Bibliography style `apalike` missing the paranthesis

Question

I am using:

\usepackage{natbib}
\bibliographystyle{apalike}

However, when I use for example:

\cite{test}

I should be getting my reference within (), i.e. parenthesis right? But they seem to have vanished! I am now getting them without the parenthesis. What would be the source of the problem?

Only when I use \citet*{test} the () should disappear, as in an in text citation.

EDIT:

Now I tried using \citep{} and it seems to work! I wonder if I say \cite{} shouldn't I be getting the parenthesis? Why do I need to specifically call it using \citep{}??

Now I tried using \citep{} and it seems to work! I wonder if I say \cite{} shouldn't I be getting the parenthesis? Why do I need to specifically call it using \citep{}?? — Srivatsan, Jun 24 '16 at 16:02
Right, I haven't really been using natbib, as when I started using LaTeX, I was told my many sources that BibLaTeX combined with the biber-backend was the way to go. You could possibly have a look at bibtex vs. biber and biblatex vs. natbib — Runar, Jun 24 '16 at 16:13

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

The natbib package provides two main citation commands:

\citet for in-text citations. This yields Author (Year)
\citep for parenthesized citations. This yields (Author, Year)

The standard APA citation style for in-text citations puts only the year in parentheses, and natbib reflects this by making \cite a synonym for \citet (which is the command for in-text citation).

For citations that are themselves within parentheses, which get a different style, the natbib command is \citep, as you have discovered.

The use of \cite in natbib is only provided as a convenience for compatibility with the standard \cite command.

If you need a truly conforming APA bibliography, I recommend using biblatex-apa which is kept up-to-date. See:

Bibliography style `apalike` missing the paranthesis

1 Answers1