}

bibtex entry is above

Welcome to TeX.SX! Please add a minimal working example (MWE) that illustrates your problem. It will be much easier for us to reproduce your situation and find out what the issue is when we see compilable code, starting with \documentclass{...} and ending with \end{document}. — Marco Daniel, Feb 22 '14 at 07:14
Your BibTeX-entry isn't completed. There is a missing bracket and in your MWE you need a \cite command. — Marco Daniel, Feb 22 '14 at 07:25
none of my cite keys have a second bracket, only a comma and this is the only one I have a problem with. — Jodi Pilbrow, Feb 22 '14 at 07:57

Marco Daniel · Answer 1 · 2014-02-23T10:47:14.810

For testing I downloaded the file otago.bst from this website: http://otago.libguides.com/content.php?pid=172484&sid=1451535

The issue is based on your entry type. The style otago and the resulting output require a field year. So if you modify your entry it works.

Correct BibTeX-Entry:

@misc{kinaSUR,
    author = "{Ministry for Primary Industries}",
    title = {{Kina sea urchin regions in NZ}},
    howpublished = {\url{http://fs.fish.govt.nz/Page.aspx?pk=7&sc=SUR}},
    note = {Online; accessed 29 January 2014} ,
    year=2013,
}

Here a complete MWE:

\RequirePackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{kinaSUR,
    author = "{Ministry for Primary Industries}",
    title = {{Kina sea urchin regions in NZ}},
    howpublished = {\url{http://fs.fish.govt.nz/Page.aspx?pk=7&sc=SUR}},
    note = {Online; accessed 29 January 2014} ,
    year=2013,
}
\end{filecontents}
\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{url}

\begin{document}
\cite{kinaSUR}

\bibliographystyle{otago} 
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}

You were right, I didn't have a year field as I wanted a date accessed instead, however adding a year fixed the problem. Thanks for your help. — Jodi Pilbrow, Feb 25 '14 at 10:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 10 '23 at 14:21

I'd suggest using filecontents environment without filecontents package, because since the 2019 update this package is not needed anymore. Here's the updated MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style=numeric]{biblatex}
\begin{filecontents}{references.bib}
@misc{kinaSUR,
    author = "{Ministry for Primary Industries}",
    title = {{Kina sea urchin regions in NZ}},
    howpublished = {\url{http://fs.fish.govt.nz/Page.aspx?pk=7&sc=SUR}},
    note = {Online; accessed 29 January 2014} ,
    year=2013,
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{references.bib}
\title{My article}
\author{John Doe}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\section{Introduction}
Here's the reference: \cite{kinaSUR}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

@misc bibtex entry is not citing correctly

2 Answers2

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