How to get to a specific citation and bibliography style?

Question

I am currently preparing a LaTeX-project for a paper I was asked to write and the requirements concerning citation and bibliography style are somewhat peculiar from my point of view. At least there isn't really any style quite close to it that I could find.

The following should describe the desired style pretty much:

Citations

All citations should be made in footnotes.

Indirect

Cf. Chong (2000), p. 9.

Cf. Chong/Eggleton (2003), pp. 166f.

Cf. Chong et al. (2003), pp. 166-168.

Direct

as above, only without the Cf. part

Bibliography

Chong, V. K./Eggleton, I. R. C. (2003): The decision-facilitating role of man-agement accounting systems on managerial performance: The influence of locus of control and task uncertainty, in: Advances in Accounting, vol. 20, no. 1, 2003, pp. 165–197.

Merchant, K. A./van der Stede, W. A. (2012): Management control systems. Performance measurement, evaluation and incentives, 3. edition, Harlow 2012.

Hilz-Ward, R. M./Everling, O. (eds.) (2009): Risk Performance Management. Chancen für ein besseres Rating, 1. edition, Wiesbaden 2009.

Lomitschka, M. (2009): Integriertes Risiko-/Chancenmanagement als Instrument der Unternehmenssteuerung, in: Hilz-Ward, R. M./Everling, O. (eds.), Risk Performance Management. Chancen für ein besseres Rating, 1. edition, Wiesbaden 2009, pp. 277–291.

Standard & Poor's (2001): Corporate Ratings Criteria, URL: regulationbodyofknowledge.org/wp-content/2013/03/StandardAndPoors_Corporate_Ratings_Criteria.pdf (April 29, 2014).

Furthermore it would be nice to have kind of a reference-form in-text for the articles/books, pretty much as in the citation but just author(s)-year, as in Chong/Eggleton (2003).

So my question now is, how to get there in the easiest way. I made a .bst-file via makebst which already gives me:

[1] Archer, S./ Delvaille, P./ McLeay, S.: A statistical model of international accounting harmonization, in: Abacus, vol. 32, no. 1, (1996), pp. 1–29.

which is reasonably close, but it's still quite a long way and I only came to realize afterwards that I would have to make any changes directly in the .bst-file. Most importly, I do not want any numbering in the bibliography and just an alphabetical ordering according to author names.

Is it possible to achieve the abovementionned style in LaTeX? Which would be the recommended way to go? It should be said at this point that I'm still open to using biblatex/biber etc. if that made more sense.

I would be thankful for any kind of advice.

Answer 1

Ok, I'm not quite sure if it is desired here to answer one's own questions, but since I obtained a solution that gets me pretty much where I wanted to get, I wanted to provide that full-scale solution here. Anyway, it is some extensive code and quite certainly not the most efficient way to cope with the requirements. Here we go:

\usepackage[style=authoryear,backend=biber,parentracker=false,uniquename=false,
sortcites,sorting=nyt,maxnames=2,minnames=1,maxbibnames=1000,isbn=false,url=false,
doi=false,eprint=false,urldate=long]{biblatex}
    \urlstyle{same} %maybe useful, placing needs to be tested
    \addbibresource{Testbib.bib}
    \addbibresource{Rating3.bib}

    %\usepackage{breakurl}          %vmtl. nicht nötig

    %++++++++++++ Defintion Strings ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

        \DefineBibliographyStrings{english}{
    references = {Bibliography},
    urlseen = {},
    andothers = {\em et\addabbrvspace al\adddot}
    }

    %++++++++++++ Formatierungen Bib-Style ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    \DeclareFieldFormat[article]{title}{{#1},}              %Deletes ''''
    \DeclareFieldFormat[book]{title}{{#1},}
    \DeclareFieldFormat[online]{title}{{#1},}
    \DeclareFieldFormat[inbook]{title}{{#1},}
    \DeclareFieldFormat[inbook]{booktitle}{{#1}}

    \DeclareFieldFormat[article]{volume}{vol. #1}
    \DeclareFieldFormat[book]{volume}{}

    \DeclareFieldFormat[article]{number}{no. #1}
    \DeclareFieldFormat[article]{journaltitle}{{#1}}

    \DeclareFieldFormat{urldate}{\mkbibparens{\bibstring{urlseen}#1}}
    \DeclareFieldFormat{url}{{URL}\addcolon\space#1}   %\url{} um #1 entfernt \mkbibacro %evtl. \newline vor URL oder #1 einfügen

    %Edition
    \DeclareFieldFormat{edition}{%
      \ifstrequal{#1}{1}
         {}
         {{#1}. edition, }}

    %%% General
    %Interligne entre les items Biblio
    \DeclareFieldFormat{shorthandwidth}{#1}
    \setlength{\bibitemsep}{6pt}

