I am trying to abbreviate the journal name while using bibtex. My approach it to use an additional file for substitution as mentioned in the following question on this forum: How to abbreviate journal name in citation and also here on linux.org.
Main tex file is this:
\documentclass[11pt,a4]{article}
\usepackage{natbib}
%opening
\title{Just a theory}
\author{The Author}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
A general treatment based on the work of Small and Big\cite{small1955} is presented which is extended for computing relevant values under the Harmonic oscillator approximation\cite{big1955}.
\end{abstract}
\section{Introduction}
A general treatment based on the work of Small and Big\cite{small1955} is presented which is extended for computing relevant values under the Harmonic oscillator approximation\cite{big1955}. A general treatment based on the work of Small and Big\cite{small1955} is presented which is extended for computing relevant values under the Harmonic oscillator approximation\cite{big1955}.
\section{Section first}
A general treatment based on the work of Small and Big\cite{small1955} is presented which is extended for computing relevant values under the Harmonic oscillator approximation\cite{big1955}.
\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{abbr,ref}
\end{document}
And the abbr file and ref file are following: abbr.bib
@string{3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing="3D Print. Addit. Manuf."}
@string{Advances in Complex Systems="Adv. Complex Syst."}
ref.bib
@article{small1955,
author = {Freely, I.P.},
title = {A small paper},
journal = {Advances in Complex Systems},
year = 1955,
volume = {1}
}
@article{big1955,
author = {Jass, Hugh},
title = {A big paper},
journal = {3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing},
year = 7991
}
I also tried this;
@string{3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing={3D Print. Addit. Manuf.}}
@string{Advances in Complex Systems={Adv. Complex Syst.}}
which also does not abbreviate the journal title. Present output is following;

