Change biblatex bibliography display to conform Astrophysics Journal Specs by removing year from parentheses

Question

I have combed through previous questions for some time, and have not yet found any answers to my specific questions. So I am now hoping that someone here can help me out

I am finishing a up an article to be submitted to the Astrophysics Journal (ApJ), which has some pretty specific formatting instructions (see here). I am in particular trying to get the bibliography to format properly using the biblatex package. The ApJ bibliography formatting instructions (here) tell you that articles should be cited as:

author1_last, author1_first_init. author1_middle_init., author2_last, author2_first_init. author2_middle_init., author3_last, author3_first_init. author3_middle_init., & author4_last, author4_first_init. author4_middle_init. YEAR, JournalName, Volume number, first page

or as

author1_last, author1_first_init. author1_middle_init., author2_last, author2_first_init. author2_middle_init., author3_last, author3_first_init. author3_middle_init., et al. YEAR, JournalName, Volume number, first page

For example, the following bibliographic entries:

@article{Bennett93,
author = {Bennet, C. L. and N. W. Boggess and E. S. Cheng and M. G. Hauser and  T. Kelsall and J. C. Mather and S. H. Moseley, Jr.
          and T. L. Murdock and R. A. Shafer and R. F. Silverberg and G. F. Smoot and R. Weissi and E. L. Wright},
title = {Scientific Results from COBE},
journal = {AdSpR},
volume = {13},
number = {12},
year = {1993}
}

@article{Gupta08,
author = {Gupta, Shashikant and Saini, Tarun Deep and Laskar, Tanmoy},
title = {Direction dependence and non-Gaussianity in the high-redshift supernova data},
journal = {MNRAS},
volume = {388},
number = {1},
pages = {242-246},
year = {2008},
doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13377.x},
URL = { + http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13377.x},
eprint = {/oup/backfile/content_public/journal/mnras/388/1/10.1111_j.1365-2966.2008.13377.x/2/mnras0388-0242.pdf}
}

Should yield the following bibliography entries:

Bennet, C. L. et al. 1993, AdSpR 13, 409

Gupta, S., Saini, T. D., & Laskar, T. 2008, MNRAS 388, 242

By searching previous, similar questions, I have managed to get my biblatex file to yield something close, but not quite right:

Bennet, C. L. et al. (1993). AdSpR 13, 409

Gupta, S., Saini, T. D., & Laskar, T. (2008). MNRAS 388, 242

So I need to make the following changes:

(1) Year should not be in parentheses

(2) There should be a comma after year, rather than a period

Here is a minimal working example:

\documentclass[10pt]{article}

\usepackage[minnames=1,maxnames=1,maxbibnames = 5, style=authoryear, bibstyle = authoryear, backend=biber, giveninits=true, block = none, isbn = false, url = false, doi = false, eprint = false]{biblatex}
\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article]{journaltitle}{#1}
\renewbibmacro{in:}{ }
\AtEveryBibitem{\clearfield{title}}
\AtEveryBibitem{\clearfield{month}}
\AtEveryBibitem{\clearfield{number}}
\addbibresource{mwe_refs.bib}
\renewbibmacro*{issue+date}{%
  \setunit{\addcomma\space}%
    \iffieldundef{issue}
      {\usebibmacro{date}}
      {\printfield{issue}%
       \setunit*{\addspace}%
       \usebibmacro{date}}% 
  \newunit}
\renewcommand*{\intitlepunct}{\space}
\AtBeginBibliography{%
  \renewcommand*{\finalnamedelim}{%
    \ifnumgreater{\value{liststop}}{2}{\finalandcomma}{}%
    \addspace\&\space}%
}
\DeclareFieldFormat{pages}{\mkfirstpage{#1}}
\renewcommand{\finentrypunct}{}

\begin{document} 
Here is the first reference \parencite{Bennett93}.
And here is the second reference \parencite{Gupta08}.

\printbibliography 
\end{document}

Where mwe_refs.bib is a text file in the same directory with the Gupta and Bennet references mentioned above.

Output screenshot:

Thanks in advance for any help, and please let me know if any additional clarification is needed.

-Sasha

Answer 1

The AAS manuscript preparation guidelines strongly encourage authors to use the AASTeX class

Authors are strongly encouraged to prepare their manuscripts using the most recent version of the AASTeX macro package, and to submit them electronically.

The AASTeX guide lists several ways to create a bibliography

1. manual thebibliography or

2. natbib together with the aasjournal.bst style

   Authors are also encouraged to use reference management software such as BibTex to organize their references and produce correct bibliographies. When using BibTeX a .bst file is need to produce the proper reference output that follows the AAS Journal's format. Authors should use the new aasjournal.bst file when using BibTex with AAS Journal manuscripts.

   or

3. a references environment

The guidelines also state

They are the standard LaTeX thebibliography environment, and the AASTeX references environment. Authors are strongly encouraged to use thebibliography.

There is no reference to BibTeX in that passage and strictly speaking BibTeX produces thebibliography, so one might assume that use of BibTeX would also be fine. For submission a pasted thebibliography from the .bbl produced by BibTeX with the correct .bst might be the best solution.