    %% Slashes zwischen Autoren/Editoren in Bib
    \renewcommand*{\multinamedelim}{\addslash}
    \renewcommand*{\finalnamedelim}{\addslash}


    %%% Citation
    %% Slashes zwischen Autoren/Editoren
    \newcommand*{\citerevsdnamedelim}{\slash}
    \newcommand*{\citemultinamedelim}{\slash}
    \newcommand*{\citefinalnamedelim}{\slash}
    \newcommand*{\citeandothersdelim}{\addspace}

    % Adapt citation in TeX
    \AtEveryCite{%
    \let\revsdnamedelim\citerevsdnamedelim
    \let\multinamedelim\citemultinamedelim
    \let\finalnamedelim\citefinalnamedelim
    \let\andothersdelim\citeandothersdelim
    \renewcommand{\mkbibnamelast}[1]{\mkbibemph{#1}}
    %\renewcommand{\mkbibnamefirst}[1]{\mkbibempf{#1}}  %needs to be included if it is opted to include first name initials for distinction in the footnotes
    }

    %++++++++++++ New Bib Macros ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    \newbibmacro*{url+urldate}{%
      \usebibmacro{url}%
      \iffieldundef{urlyear}
        {}
        {\setunit*{\addspace}%
         \usebibmacro{urldate}}}

    %Makro für Editornamen in inbook
    \DeclareNameFormat{edname}{%
        \usebibmacro{name:last-first-edname}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}%
        \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}

    %Makro für Editornamen in inbook    
    \newbibmacro*{name:last-first-edname}[4]{%
      \ifuseprefix
        {\usebibmacro{name:delim}{#3#1}%
         \usebibmacro{name:hook}{#3#1}%
         \ifblank{#3}{}{%
           \ifcapital
             {\MakeCapital{#3}\isdot}
             {#3\isdot}%
           \ifpunctmark{'}{}{\bibnamedelimc}}%
         #1\isdot
         \ifblank{#4}{}{\bibnamedelimd#4\isdot}%
         \ifblank{#2}{}{\revsdnamepunct\bibnamedelimd#2\isdot}}
        {\usebibmacro{name:delim}{#1}%
         \usebibmacro{name:hook}{#1}%
         #1\isdot
         \ifblank{#4}{}{\bibnamedelimd#4\isdot}%
         \ifblank{#2#3}{}{\revsdnamepunct}%
         \ifblank{#2}{}{\bibnamedelimd#2\isdot}%
         \ifblank{#3}{}{\bibnamedelimd#3\isdot}}}

    %editor for inbook
    \makeatletter       
    \newbibmacro*{editorinbold}{%
    \ifthenelse {\ifuseeditor\AND\NOT\ifnameundef{editor}}
    {\ifthenelse {\iffieldequals{author}{editor}\AND
    \NOT\iffirstonpage}
    {\bibnamedash}
    {\printnames[edname]{editor}\addspace
    \savefield{namehash}{\bbx@lasthash}}%
    \mkbibparens{\usebibmacro{editorstrg}}%
    \clearname{editor}}
    {\global\undef\bbx@lasthash}}
    \makeatother

    \renewbibmacro*{volume+number+eid}{%
      \printfield{volume}%
      \setunit{\addcomma\space}%<---- was \setunit*{\adddot}%
      \printfield{number}%
      \setunit{\addcomma\space}%
      \printfield{eid}%
        \setunit{\addcomma\space}%
        \printfield{year}}

    \renewbibmacro*{journal}{%
        \printfield{journaltitle}%
        \addcomma\space%
        }

   \DeclareNameFormat{last-first}{%
    \iffirstinits
    {\usebibmacro{name:last-first}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:last-first}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}}%
    \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}
    \DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first}

    %Code for bold author names and year in bibliography
    \renewbibmacro*{author}{%
      \ifboolexpr{
        test \ifuseauthor
        and
        not test {\ifnameundef{author}}
      }
        {\mkbibbold{%       
            \printnames{author}%
        \addspace{%
            \mkbibparens{%
            {\printfield{year}}}}%
            \addcolon}%
         \iffieldundef{authortype}
           {}
           {\setunit{\addcomma\space}%
            \usebibmacro{authorstrg}}}
        {}}

    %Code for bold editor names and year in bibliography        
    \renewbibmacro*{editor+others}{%
      \ifboolexpr{
        test \ifuseeditor
        and
        not test {\ifnameundef{editor}}
      }
        {\mkbibbold{%
            \printnames{editor}%
        \addspace{%
             \mkbibparens{%
         \usebibmacro{editorstrg}}%
             \addspace
             \mkbibparens{%
            {\printfield{year}}}%
             \addcolon}%
         \clearname{editor}}
        {}}}

