How can i have custom bibliography style

Question

My university is following the following format for the bibliography:

Qamar, R., Ayub, Q., Mohyuddin, A., Helgason, A., Mazhar, K., Mansoor, A., Zerjal, T., Tyler-Smith, C. & Mehdi, S.Q. (2002). Y-chromosomal DNA variation. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 70, 1107-1124.

Can someone tell me which bibliography style results in the above mentioned format? I am currently using nar format but the problem is that it shows volume number in bold and skips the title of the research paper. My question may seem naive but I am new to LaTeX. I am using WinEdt.

\usepackage[numbers, sorting=none]{natbib}
\bibliographystyle{nar}
\bibliography{references/references-dissertation}

Have a look at the custom-bib package - it works well together with natbib and has multiple options. Using it is a easy as doing latex makebst.tex and following the prompts - much easier than adapting an existing .bst file. You'll find makebst.tex in the custom-bib directory of your LaTeX distribution (depending on your operating system). You can find multiple tutorials on the web on using this package if you google it. — prettygully, May 23 '12 at 05:54
@prettygully Can u kindly guide me step by step on how to use custom-bib? i have downloaded the zip folder from CTAN. but i dont know how to incorporate it into my work. Thanks — Saadia, May 23 '12 at 09:50
you need to unzip your file & find makebst.tex. as outlined above, say 'latex makebst.texand answer the prompts - say yes as the end when asked whether you want the .bst file generated. somewhere, you'll have supplied a name for this, your custom style file. say this ismystyle.bst- you'll then need to replacenarabove withmystyle, i.e. you should have\bibliographystyle{mystyle}. And that's it. LaTeX needs to be able to findmystyle.bst`, the easiest is to put it in the same directory where your .tex file is. — prettygully, May 23 '12 at 22:32
Yahoo! i have achieved exactly what i wanted. Thank you so much @prettygully. God bless you. :) — Saadia, May 24 '12 at 09:12

dgs · Answer 1 · 2012-05-23T19:16:51.443

2

This record

@article{qamar2002chromosomal,
  title={{Y-chromosomal DNA Variation in Pakistan}},
  author={Qamar, R. and Ayub, Q. and Mohyuddin, A. and Helgason, A. and Mazhar, K. and Mansoor, A. and Zerjal, T. and Tyler-Smith, C. and Mehdi, S.Q.},
  journal={The American Journal of Human Genetics},
  volume={70},
  number={5},
  pages={1107--1124},
  year={2002},
  publisher={Elsevier}
}

is formatted by newapa.bst as follows:

enter image description here

Besides the volume number, which could be deleted from the record, the non-abbreviated Journal title remains as difference to the desired formatting.

The package can be found on CTAN.

The comments in chicago.bst claim that its ancestor, newapa.bst contains some (minor) bugs which have been fixed in the former. In case any of these bugs should occur, it might be an option to either consider a more recent APA style or to switch to Chicago.

The above record is formatted by chicago.bst as follows:

enter image description here

edited May 23 '12 at 19:16

answered May 23 '12 at 06:34

dgs

2,741

No i can't deviate from the prescribed style. :( thanks anyways – Saadia May 23 '12 at 12:57
Of course not. It was meant that first your recommendations are close to, but not exactly, what the CMS recommends, second that not all Chicago style packages exactly follow the CMS and that as a result you might be able to find a suitable Chicago package and thus not have to define your own style. See updated answer for an example. – dgs May 23 '12 at 15:41
Thank you so much @dgs. Can i have the author's name initials after last name? like Ayub, Q., instead of Q.Ayub? I really appreciate your help. thank you. – Saadia May 23 '12 at 15:59
If you were to switch to biblatex, which also has a Chicago style (biblatex-chicago), your last request would be as simple as \DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first}: this keeps the author sorting scheme in form 'Lastname, Firstname'. – jon May 23 '12 at 16:13
@Saadia chicago.bst's ancestor newapa.bst formats that way. Find it on CTAN. chicago.bst claims there are some (minor) bugs in the package, but I'd give it a try. – dgs May 23 '12 at 16:50
@jon biblatex-chicago is not working on my system. it says it couldn't find biblatex-chicago.sty. – Saadia May 23 '12 at 17:04
@dgs unfortunately that file is not on CTAN – Saadia May 23 '12 at 17:04
It is. In paragraph "Getting it", there's a link. – dgs May 23 '12 at 17:07
Well I don't know what your system is or what it is likely to contain, but biblatex-chicago (which requires biblatex, by the way) is on CTAN. – jon May 23 '12 at 17:17
Uptil now, newapa in natbib is working the best. however there is an issue. The references are not in the order of appearance despite using sort&compress command. – Saadia May 24 '12 at 00:30
1

newapa is about twenty years old and meant for LaTeX 2.09: it should hardly be surprising if it is not working perfectly with natbib. A much more up to date APA style can be found here. (And biblatex is still the way to go if you need to implement the arbitrary regulations that individual schools like to impose.) – jon May 24 '12 at 05:39
@Saadia You can express that my answer works for you by accepting it as a solution. Future visitors who have encountered the same problem can then easily see that it has solved your problem. Adjusting the sort order is a different question. If you use this site's search function, you e.g. find this similar question. Should the answer given there not work for you, please use "Ask Question" to ask a new question with details on precisely what you'd like to have, and what you've tried so far. – dgs May 24 '12 at 06:26
Also a big round of applause for @dgs and @jon; your answers were pretty close to what i wanted. Thank you – Saadia May 24 '12 at 09:12

How can i have custom bibliography style

1 Answers1