---

I strongly doubt that the AAS will be happy to accept a submission using biblatex. The workflow with biblatex and Biber is quite different from traditional BibTeX. See also Biblatex: submitting to a journal

It is not just a matter of producing the same PDF output. Many journals don't actually care about the PDF produced by TeX, they will convert submitted .tex into their favourite format. Using non-standard packages can make it much harder and might break the journal's workflow.

Especially if so detailed TeX submission guidelines are available you should have a very good reason not to follow the guidelines and use a bibliography system not listed there.

---

That all said here is a solution with biblatex-ext. Even if the chances that they can accept biblatex are slim, the chances they'll like biblatex-ext are about non-existent. biblatex-ext is a very new style bundle available since spring this year (so TeX live < 2018 won't have it) and publishers are not known to be update aficionados.

It doesn't cover all of https://journals.aas.org/authors/references.html perfectly, but it should be a start and should give correct results for @article

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[style=ext-authoryear, backend=biber, giveninits=true, uniquename=init, isbn = false, url = false, doi = false, eprint = false, minnames=1,maxnames=1,maxbibnames = 5, date=year, articlein=false]{biblatex}

\AtEveryBibitem{%
  \ifentrytype{book}{}{\clearfield{title}}%
  \clearfield{number}}

\renewcommand*{\newunitpunct}{\addcomma\space}

\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{family-given}
\DeclareDelimFormat{finalnamedelim}{\addcomma\space\&\space}
\DeclareDelimFormat{andothersdelim}{\addcomma\space}

\DeclareFieldFormat{biblabeldate}{#1}
\DeclareDelimFormat[bib]{nameyeardelim}{\addspace}

\DeclareFieldFormat*{title}{#1}
\DeclareFieldFormat{journaltitle}{#1}
\DeclareFieldFormat{issuetitle}{#1}
\DeclareFieldFormat{maintitle}{#1}
\DeclareFieldFormat{booktitle}{#1}

\renewbibmacro*{pubinstorg+location+date}[1]{%
  \ifboolexpr{not test {\iflistundef{location}} or not test {\iflistundef{#1}}}
    {\setunit{\addspace}%
     \printtext[parens]{%
       \printlist{location}%
       \iflistundef{#1}
         {\setunit*{\locdatedelim}}
         {\setunit*{\locpubdelim}}%
       \printlist{#1}%
       \setunit*{\pubdatedelim}%
       \usebibmacro{date}}}%
  \newunit}

\DeclareFieldFormat{pages}{\mkfirstpage{#1}}
\renewcommand{\finentrypunct}{}

%\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{Bennett93,
author = {Bennet, C. L. and N. W. Boggess and E. S. Cheng and M. G. Hauser and  T. Kelsall and J. C. Mather and S. H. Moseley, Jr.
          and T. L. Murdock and R. A. Shafer and R. F. Silverberg and G. F. Smoot and R. Weissi and E. L. Wright},
title = {Scientific Results from COBE},
journal = {AdSpR},
volume = {13},
number = {12},
year = {1993}
}

@article{Gupta08,
author = {Gupta, Shashikant and Saini, Tarun Deep and Laskar, Tanmoy},
title = {Direction dependence and non-Gaussianity in the high-redshift supernova data},
journal = {MNRAS},
volume = {388},
number = {1},
pages = {242-246},
year = {2008},
doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13377.x},
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
\nocite{sigfridsson,knuth:ct:a,knuth:ct:b,Bennett93,Gupta08}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Answer 2

Removing the parenthesis is covered by How to (properly) remove the parentheses around the year in authoryear style? (v3)

To fix the punctuation, you can change the \newunitpunct:

\renewcommand*{\newunitpunct}{\addcomma\space}

Combining these two fixes we get:

\documentclass[10pt]{article}

\usepackage{xpatch}
\usepackage[minnames=1,maxnames=1,maxbibnames = 5, style=authoryear, bibstyle = authoryear, backend=biber, giveninits=true, block = none, isbn = false, url = false, doi = false, eprint = false]{biblatex}
\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article]{journaltitle}{#1}
\renewbibmacro{in:}{ }
\AtEveryBibitem{\clearfield{title}}
\AtEveryBibitem{\clearfield{month}}
\AtEveryBibitem{\clearfield{number}}
\addbibresource{mwe_refs.bib}
\xpatchbibmacro{date+extradate}{%
  \printtext[parens]%
}{%
  \setunit*{\addcomma\space}%
  \printtext%
}{}{}

\renewcommand*{\intitlepunct}{\addspace}
\renewcommand*{\newunitpunct}{\addcomma\space}

\AtBeginBibliography{%
  \renewcommand*{\finalnamedelim}{%
    \ifnumgreater{\value{liststop}}{2}{\finalandcomma}{}%
    \addspace\&\space}%
}

\DeclareFieldFormat{pages}{\mkfirstpage{#1}}
\renewcommand{\finentrypunct}{}

\begin{document}
Here is the first reference \parencite{Bennett93}.
And here is the second reference \parencite{Gupta08}.

\printbibliography
\end{document}