    \renewbibmacro*{cite:labelyear+extrayear}{%
      \iffieldundef{labelyear}
        {}
        {\printtext[bibhyperref]{%
           \printfield[parens]{labelyear}%
           \printfield[parens]{extrayear}}}}  % Klammern um Jahr bei Citations

And then I declared some new BibliographyDrivers

\DeclareBibliographyDriver{book}{%
  \usebibmacro{bibindex}%
  \usebibmacro{begentry}%
  \usebibmacro{author/editor+others/translator+others}%
  \setunit{\labelnamepunct}\newblock
  \usebibmacro{maintitle+title}%
  \newunit
  \printlist{language}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{byauthor}%
  \newunit\newblock
  %\usebibmacro{editorbold}% changes from {byeditor+others}
  %\newunit\newblock
  \printfield{edition}%
  \newunit
  \iffieldundef{maintitle}
    {\printfield{volume}%
     \printfield{part}}
    {}%
  \newunit
  %\printfield{volumes}%
  %\newunit\newblock
  %\usebibmacro{series+number}%
  %\newunit\newblock
  %\printfield{note}%
  %\newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{location+date}%publisher+
    \setunit{\addspace}%
    \printfield{year}%
  %\newunit\newblock
  %\usebibmacro{chapter+pages}%
  %\newunit
  %\printfield{pagetotal}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \iftoggle{bbx:isbn}
    {\printfield{isbn}}
    {}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{doi+eprint+url}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{addendum+pubstate}%
  \setunit{\bibpagerefpunct}\newblock
  \usebibmacro{pageref}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \iftoggle{bbx:related}
    {\usebibmacro{related:init}%
     \usebibmacro{related}}
    {}%
  \usebibmacro{finentry}}

%+++++++++++++++ Inbook +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

\DeclareBibliographyDriver{inbook}{%
  \usebibmacro{bibindex}%
  \usebibmacro{begentry}%
  \usebibmacro{author/translator+others}%
  \setunit{\labelnamepunct}\newblock
  \usebibmacro{title}%
  \newunit
  \printlist{language}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{byauthor}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{in:}%
  \usebibmacro{bybookauthor}%
  \newunit\newblock
    \usebibmacro{editorinbold}% <--- NEU
    \addcomma\space
    %\setunit{\labelnamepunct}\newblock% <--- NEU
  \usebibmacro{maintitle+booktitle}%
    \addcomma
  %\newunit\newblock
  %\usebibmacro{byeditor+others}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \printfield{edition}%
  \newunit
  \iffieldundef{maintitle}
    {\printfield{volume}%
     \printfield{part}}
    {}%
  \newunit
  \printfield{volumes}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{series+number}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \printfield{note}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{location+date}%
    \setunit{\addspace}%
    \printfield{year}%      Neu eingefügt
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{chapter+pages}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \iftoggle{bbx:isbn}
    {\printfield{isbn}}
    {}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{doi+eprint+url}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{addendum+pubstate}%
  \setunit{\bibpagerefpunct}\newblock
  \usebibmacro{pageref}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \iftoggle{bbx:related}
    {\usebibmacro{related:init}%
     \usebibmacro{related}}
    {}%
  \usebibmacro{finentry}}

%+++++++++++++++ Online +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

\DeclareBibliographyDriver{online}{%
  \usebibmacro{bibindex}%
  \usebibmacro{begentry}%
  \usebibmacro{author/editor+others/translator+others}%
  \setunit{\labelnamepunct}\newblock
  \usebibmacro{title}%
  \newunit
  %\printlist{language}%
  %\newunit\newblock
  %\usebibmacro{byauthor}%
  %\newunit\newblock
  %\usebibmacro{byeditor+others}%
  %\newunit\newblock
  \printfield{version}%
  \newunit
  \printfield{note}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \printlist{organization}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{date}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \iftoggle{bbx:eprint}
    {\usebibmacro{eprint}}
    {}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{url+urldate}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \usebibmacro{addendum+pubstate}%
  \setunit{\bibpagerefpunct}\newblock
  \usebibmacro{pageref}%
  \newunit\newblock
  \iftoggle{bbx:related}
    {\usebibmacro{related:init}%
     \usebibmacro{related}}
    {}%
  \usebibmacro{finentry}}

Any comments are certainly very welcome.

Answer 2

I have had to make the same decision, and I am now very happy I went with biblatex. If you have to customize bibliography or citation styles, I find it much easier to learn than bibtex. I cannot remember much about the internal workings of bibtex anymore, due to the fact that I decided against it over two years ago. I do remember, however, that I found it hard to get good documentation covering style customization during my first attempts. This is different for biblatex; the documentation supplied with it is very usable and certainly more helpful than anything I could write here. Except in two rather complicated cases I never needed additional docu.

I recommend having a look at the documentation and also into a style file from both bibtex and biblatex and then decide what scares you less.