Cite references in figure caption

Question

Problem:

Getting error messages when trying to cite a reference in the figure caption. Not sure what I am doing wrong. Can't seem to find that this has been up previously either.

Minimal Working Example:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
\usepackage{epstopdf}
\graphicspath{{figures/}}

\usepackage{apacite}
\bibliographystyle{apacite}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{rub14,
   author = {Rubin, Jared},
   title = {Printing and {Protestants}: An empirical test of the role of printing in the {Reformation}},
   journal = {Review of Economics and Statistics},
   volume = {96},
   number = {2},
   pages = {270--286},
   year = {2014},
}
\end{filecontents}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[htp]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{conceptdriven.eps}
\caption{\label{fig:researchscope}The process of concept-driven design approach in relation to theory and use situation, adopted from \citeA[p.~282]{rub14}} 
\end{figure}

\bibliography{\jobname}

\end{document}

Desired outcome:

The reference to be directly after the words "adopted from".

Try using the optional argument of caption. btw, except for the figure, this is a very very good mwe. — Johannes_B, Feb 12 '15 at 20:41
@Johannes_B Tried the notoccite on the MWE but did not work. Any suggestions regarding the optional argument? — kexxcream, Feb 12 '15 at 20:45
For lacking a better example REMOVE or KEEP the reference in the list of figures page? — Johannes_B, Feb 12 '15 at 20:47
@Johannes_B Works like a charm, you saved my evening. Very grateful! — kexxcream, Feb 12 '15 at 20:50
An alternative is to use \protect in front of \citeA, i.e., \protect\citeA{...}. The \label command should not be in the scope of the \caption command. Thus it should be \caption{....}\label{....}. — Guido, Feb 12 '15 at 21:02
Off-topic: Unless the TeX distribution in use is positively ancient (say, from before 2012), it should not be necessary to (a) load the epstopdf package or (b) specify the option pdftex when loading the graphicx package. — Mico, May 17 '19 at 07:49

Mico · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-09T15:23:00.747

60

The macro \citeA is "fragile", in the LaTeX-specific sense of the word. If it occurs inside a "moving argument" (more LaTeX jargon, sorry), such as the argument of a \caption instruction, one must prefix a \protect instruction:

\caption{\label{fig:researchscope}The process of concept-driven 
  design approach in relation to theory and use situation, 
  adopted from \protect\citeA[p.~282]{rub14}}

For another example of this type, see the posting Using \input{} inside caption.

edited Feb 09 '22 at 15:23

answered Feb 12 '15 at 21:33

Mico

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score 19 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

There is a similar question in StackOverflow.

The problem with the \cite command in the figure caption is that it generates conflicts with the automatic creation of the List of Figures. So the first option is to put an alternative caption into brackets:

\caption[test caption]{test caption from~\cite{MyCite}}

You can also use the \protect environnement as suggested in the comments:

\caption{test caption from~\protect\cite{MyCite}}

As for your minimal working example, you could do it as follows:

\documentclass{book}
  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  \usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
  \usepackage{epstopdf}
  \graphicspath{{figures/}}

  \usepackage{lipsum} % just for the example

  \usepackage{apacite}
  \bibliographystyle{apacite}

  \usepackage{filecontents}
  \begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
  @article{rub14,
     author = {Rubin, Jared},
     title = {Printing and {Protestants}: An empirical test of the role of printing in the {Reformation}},
     journal = {Review of Economics and Statistics},
     volume = {96},
     number = {2},
     pages = {270--286},
     year = {2014},
  }
  \end{filecontents}

  \begin{document}
    \listoffigures

    \vspace{0.5cm}
    \lipsum[3]
    \begin{figure}[htp]
      \centering
      \includegraphics[width=8cm,height=5cm]{sample_pic}%
      %\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{conceptdriven.eps}
      \caption[The process of concept-driven design approach in relation to theory and use situation]{The process of concept-driven design approach in relation to theory and use situation, adopted from~\citeA[p.~282} 
      \label{fig:researchscope}
    \end{figure}

    \lipsum[2]
    \bibliography{\jobname}

   \end{document}

And the output would look like:

Output for MWE

What advice would you give if the optional argument of \caption needs to be a bit more informative than just "test". — Mico, Feb 12 '15 at 21:40
@Mico Just changed that in the MWE. I would simply put the same caption in the brackets without the reference: \caption[This is the caption of my figure]{This is the caption of my figure~\cite{JSmith}}. In this way, in the figure you would have the citation, but not in the list of figures (where it's useless). — Nicolas, Feb 12 '15 at 21:43
@Mico I added the List of Figures to the MWE to emphasize the difference. — Nicolas, Feb 12 '15 at 21:55
I just wanted to point out that this solution is the only one that works if you're in the situation where you have to cite multiple references a la <\cite{x, y}>. For some reason, <\protect> can't seem to handle it. — Anthony, May 07 '20 at 14:41

Cite references in figure caption

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