37

When I reference some work, currently I get something like (Jimmy and Tan, 2003). I want an updated \citep where I can use (e.g., Jimmy and Tan, 2003). I should be able to call either the earlier reference such as, (Jimmy and Tan, 2003), or the updated citation (e.g., Jimmy and Tan, 2003) at will. How can I achieve that? Thanks.

Torbjørn T.
  • 206,688
Sumit
  • 959

2 Answers2

59

You can add prenotes and postnotes to the site with the optional arguments:

\citep{dude}
\citep[p. 42]{dude}
\citep[e.g.][]{dude}

See page 7 in natbibs manual.

When using only one optional argument (one pair of []), that becomes a postnote, when using two the first one is a prenote, the second a postnote.

Torbjørn T.
  • 206,688
  • is there a way to do that using \cite only? – Andre Cytryn Jan 26 '17 at 05:56
  • @AndréCytryn The default implementation of \cite only has the postnote, but for example the natbib implementation has both pre- and postnote. So if you're using natbib you can do exactly as in my answer. If not, the answer will depend on the setup you're using, so please ask a new question and include a minimal example (see http://meta.tex.stackexchange.com/questions/4407/how-to-write-a-mweb-minimal-working-example-with-bibliography) that shows how you're doing things. – Torbjørn T. Jan 26 '17 at 08:57
4

In addition to the answer by Torjørn T., given that the "e.g., Author, year" format is quite common, one can conveniently define a \citeg command (to be inserted before the \begin{document}) as

\newcommand{\citeg}[1]{\citep[e.g.,][]{#1}}

which automatically produces the prenote "e.g.,".

Use Me
  • 679
  • 2
    Though—just since it may not be obvious to a user who doesn’t know this method—this new command can only be used to add “e.g.” without a page reference. – ChristopherE Jun 05 '19 at 10:53