Why many BibTeX styles under LyX don't work?

Question

I'm testing a well-formatted bib file with a single entry,

@misc{various_authors_main_2015,
    title = {Main {Page}},
    copyright = {Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License},
    url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=647785249},
    language = {en},
    urldate = {2015-03-16},
    journal = {Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia},
    author = {{Various authors}},
    month = feb,
    year = {2015},
    note = {Page Version ID: 647785249}
}

using the various styles available from texlive-publishers and texlive-bibtex-extra.

I have two issues (I did Tools->Reconfigure, and restarted before testing):

1. Not all of the newly installed styles appear in LyX.
2. Many styles generate errors (repeating messages are about missing/extra/forgotten $ and }).

Using \usepackage{hyperref} (reported here) fixes the problem for some styles, but not all.

(Related question: Some styles work in Lyx's BibTeX Generated Bibliography, others don't)

Sample error messages

xplain

 \authorindexentries
                       {various_authors_main_2015}{\do{Various authors@{Various
The control sequence at the end of the top line
of your error message was never \def'ed. If you have
misspelled it (e.g., `\hobx'), type `I' and the correct
spelling (e.g., `I\hbox'). Otherwise just continue,
and I'll forget about whatever was undefined.

IEEEtranM

 ...requires the use of the mciteplus package.}
                                                  \fi
This bibstyle requires the use of the mciteplus package.

However, it is installed under the texlive-latex-extra umbrella.

unsrtnat

 ...index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=647785249}
                                                  .
I've inserted a begin-math/end-math symbol since I think
you left one out. Proceed, with fingers crossed.

Answer 1

(summarizing the comments above)

This issue is not directly related to LyX, but rather to the individual styles.

Different styles provide different pitfalls.

Best practice would be formatting the BIB file in accordance with the style to be used.

Getting the bib cleaned up, maybe for a specific style, solves the issue.

However several best-practices are recommended:

• Add \usepackage{hyperref} to the LaTeX preamble.
• Specify URLs in the url field and not in the howpublished field.
• Use escapes for special chracters such as underscore and ampersand.
• Coordinate entries and fields. For example, journal shouldn't be a field in a misc entry.