Can you define what a reference should say in clear text?

Question

When you create a reference list (with the command \bibliography{x}), using the apacite package, is there any way to hijack the list, so of speak, and define what individual entries should say in clear text?

For example, if I want to refer to a painting, and I'm using Mendeley as my database for papers, it might get a little tricky to get everything to show up right. Here, instead of trying to hack the style and BibTeX files, it would be much more convenient to just spell out in clear text exactly what the reference should say.

Answer 1

Under biblatex, you can override the bibliography drivers as done below. However I probably wouldn't handle the problem this way. The bibliography drivers save you from having to worry about too much format, line breaking, spacing and punctuation. They also ensure entries of the same type are set consistently and can handle bibliographic data in a flexible manner. Considering this, I'd probably reformulate this question or ask a new question providing an example with the problematic entries and the output you're wanting to achieve.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[style=apa,backend=biber]{biblatex}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{american}{american-apa}

% Identify bib entries that must be manually set
\makeatletter
\AtEveryBibitem{%
  \ifthenelse{\iffieldequalstr{entrykey}{7.01:1}%
              \OR\iffieldequalstr{entrykey}{7.01:2}}
    {\def\abx@field@entrytype{customa}}
    {}}
\makeatother

% Provide text for manual entries
\DeclareBibliographyDriver{customa}{%
  \iffieldequalstr{entrykey}{7.01:1}
    {Entry 7.01:1 --- Herbst-Damm and Kulik. \mkbibemph{Volunteer Support...}}
    {}%
  \iffieldequalstr{entrykey}{7.01:2}
    {Entry 7.01:2 --- Gilbert et al. \mkbibemph{Effects of...}}
    {}}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@ARTICLE{7.01:1,
  AUTHOR         = {K. L. Herbst-Damm and J. A. Kulik},
  TITLE          = {Volunteer Support, Marital Status, and the Survival Times of Terminally Ill Patients},
  JOURNALTITLE   = {Health Psychology},
  VOLUME         = {24},
  PAGES          = {225--229},
  YEAR           = {2005},
  DOI            = {10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225},
  URL            = {http://some.url}
}
@ARTICLE{7.01:2,
  AUTHOR         = {D. G. Gilbert and J. F. McClernon and N. E. Rabinovich and C. Sugai and L. C. Plath and G. Asgaard and D. Dickinson and N. Botros},
  TITLE          = {Effects of Quitting Smoking and {EEG} Activation and Attention Last for More Than 31 Days and are More Severe With Stress, Depedence, {DRD2 A1} Allele, and Depressive Traits},
  JOURNALTITLE   = {Nicotine and Tobacco Research},
  VOLUME         = {6},
  PAGES          = {249--267},
  YEAR           = {2004},
  DOI            = {10.1080/14622200410001676305}
}
@ARTICLE{7.01:3a,
  AUTHOR         = {T. J. Sillick and N. S. Schutte},
  TITLE          = {Emotional Intelligence and Self-esteem Mediate Between Perceived Early Parental Love and Adult Happiness.},
  JOURNALTITLE   = {E-Journal of Applied Psychology},
  VOLUME         = {2},
  NUMBER         = {2},
  PAGES          = {38--48},
  YEAR           = {2006},
  URL            = {http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap}
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}