# How to change \parskip in bibliography section?

I want to change a vertical interval between \bibitem-s in my bibliography section. Now it is the same as in the document:

\documentclass{article}
[...]
\begin{document}
\setlength{\parskip}{0.3cm}
[...]
\bibliographystyle{apalike}
\bibliography{my-bib-file}
\end{document}


I would like to set it to 0.1cm. Is it possible?

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Preliminary remark: If you want to change the spacing between paragraphs, use the parskip package or a KOMA-Script-classs - simply changing the \parskip length may have adverse affects.

As the bibliography is a (special) list environment, it shouldn't be affected by \parskip - maybe its vertical spacing is accidentally about 0.3cm.

Having said all that, the following works for me:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{natbib}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{a01,
author = {Author, A.},
year = {2001},
title = {Alpha},
}

@misc{b02,
author = {Buthor, B.},
year = {2002},
title = {Bravo},
}
\end{filecontents}

% Changing vertical spacing in the bibliography
% Alternative A
% \usepackage{etoolbox}
% \patchcmd{\thebibliography}{\sloppy}{\itemsep 0.1cm \parsep 0pt \sloppy}{}{}
% Alternative B
\setlength{\bibsep}{0.1cm}

\begin{document}

\nocite{*}

\bibliographystyle{apalike}
\bibliography{\jobname}

\end{document}


If it doesn't work for you, also provide a minimal example.

EDIT: Code example changed in order to work for natbib.

EDIT2: Why not simply change the \bibsep length?

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Sorry, no effect :( –  yegor256 Nov 1 '10 at 16:09
@Vincenzo: I edited my answer to include a minimal example to show that it works for me. –  lockstep Nov 1 '10 at 16:18
I also use natbib. Maybe this is the problem? –  yegor256 Nov 1 '10 at 16:20
@Vincenzo: Not only maybe. Please provide a complete example next time. –  lockstep Nov 1 '10 at 16:33
Works perfectly now, many thanks! –  yegor256 Nov 1 '10 at 16:37

This is probably you need: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=compactbib

The first way is by using package natbib and changing the length of \bibsep, and the second way is by redefinition of \thebibliography.

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