multibib and links to bibliography (with hyperref, natbib)?

Question

I'm using the multibib package but cannot get links to work with it and hyperref. Is this combination possible? A sample document follows:

If I add a \usepackage{natbib} in the preamble then links do work, but the custom labeling provided by multibib is removed. For example, without natbib the citations are [F3] and [B2] and no links. With natbib, citations are (3) and (2) and do link.

The multibib documentation (PDF) has a section (3) on how to handle packages which modify \@citex, but I am not sure how to use the information there to solve this problem.

% multibiblinktest.tex

\documentclass[10pt,letter]{article}

\usepackage[labeled,resetlabels]{multibib}
\newcites{F}{Foo}
\newcites{B}{Bar}

\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{
  colorlinks = true,
  linkcolor=blue,   % color of internal links
  citecolor=blue,   % color of links to bibliography
  urlcolor=blue,    % color of external links
  pagebackref=true,
  implicit=false,
  bookmarks=true,
  bookmarksopen=true,
  pdfdisplaydoctitle=true
}

% \usepackage{natbib} % links work, citations not formatted by multibib...

\begin{document}

\nociteF{ref1}
\nociteF{ref2}
\nociteB{ref3}

A link to \citeF{ref4} and \citeB{ref5} goes here.

\bibliographystyleF{unsrt}
\bibliographyF{test.bib}

\bibliographystyleB{unsrt}
\bibliographyB{test.bib}

\end{document}

And the bibliography file:

% test.bib
@Article {ref1, author = Author1, title = Title1, year = 2010}
@Article {ref2, author = Author2, title = Title2, year = 2010}
@Article {ref3, author = Author3, title = Title3, year = 2010}
@Article {ref4, author = Author4, title = Title4, year = 2010}
@Article {ref5, author = Author5, title = Title5, year = 2010}

And to compile the document:

pdflatex multibiblinktest
pdflatex multibiblinktest
pdflatex multibiblinktest
bibtex F
bibtex B
pdflatex multibiblinktest
pdflatex multibiblinktest
pdflatex multibiblinktest
open multibiblinktest.pdf

Answer 1

You are using a standard BibTeX style with natbib. You should be using the unsrtnat style rather than unsrt as you are using the natbib package.

Answer 2

In case anyone is still lurking here to look for a solution like I was.

I managed to get the desired behavior using a combination of natbib and multibib commands and some spacing wizardry from this answer:

• \citeF{} makes sure that multibib to the correct citation. Otherwise there would be a question mark.
• \cite[F][]{} adds the letter F before the number as explained in the natbib reference sheet
• Combined, your citation should look like \citeF[F][]{my_citation_2024}.

Minimal example from the question. Don't forget to add the spacing hack in the preamble.

% multibiblinktest.tex
\documentclass[10pt,letter]{article}
% add natbib before multibib to get square brackets
\usepackage{natbib}
% used to remove space between letter and number
\makeatletter
\def\NAT@spacechar{}
\makeatother
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{
  colorlinks = true,
  linkcolor=blue,   % color of internal links
  citecolor=blue,   % color of links to bibliography
  urlcolor=blue,    % color of external links
  pagebackref=true,
  implicit=false,
  bookmarks=true,
  bookmarksopen=true,
  pdfdisplaydoctitle=true
}
\usepackage[labeled,resetlabels]{multibib}
\newcites{F}{Foo}
\newcites{B}{Bar}
\begin{document}
\nociteF{ref1}
\nociteF{ref2}
\nociteB{ref3}
% The formatting \citeF[F][] is the key 
A link to \cite[F][]{ref4} and \citeB[B][]{ref5} goes here.
\bibliographystyleF{unsrt}
\bibliographyF{test.bib}
\bibliographystyleB{unsrt}
\bibliographyB{test.bib}
\end{document}

The only difference would be that the letters are not colored and linking as well.

Answer 3

I have changed the line:

\usepackage[labeled,resetlabels]{multibib}

to

\usepackage[labeled]{multibib}

And it seems to work without natbib.

Make sure you keep multibib before hyperref!

Answer 4

I use multibib and hyperref. I experienced that if I load multibib before hyperref the links of \cite are gone, but other links to pages, footnotes, images etc. stay. For me loading hyperref before multibib works.