Remove the number before references

Question

The following MWE puts number 2. before References which I am trying to remove. What appears in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 are correct.

\documentclass[a4paper, 12pt, oneside]{book}
\usepackage{plain}

\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]   
{\large \bfseries}{\chaptertitlename\ \thechapter}{16pt}
{\normalsize \thechapter{.}\ }[]

\begin{document}
\mainmatter
    \chapter{Introduction}
    \chapter{Theory}

\backmatter
    \clearpage
    \renewcommand{\bibname}{REFERENCES}
    \begin{thebibliography}{10}
        \bibitem{Taylor}{Taylor M. \& Mankiw, N.}, \emph {Economics}, Cengage Learning EMEA, UK (1980)
    \end{thebibliography}
\end{document}

You are including the chapter number in the chapter heading and the title. So, for \chapter{Introduction}, you'll see Chapter 1 1. Introduction. This seems odd, yet this is what you want for the first chapters. Are you sure? That's also the reason behind the 2. being part of the references chapter. — Werner, Jun 26 '18 at 03:07
Yes, it is required like Chapter 1 and again 1. Introduction. — An student, Jun 26 '18 at 03:22

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 26 '18 at 04:08

The thebibliography environment inside the book class is set as a \chapter*. From book.cls (comments added):

\newenvironment{thebibliography}[1]
     {\chapter*{\bibname}% <----------- How the bibliography is set
      \@mkboth{\MakeUppercase\bibname}{\MakeUppercase\bibname}%
      \list{\@biblabel{\@arabic\c@enumiv}}%
           {\settowidth\labelwidth{\@biblabel{#1}}%
            \leftmargin\labelwidth
            \advance\leftmargin\labelsep
            \@openbib@code
            \usecounter{enumiv}%
            \let\p@enumiv\@empty
            \renewcommand\theenumiv{\@arabic\c@enumiv}}%
      \sloppy
      \clubpenalty4000
      \@clubpenalty \clubpenalty
      \widowpenalty4000%
      \sfcode`\.\@m}
     {\def\@noitemerr
       {\@latex@warning{Empty `thebibliography' environment}}%
      \endlist}

titlesec strongly discourages the use of starred versions for section. From the titlesec documentation (section 4.2 Starred versions):

Using sectioning commands in the starred version is strongly discouraged. Instead, you can use a set of markup oriented commands which are easy to define and modify, if necessary. Thus, you can test different layouts before choosing amongst them.

Firstly remember if you say
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}
sections will be not numbered but they will be included in both ToC and headers.

With this in mind, you can use the following setup:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{titlesec}

\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
  {\large \bfseries}{\chaptertitlename\ \thechapter}{16pt}
  {\normalsize \thechapter{.}\ }[]

\begin{document}

\mainmatter

\chapter{Introduction}

\chapter{Theory}

\clearpage

\backmatter

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-1}% Number only up to \part
\renewcommand{\thechapter}[2]{}% Gobble {.} and {\ }
\renewcommand{\bibname}{REFERENCES}
\begin{thebibliography}{x}
  \bibitem{Taylor}
  Taylor M.\ \& Mankiw, N., \emph{Economics}, Cengage Learning EMEA, UK (1980)
\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}

The two additional commands before called the thebibliography environment removes the numbering within the regular \chapter sequence, yet still sets it as a \chapter*.

Thank for the explanation. This also works well even when some standard bib style is used e.g. IEEE rather than thebibliography. — An student, Jun 26 '18 at 07:50

Dunk the Lunk · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-26T03:15:20.730

Adapting a solution from here. Not sure if it is the optimal way in your case, but it works. Include the etoolbox package. The patchcmd of thebibliography uses a * on section so that it is not numbered.

\documentclass[a4paper, 12pt, oneside]{book}
\usepackage{plain}
\usepackage{etoolbox}

\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]   
{\large \bfseries}{\chaptertitlename\ \thechapter}{16pt}
{\normalsize \thechapter{.}\ }[]

\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\thebibliography}{%
  \chapter*{\bibname}\@mkboth{\MakeUppercase\bibname}{\MakeUppercase\bibname}}{%
  \section*{References}}{}{}% use * so that the sec is not numbered.
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\mainmatter
    \chapter{Introduction}
    \chapter{Theory}

\backmatter
    \clearpage
    \renewcommand{\bibname}{REFERENCES}
    \begin{thebibliography}{10}
        \bibitem{Taylor}{Taylor M. \& Mankiw, N.}, \emph {Economics}, Cengage Learning EMEA, UK (1980)
    \end{thebibliography}
\end{document}

Remove the number before references

2 Answers2