How to get a custom citation type in BibTeX?

Question

I would like to cite a movie in a paper I'm preparing. The style is APA, so (according to this document) the citation in the text should be "(Mulcahy, 1986)" and the reference itself should appear as

Mulcahy, R. (Director). (1986) Highlander. Cannon Films.

I'm using BibDesk to manage my references, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of motion picture entry type. For now I can achieve the desired effect by entering it as a book, with Cannon Films as the publisher and {Mulcahy, R. (Director).} as the author. The citation in the text comes out as "(Mulcahy, R. (Director)., 1986)", but I can achieve the right appearance by entering "(Mulcahy \citeyear{MUL86})".

However, this is obviously a hack, and I'd like to know if there's a "right way" to do what I'm trying to do here.

I'm aware that there are a few existing questions concerning how to cite movies in BibTeX, but none of them cover this particular issue. — N. Virgo, Apr 04 '14 at 06:09
If you can use biblatex: Take a look at http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/17627/new-biblatex-entrytype-for-music-scores, how to create a new entrytype for music-scores. You should be able to transfer this into a movie-entrytype. — musicman, Apr 04 '14 at 07:23
Could you use biblatex instead of bibtex? It seems to be easier to customize styles: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/12806/guidelines-for-customizing-biblatex-styles (instead of extending an existing .bst by a movie entry type... which would be "the right way" IMHO) — Pierre Schroeder, Apr 04 '14 at 07:23
@musicman I guess I'll think about switching to biblatex for the next paper, as it sounds better. For now though, I have a deadline looming, so I was wondering if there's a right way to do it in bibtex. — N. Virgo, Apr 04 '14 at 07:29

Mico · Answer 1 · 2014-04-04T11:22:58.897

The main BibTeX style files recognize a "catch-all" entry type called @misc. It would seem OK to use it for entries of type "movie".

If you use the bibliography style apalike, you'll get this output:

enter image description here

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\documentclass{article} 
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{mulcahy86,
 author  = "Mulcahy, R. {\relax (Director)}", % don't abbreviate "Director"...
 year    = 1986,
 title   = "Highlander",
 howpublished = "Cannon Films",
}
\end{filecontents*}
\bibliographystyle{apalike} % select your preferred bibliography style here
\usepackage{natbib}
\begin{document}
\citet{mulcahy86}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}

Alternatively, if you use the apa document class (which provides its own bibliography style), you'll get this:

enter image description here

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\documentclass{apa} 
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{mulcahy86,
 author  = "Mulcahy, Russell {\relax (Director)}",
 year    = 1986,
 title   = "Highlander",
 howpublished = "Cannon Films",
}
\end{filecontents*}
\usepackage{natbib}
\begin{document}
\citet{mulcahy86}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 08 '17 at 14:37

Changing to Biblatex might be a smaller step than you think. At least it can be a smaller step than fixing this some other way.

Here is an example, using biblatex-apa. I had to add lines stating that the director should be used as author in citations of movies. Otherwise this is out of the box. I added the natbib option to get the same commands like \citep which you might be used to.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[style=apa, natbib]{biblatex}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{american}{american-apa}
\addbibresource{apamovie.bib}

\DeclareLabelname[movie]{
  \field{director}
}

\begin{document}
I've read a book \citep{book}.
I've seen a movie \citep{highlander}.

\printbibliography
\end{document}

The bib file:

@Book{book,
  author =   {A. U. Thor},
  title =    {My first book},
  publisher =    {Methuen},
  year =     1999}

@movie{highlander,
  title =        {Highlander},                  
  director =     {Mulcahy, Russell},
  year =         {1986},
  publisher =    {Cannon Films},                  
}

enter image description here

Could you make available the modifications you had to make to get this result? — S.V., Feb 15 '24 at 11:48
I did in the example, but I notice Biber/Biblatex has changed so this doesn't work anymore. Sorry, I don't have time to examine why now. — pst, Feb 15 '24 at 20:21

S.V. · Answer 3 · 2024-02-17T04:01:59.520

How about using roles?

This answer is based upon [https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/579758/14628][1].

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[style=apa, natbib]{biblatex}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{american}{american-apa}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{book,
  author = {A. U. Thor},
  title = {My first book},
  publisher = {Methuen},
  year = {1999}
}
@book{highlander,
  title = {Highlander},
  author = {Mulcahy, Russell},

  author+an:role = {1=director},
  year = {1986},
  publisher = {Twentieth Century Fox},

}
\end{filecontents}
\begin{document}
I've read a book \cite{book}.
I've seen a movie \citep{highlander}.
\printbibliography
\end{document}

How to get a custom citation type in BibTeX?

3 Answers3

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