7

In my bibliography citations are ordered wrong. For example: 

@inproceedings{17Degroot,
  title={Critical scour: new bed protection design method},
  author={De Groot, M.B.},
  booktitle={Journal of Hydraulic Engineering},
  volume={114},
  pages={1227--1240},
  year={1988},
  publisher={ASCE, New York, USA}
}

In my bibliography may it should say M.B. de Groot (no capital D) and in my report, it should refer to it as [De Groot, 1988] (Capital D). Besides this, the alphabetical order in the bibliography is wrong. Bibtex sorts this on the D while it should be on the G. I have the same problem with many other authors with prepositions.

I am using the plainnat bibliography style.

Thanks for the help.

Mico
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Hans-Peter
  • 71
  • 1
    Related: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/40747/bibtex-handling-of-the-dutch-van-name-prefix-with-natbib Please, look at the linked question that shows a problem very similar to yours. – egreg Apr 12 '13 at 16:25

2 Answers2

5

How does the author in the citation spell their name? If it's with a capital "D" then that's the way it should appear in the bibliography. However, you need to use a little trick to get bibtex to treat the "De" part as a prefix:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{natbib}

\bibliographystyle{plainnat}

\begin{filecontents*}{test.bib}
@inproceedings{17Degroot,
  title={Critical scour: new bed protection design method},
  author={{\uppercase{d}e} Groot, M.B.},
  booktitle={Journal of Hydraulic Engineering},
  volume={114},
  pages={1227--1240},
  year={1988},
  publisher={ASCE, New York, USA}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}

Text cite: \citet{17Degroot}
Parenthetical cite: \citep{17Degroot}.

\bibliography{test}

\end{document}

If the author spells their name with a lower case "d" then that's the way it should appear in the text, unless the citation starts a sentence.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{natbib}

\bibliographystyle{plainnat}

\begin{filecontents*}{test.bib}
@inproceedings{17Degroot,
  title={Critical scour: new bed protection design method},
  author={de Groot, M.B.},
  booktitle={Journal of Hydraulic Engineering},
  volume={114},
  pages={1227--1240},
  year={1988},
  publisher={ASCE, New York, USA}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}

Text cite: \citet{17Degroot}
Parenthetical cite: \citep{17Degroot}.

\Citet{17Degroot} blah blah.

\bibliography{test}

\end{document}

Edit: Here's how to sort on "G" rather than "d":

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{natbib}

\bibliographystyle{plainnat}

\newcommand*{\swap}[2]{#2#1}

\begin{filecontents*}{test.bib}
@inproceedings{17Degroot,
  title={Critical scour: new bed protection design method},
  author={{\swap{Groot}{de }}, M.B.},
  booktitle={Journal of Hydraulic Engineering},
  volume={114},
  pages={1227--1240},
  year={1988},
  publisher={ASCE, New York, USA}
}

@inproceedings{Gadzooks,
 title={Sample},
 author={A. Gadzooks},
 booktitle={Blah},
 year=2013
}

@inproceedings{Grunt,
 title={Sample},
 author={A. Grunt},
 booktitle={Blah},
 year=2013
}

@inproceedings{Datone,
 title={Sample},
 author={A. Dat-one},
 booktitle={Blah some more},
 year=2013
}

@inproceedings{Disone,
 title={Sample},
 author={A. Dis-one},
 booktitle={Blah some more},
 year=2013
}

\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}

\Citet{17Degroot} blah blah.
\Citep{17Degroot}.

\cite{*}

\bibliography{test}

\end{document}

Result:

Image of result

Nicola Talbot
  • 41,153
  • Thanks for your help. I tried the first option you gave me. Bibtex did still sorts it alphabetically on the D. If i put it like author={Groot, M.B. de}, it will be correct but in the text it will ofcourse only say Groot now. Besides this my University demands a prefixs in texts are with a Capital. So in the text it should be De Groot, 1988 and in the bibliography as M.B. de Groot. – Hans-Peter Apr 12 '13 at 14:48
  • @Hans-Peter Then I suggest you put author={M. B. de Groot} in the bib file and just remember to cite it using \Citet or \Citep. – Nicola Talbot Apr 12 '13 at 15:14
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    in this way the alphabetical order is still incorrect and in the text it is still with no capital D. – Hans-Peter Apr 12 '13 at 15:45
  • 1
    @Hans-Peter I've added an example that sorts on "G" rather than "d". – Nicola Talbot Apr 12 '13 at 16:52
2

I understand that disregarding the "von" component of an author's name for purposes of sorting is common in Dutch -- where possibly half the population have either "de" or "van" in their names. (OK, this may be an exaggeration...) It's actually not difficult to modify the plainnat bibliography style to implement the "Dutch" sorting style. Modifying the bibliography stye file would spare you the task of hand-editing (possibly lots and lots of) author fields in your .bib file.

  • Find the file plainnat.bst in your TeX distribution. Make a copy of this file, and call the copy (say) myplainnat.bst. (Do not edit an original file.)

  • Open myplainnat.bst in your favorite text editor.

  • Locate the function sort.format.names. (It starts on line 1207 in my copy of plainnat.bst.) In that function, locate the following line:

          s nameptr "{vv{ } }{ll{ }}{  ff{ }}{  jj{ }}" format.name$ 't :=

    Change this line to:

          s nameptr "{ll{ }}{  ff{ }}{  jj{ }}" format.name$ 't :=

    Even if you're entirely unfamiliar with BibTeX's syntax, I think you should be able to tell what's going on: the sorting will now only include the author's surname, followed by any first name(s), followed by any "junior" component.

  • Save the file myplainnat.bst either in the same directory as your main .tex file or in a directory that's searched by your TeX distribution. If you use the latter method, be sure to update the TeX distribution's filename database.

  • Start using the new bibliography style by issuing the instruction \bibliographystyle{myplainnat} in your .tex file(s).

Nicola Talbot, in her answer to your posting, has already mentioned how to get citations that include a lowercase "von" part to start with an uppercase letter: use the \Citet and \Citep citation commands (rather than \citet and \citep).

Happy BibTeXing!

Mico
  • 506,678