Use article reference style with book documentclass

Question

I have to use a journal's Latex template, which specifies \documentclass{book}. The template assumes I will enter my references manually in the format that they want. However, I would like to use bibtex to enter my references. When I do that, it forces the Bibliography to start on an odd-numbered page. I would like the references to start directly after the end of the article. I have tried changing the documentclass to "article", but that causes errors because the template uses the chapter format. Is there a way to revert back to the article-style references within the book documentclass?

\documentclass[10pt]{book}

\begin{document}

Document contents here with use of \cite.

\renewcommand{\bibname}{References} % to change "Bibliography" to "References"
\bibliography{refs} % starts references on next odd-numbered page
\bibliographystyle{plainnat}

\end{document}

Answer 1

If you are not loading natbib, you can pacth \thebibliography so it uses \section* instead of \chapter*:

\documentclass[10pt]{book}
\usepackage{etoolbox}

\patchcmd{\thebibliography}
  {\chapter*}
  {\section*}
  {}
  {}
\renewcommand{\bibname}{References}

% this is just for the example
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{refs.bib}
@article{testa,
  author = {The A Author},
  year = {2014},
  title = {The title A},
  journal = {The journal A},
  pages = {1--5},
}
\end{filecontents*}
% this is just for the example

\begin{document}

\cite{testa}

\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
\bibliography{refs}

\end{document}

If you are loading natbib, then all you have to do is to redefine \bibsection:

\documentclass[10pt]{book}
\usepackage{natbib}

\renewcommand\bibsection{%
  \section*{\bibname\markright{\MakeUppercase{\bibname}}}}
\renewcommand{\bibname}{References}

% this is just for the example
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{refs.bib}
@article{testa,
  author = {The A Author},
  year = {2014},
  title = {The title A},
  journal = {The journal A},
  pages = {1--5},
}
\end{filecontents*}
% this is just for the example

\begin{document}

\cite{testa}

\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
\bibliography{refs}

\end{document}