Abbreviation of journal names using bst

Question

In a series of posts (see [1], [2], and [3]) I asked how one can create one's own bibliography style.

Now, I would like to understand how I can abbreviate the journal names cleverly. I'm using a reference management software, i.e., Bibdesk, which saves the complete name of the journal, e.g. Physical Review A. But, one should use most of the time the abbreviated form of the journal names. In this case: Phys. Rev. A.

Question is: how can I integrate this in my own bibliography style (which I learned in the previous posts how to make it)?

Answer 1

The basic technique for implementing journal abbreviations is a function containing a big list of nested if$ statements with each if$ corresponding to a pair of full journal names and their corresponding abbreviation. Here's an example of a function that abbreviates two journal names. Notice that for each long journal name there may be multiple versions based on what the input field may be in your .bib file. For example, \& and and are both possible in the first journal name, and IPA, {IPA}, and International Phonetic Association are possible for the second journal name.

This function must appear before any function that calls it, so it must precede both the article function and the format.article.crossref function.

FUNCTION { journal.abbrev } {
      journal   "Natural Language and Linguistic Theory" = { "NLLT" } 
       { journal "Natural Language \& Linguistic Theory" = { "NLLT" }
          { journal "Journal of the International Phonetic Association" = { "Jour. IPA" }
            { journal "Journal of the {IPA}" = { "Jour. IPA" }
               { journal "Journal of the IPA" = { "Jour. IPA" }
                  { journal }  if$ } if$ } if$ } if$} if$}

Now we use this function to pass to the article function for the journal title formatting (the following adapted from the alpha.bst which is your base) instead of just passing journal.

FUNCTION {article}
{ output.bibitem
  format.authors "author" output.check
  new.block
  format.title "title" output.check
  new.block
  crossref missing$
    { journal.abbrev emphasize "journal" output.check
      format.vol.num.pages output
      format.date "year" output.check
    }
    { format.article.crossref output.nonnull
      format.pages output
    }
  if$
  new.block
  note output
  fin.entry
}

Since this style oddly also allows crossref links to articles you also need to change that function:

FUNCTION {format.article.crossref}
{ key empty$
    { journal empty$
        { "need key or journal for " cite$ * " to crossref " * crossref *
          warning$
          ""
        }
        { "In {\em " journal.abbrev * "\/}" * }
      if$
    }
    { "In " key * }
  if$
  " \cite{" * crossref * "}" *
}

To remove the , that appears after the journal title requires some extra work.

First we need to add an extra flag for the state of being after a journal title, we first add this to the list of integer variables:

INTEGERS { output.state before.all mid.sentence after.sentence after.block after.journal }

then assign it a value:

FUNCTION {init.state.consts}
{ #0 'before.all :=
  #1 'mid.sentence :=
  #2 'after.sentence :=
  #3 'after.block :=
  #4 'after.journal :=
}

Now we modify the output.nonnull function to check for after.journal:

FUNCTION {output.nonnull}
{ 's :=
output.state after.journal =
 {" " * write$ }
 {
  output.state mid.sentence =
    { ", " * write$ }
    { output.state after.block =
        { add.period$ write$
          newline$
          "\newblock " write$
        }
        { output.state before.all =
            'write$
            { add.period$ " " * write$ }
          if$
        }
      if$
      mid.sentence 'output.state :=
    }
  if$
}
if$
  s
}

Finally we change the article function to set the state to after.journal.

FUNCTION {article}
{ output.bibitem
  format.authors "author" output.check
  new.block
  format.title "title" output.check
  new.block
  crossref missing$
    { after.journal 'output.state :=
      journal.abbrev emphasize "journal" output.check
      format.vol.num.pages output
      format.date "year" output.check
    }
    { format.article.crossref output.nonnull
      format.pages output
    }
  if$
  new.block
  note output
  fin.entry
}

Sample document (the modified .bst file I've named alpha-abbrv.bst).

\documentclass{article}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{Boeckx2001scope,
    Author = {Boeckx, Cedric},
    Journal = {Natural Language and Linguistic Theory},
    Number = {3},
    Pages = {503--548},
    Title = {Scope reconstruction and {A}-movement},
    Volume = {19},
    Year = {2001}}
@article{MayrDavies2011,
    Author = {Mayr, Robert and Davies, Hannah},
    Journal = {Journal of the International Phonetic Association},
    Number = {1},
    Pages = {1--25},
    Title = {A cross-dialectal acoustic study of the monophthongs and diphthongs of {Welsh}},
    Volume = {41},
    Year = {2011}}
@article{AounChoueiri2000,
    Author = {Joseph Aoun and Lisa Choueiri},
    Journal = {Natural Language & Linguistic Theory},
    Pages = {1--39},
    Title = {Epithets},
    Volume = {18},
    Year = {2000}}
\end{filecontents}
\bibliographystyle{alpha-abbrv}
\begin{document}
\cite{MayrDavies2011,AounChoueiri2000,Boeckx2001scope}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}