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Is there a standard referencing style that uses only last names in the citations? Suppose I have a reference by John Smith and Karen Doe. From what I read here, most styles use one of three classes of citation:

  • Purely numeric, e.g. [1], [4-6]
  • Short alphanumeric, e.g. [DS2012]
  • Last name, first initial, e.g. "Smith, F. & Doe, K"

I would like a variant on the last class in which just the last names are used, and I would prefer if it were an existing style I could download so I wouldn't have to hack an existing style.

If there is no existing style that does this or has it as an option, can someone tell me how to modify a common one, maybe apasoft?

Also, if the maximum number of names listed before switching to et al. could be sensible, e.g. 3, that would be helpful.

FYI: this is for a conference presentation where I'd like the citations to be more memorable than options 1 or 2 above, but shorter than option 3, hence the removal of the first initials.

Thanks.

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Most author-year styles (e.g. apalike, lsalike etc.) use just Author, Year in citations, not Author, Initial., Year). If there are ambiguous citations then initials are sometimes added, but for most cases this doesn't arise. – Alan Munn Apr 25 '12 at 0:13
For author-year citations, it would be very unusual to list anything but the authors' surnames. The single most frequently used citation package for author-year citations must be the natbib package, by the way. For formatting the entries in the bibliography, in contrast, there's a huge variety of styles. Please amend your question to indicate wich reference style (chicago, apalike, ...) you like, and somebody may be able to tell you how to hack the .bst file to omit any reference to first and/or middle initials in the references. – Mico Apr 25 '12 at 2:52
@Mico: I'm trying natbib now, but when I compile, I get a complaint about my bib file that "\newblock" is undefined. This bib file was generated in Jabref. Do you know what the issue is? All I did to start using natbib was include the package with no option, and switch the bibliography style to plainnat. Thanks. – SSilk May 3 '12 at 1:47
@SSilk -- not seeing the precise error message before me, it's not easy to be sure what may be going on. It could well be caused by latex and/or bibtex becoming confused over discrepancies between the previous set of auxilliary information and what's generated by the use of plainnat. Please try erasing all auxilliary files (.aux, .bbl, .blg) and running latex/ bibtex/ latex/ latex once more. If the error persists, I'd suggest you post a new question with a MWE (minimum working example) that generates the error message. – Mico May 3 '12 at 1:55
Well, I got it working by searching the same error online, and found the solution here: casa.colorado.edu/~danforth/comp/tex/faq.html - it's the first issue discussed there. Now I'm just wondering, is there a way to make natbib handle the \cite{} commands throughout my existing document as one of its own native cite commands, e.g. citet, without having to actually replace them all? E.g. something like redefining \cite{x} to \citep{x}? – SSilk May 3 '12 at 2:07
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closed as too localized by lockstep, Joseph Wright Jun 2 '12 at 21:50

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