apacite and bibtex

Question

Just making my first foray into APA style, with 6th edition, using Bibtex to handle the bibliography function. Pretty sure I have everything right, with:

\documentclass[a4paper]{apa6e}
  \usepackage{apacite}
  \bibliographystyle{apacite}
  \title{}
  \shorttitle{}
  \author{}
  \authornote{}
  \abstract{}
  \begin{document}
    \maketitle
    ... in the preamble, and:
    \bibliography{Laing}
  \end{document}

... tacked on at the end, with the Bibtex file properly named as 'Laing.bib', and in the same folder as the document.

All I can get when I place '\cite{refkey}' into the text body, however, is (?, ?). So, there's a communication breakdown somewhere. After some time of working at it, I can't work it out however.

All packages are installed in a Texlive installation, on Debian, using TexMaker as an editor. I thought I might have been creating bib entries incorrectly, so downloaded JabRef, but even used the automagic refkey selection get the same result, so there's a missing step somewhere.

Any time and trouble appreciated.

Welcome to TeX.SX! What commands do you use to compile your document? — Markus, Jan 12 '15 at 07:43
Had i known, that this is a crosspost i could have saved some time. — Johannes_B, Jan 12 '15 at 09:04
You didn't mention if you actually ran BibTeX. Please tell us more about how you compile your file. — Mico, Jan 12 '15 at 09:10

David Woitkowski · Answer 1 · 2015-01-12T09:00:08.783

You have given only few details about the contents of your .bib file and your compile chain (e.g. you use pdflatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex -> pdflatex or similar) so we have to guess:

The output (?,?) is produced by default by apacite if the the refkey cannot be found. Two problems can lead to this behavior

Spelling error -> Make sure the exact key (including capitalisation) is found in your .bib file. Maybe you want to copy paste your key. Keep in mind that non-ASCII-Characters can produce problems, too. Better avoid them at all.
Error in the Compile Chain -> The keys can only be found if you first run latex (or pdflatex etc.), then run bibtex and then once or twice latex again. I've never used TeXMaker but it probably has a way to set the compile chain. Ensure that bibtex actually gets called.

With this in mind, I expanded your MWE and got:

\documentclass[a4paper]{apa6e}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
  @article{WoitkowskiRieseReinhold2011,
   author = {Woitkowski, David and Riese, Josef and Reinhold, Peter},
   year = {2011},
   title = {{Modellierung fachwissenschaftlicher Kompetenz angehender     Physiklehrkr{\"a}fte}},
   pages = {289--313},
   volume = {17},
   journal = {{Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften}}
  }
\end{filecontents}
\usepackage{apacite}
\bibliographystyle{apacite}
\title{Test}
\shorttitle{A Short Test}
\author{Me and others}
\authornote{Yep, a note, too}
\abstract{A very short and abstract Abstract.}
\begin{document}
  \maketitle

  \cite{WoitkowskiRieseReinhold2011}

  \bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}

Note that I added a short .bib file using filecontents as well as a corresponding \cite. To compile I used pdflatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex -> pdflatex (but with latex instead it works, too)

O.K., mystery solved. I'm used to writing code in other areas, but not this, so had to figure out the compile chain scenario through an editor. That's quite easy through the tabs at the top, however. Organise bibtex into the sequence, prior to pdflatex, and cycle it so that the bib file gets recognised and the bbl file created and everything's hunky dory. Thanks to all. — David Crosswell, Jan 12 '15 at 11:14
@Weaver if I understand you correctly, my second suggestion was correct. In this case consider marking this answer accpeted. — David Woitkowski, Jan 13 '15 at 10:44

apacite and bibtex

1 Answers1